Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Bunny by Mona Awad

144 reviews

natyourusual_'s review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Very tense and creepy most of the time. The whole thing sort of creeps up on you and leaves you with this overall feeling of dread. I was going to give it a 4 since a lot of the plot beats felt predictable but some of the newer elements introduced in the second half/last third and the ending made me bump it up a lot. It felt a LOT like dark academia Heathers with heavy influences from a particular classic novel that gives a lot away if I mention it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, and Torture

Minor: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Vomit, and Sexual harassment

queenvengance's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a mindf!ck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

erinoconnor's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Oh I loved this. It was twisted. It was surreal. It was weird. I found myself wanting to know more and hoping the protagonist put herself in danger to do so. 😬 Normally I’m like, “no don’t go in there” but this book was so intriguing I kept hoping she’d go where she shouldn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

wannabe_lee's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Rape, Car accident, Abandonment, and Alcohol

annierose's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a rollercoaster, both in the best and worst way. It was a wild, fun ride but I'm also feeling a bit dizzy and spinning after finishing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Violence, and Toxic friendship

micallab's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

loxeletters's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What an interesting read! I especially enjoyed the themes of faux-feminism, the absurdity of academia, and the relationship between you and your creation. Regarding that last point, I think I might have benefitted from having read Frankenstein? It seems there's some links here, but that's just guess work. I still really enjoyed this, and though I didn't cry, the ending broke my heart.

It was quite depressing at times, which is why I couldn't rate this as "funny" even though the satirical aspects worked well. I guess that is the horror of this book for me - I wasn't very affected by the gore, I was never really scared, more just very depressed by the ongoing loneliness of our MC.

I can't say I could've guessed most of the major twists, which is a plus :)
Speaking of which, I agree that it's quite disorienting and difficult to figure out what is real and what isn't, but I think that's the point. I mean... They even discuss in the book how disorientation can be valuable for writing lol.

I did think the final scene was maybe a bit too clean-cut.
 

Maybe the way her relationship to Jonah is portrayed could have used some more nuance. He was always nice, sure, but I feel like her realisation that he just doesn't care about others' judgement doesn't really make up for the contempt she had for him throughout the book. He is always portrayed as so pathetic, and I can't really reconcile this with her attitude towards him at the end.

 
But this is somewhat nit-picky!

My second issue was the prose - overall it was good, but some phrasings were a bit repetitive for me. Maybe some adjectives could've been cut out as well. But that's just my personal taste, I think.

Overall, a very interesting book, which leaves you questioning what is real and what isn't, while providing some much-needed cultural criticism — exactly my cup of tea!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content and Car accident

kaylawtzl22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

genuinely so confused. a very good read, intriguing, and hard to put down. It feels like an A24 film as a novel. A24- if you’re reading this, please hit up mona awad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

katarinabee's review against another edition

challenging dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Completely different to what I expected.  The writing was often brilliant - Femininity has never been so menacing..! - but occasionally I got lost in word soup and found it difficult to engage with. I also found the audiobook narration a little slow - I felt it had much better momentum when I sped it up to 1.5x speed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

briarivet's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship