A review by nenaveenstra
Bunny by Mona Awad

dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

When I was in highschool, I always gauged my enjoyment of a book by one parameter: does it make me itch to write? In group discussions with my Dutch teacher this would always raise eyebrows - what do you mean it makes you want to write? And I’d stumble to explain that it inspired me, somehow. 

Years later, I don’t only enjoy books that make me feel like writing, but boy does it fill me with joy when they do. Bunny is one of those books: set in a school for aspiring writers, our main character Samantha suffers from writers block when she meets a group of girls who call each other - and themselves - ‘Bunny’. They unsettle our main character - rightfully so - and yet they intrigue her enough that they manage to suck her into their cultish clique. 

What happens next is weird, creepy and somehow also relatable. Mona Awad very cleverly uses techniques like perspective shifting (from ‘I’ to ‘we’), dialogues where you’re never really sure if they’re real or just imagination, and a sprinkle of magic realism to tell a story of academic elitism, girlhood, loneliness and writing. It takes elements from The Secret History by Donna Tartt and elevates them to make a book that is - in my humble opinion - so much better. 

I was particularly taken by the last line, which can be interpreted in multiple ways given the magical nature of everything that happened before it.
SpoilerSamantha has just realised that Ava is just something she conjured up - whether truly, magically, or really just in her mind - and she is sitting outside after her graduation. Jonah comes sit next to her while she’s thinking about everything that happened, and then Mona Awad writes this:
 

Spoiler“You could come with me,” I say to Jonah. “If you want.” 
I lower my gaze to the mud. 
”Sure, Samantha,” says the mud, “I’d love to.”
 

SpoilerGiven all the magical things that happened before this, it’s unclear whether ‘says the mud’ is just a way of saying that Samantha hears Jonah speak without looking at him, or whether Jonah - or another person completely - is somehow conjured up from the mud.
This is so clever and I might even write a whole essay about it someday. 

So it’s safe to say, I loved this. And I haven’t even gone into the ways the process of making art is described, the beautiful language use, and the idea of a muse - how it can feel awkward when someone knows they’re your muse, but it feels so damn good to write about them. Reading this book really made me itch to write, which I guess is why this review is so long. 

I do want to quickly pinpoint that I noticed some repetition in this book, which I’m not sure was intentional or an error in the editing department. That’s why I can’t give it the full five stars, even though I so badly wanted to. 
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