We Love You, Bunny

I’ll admit, when I first heard that Mona Awad was writing a sequel (that’s really more of a prequel) to Bunny, I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it. Not only is Bunny a favorite book of mine, but it made for such a solid stand alone that I didn’t feel there was necessarily anything to add to the perfection that was the original.

Wow, was I ever wrong! We Love You Bunny was fantastic. It’s a favorite read of the year for me, and an all time favorite book! If you’re a fan of the original Bunny, I can’t imagine not loving this one. This was absolutely hilarious, like, a “dying laughing” level of hilarious. And then also, unexpectedly heartfelt at times, especially towards the end. While getting to hear the Bunnies’ show more perspectives was incredibly entertaining, my favorite part by far was the new POV introduced in this book.

As with Bunny, this novel holds nothing back in its critique of MFA programs and the creative writing world. Teachers and students alike are gleefully skewered. No one is spared! As someone who teaches creative writing, I loved how scathing it is!

If there’s any drawback to We Love You Bunny, it’s that the story feels a smidge more drawn out than it needed to be, especially in some of the middle sections. But I still found myself wishing that I could read more when the book had ended, so ultimately it didn’t feel like much of a flaw at all!

One final note: one of the main POVs relies heavily on visual presentation. For that reason, I’d recommend reading a physical copy rather than listening to the audiobook. While I’m sure the audiobook version would still be enjoyable, you’ll miss out on a lot if you can’t see how that particular POV is written on the page. show less

**received as an ARC from the publisher

We’re calling this book Mean Girls meets Donnie Darko, with a healthy dose of murder and a dash of down-the-rabbit-hole philosophy by way of an Ivy League-inclined Lewis Caroll. If I hadn’t been sent this book by the publisher, I doubt I would have picked it up - and yet, once I got into this novel I couldn’t put it down. The strangely twisted quartet of storytellers (the Bunnies, Fictions, whatever they’re calling themselves at various points throughout their multi-layered narrative) demand attention - not just as the reader stands in for their kidnapped archnemesis, Samantha, but as we become equally curious about exactly what is going on with the results of their strange magic (or show more literary experiments, if that’s how we want to interpret it). Awad’s narration is definitely not for the faint of heart, as she treads a line that veers wildly from lightly comedic to downright grotesque in terms of tone and visuals, as well as throws us off kilter with the varying styles of the story’s narrators. Each of the Bunnies takes their turn before handing the notebook over to hear from their collective (post-rabbit) subconscious, before the hive mind takes over. The tale culminates with a final bit of smiley face emoji-ridden text from their dear Aerius, as he finds salvation, freedom, or maybe enlightenment and returns to the natural life that he was meant to live before their untimely experiments. Besides being a kind of romp through a grotesquerie of a literarily-inclined mindscape I’m not sure exactly what the point of this story was by the finale - besides being a pure entertainment and amusement of visions. And maybe that’s the point: to just experience the experience, each moment on its own. show less

I am not a horror person at all and tend to avoid it as a genre altogether, but these books (this and the original Bunny) are my exception. I thought Bunny was a good stand alone so I was hesitant at first to return, but I love it.
Visceral and disturbing and creepy cutesy. Ew. Love

I just deleted my very stupid review of this book. I absolutely loved the book, but I have no idea how to review it. It's a rapid-fire, biting satire that would require that I would reveal how I feel about pompous people. Every time I tried to write a review, I realized that I would be incredibly hostile while doing it. If you haven't read the first book, Bunny, go do that now. It's excellent and is less specific about a university fine arts department. Bunny is more about loneliness, desperation, and depression, but takes excellent satirical shots at college Humanity departments as well. Then decide if this one is for you.

I wasn't a big fan of the original Bunny book, but when I saw this was chosen for a Goodreads award, I thought I would read it. Again, horror is not for me. This is also an examination and satirical critique of writers and students of writing programs. The whole premise is bizarre - the students create a handome man from a bunny. Now that one of the students is a published author, and has told their story, the other female students capture her and tell their stories. You also hear from Bunny/Aerius, as well as other characters at the school.
Just bizarre, and definitely not for me.

I read this directly after the first book in the series, not only because it is a Morning News Tournament book, but also to see what the heck was really going on in the first book. I wasn't completely enamored with the first book, and the second, this one, even less so... Midway through these almost 500 pages, I finally realized that Awad has written these books to intentionally be irritating. To be Too Much. I try to have patience but all of these characters are A LOT. This time, we get the Bunnies perspectives (the writing group Bunnies, but also one of their creations) while Samantha is forced to hear what they have to say while she is tied to a chair. They managed to grab Samantha while she was on a book tour for her novel 'Bunny' show more which just happened to be the first novel by Awad. I didn't gather that while reading the first book, that 'Bunny' was Samantha's novel... though I did see it was a fan theory. Really, it seems many of these plot points were fan theories? Though I didn't directly pay attention to the time the internet comments were written and when the book was released, so not sure on the timing... I would call it "fun" to have the perspectives switched, but really the Bunnies are too too much, even if I realize they were designed to be and that is one of the points here. But over 800 pages of these guys, in the two books combined, I just wanted to move along to something else. But if I had read the books further apart, I would have missed many of the easter eggs between the two books... how much of this is supposed to be a chaotic mess and how much of it is really simply a mess? I'm not really sure Awad had much new to say between book #1 and book #2... I have heard there will be a third book. Will I finally know what is actually going on?
*Book #170/394 I have read of the shortlisted Morning News Tournament of Books show less

Reason read: Giller short list. I hated this book. I found the characters and dialogue unappealing. The girls were privileged, whiny, and entitled. I did not like their behavior and I found nothing to relate to in them. The members of this clique are Elsinore ("The Duchess"), Coraline ("Cupcake"), Kyra ("Creepy Doll"), and Viktoria ("Vik"). They are literature students. They call each other bunny. Another character, is by definition a prescription medicine for allergies. Mother is the professor the girls thought they would be studying under, who is instead, on leave to do her own writing. It is disgusting with lots of jargon, texting emoji references, cussing, sexual references, allusions to splatter horror. The genre is horror and show more literary fiction. The real goal is to write a story about being a writer, the creativity and the ambitious. The themes include creative ownership (plagiarism or stealing from other writers), dark academia, and femininity and societal demands. Bunnies are symbols of creative power and pony is connection to innocence.
Why did this make the Giller list: literary merit
Mona Awad, 47 y/o Canadian author from Montreal.
Rating: 2.6 show less