The Marvelous Deer: Samantha encounters a stag in front of The Duchess' house right before going in for a meeting, and is mystified by it, seeing it as a magical, majestic moment. When she tries making a Hybrid, it turns out she accidentally uses that stag instead of the bunny provided by her group, and it becomes Max. There are reoccurring mentions of swans throughout the book. One of the earliest ones being when the Bunnies sent her the first Smut Salon invitation folded into an origami swan – this implies that the Bunnies were already aware from the beginning that Ava is a Hybrid. The most obvious mention of Ava being a swan was when Samantha recalls her first meeting with her whilst searching: this book is straight-up bonkers. seeing this was set “at an elite new england university” with an exclusive clique at its center and seeing it compared to Heathers, i went into it expecting a Megan Abbott-y/ The Secret History-y type of deal; full of those dark and toxic currents that define adolescent girlhood, where affection shifts into power struggle at the drop of a hat, but also featuring a bunch of soulless smarty-pants big on ritualistic gatherings and down for some light murder. I stare at the loopy, shimmering font, the little hearts one of them (had to be Cupcake, or possibly Creepy Doll?) has drawn around my name. I feel myself start to sweat though it’s freezing in this hallway. Mistake. Has to be. No way in hell they would ever invite me to Smut Salon. That was their own private Bunny thing, like Touching Tuesdays or binge‐watching The Bachelorette or making little woodland creatures out of marzipan. this is The Secret History through the looking glass, carroll’s white rabbit split into four excessively co-dependent MFA students; twitchy and touchy-feely and calling each other “bunny,” operating symbiotically(?) as a “we;” each maintaining a specifically regimented style of expression in appearance and craft, but otherwise inseparable.

Bunny is a fairly trope-heavy 2019 young adult novel by Mona Awad. The novel is a extremely dark, yet absurdly humorous deconstruction of the "outsider joins girl posse" plot, from films like Heathers and Mean Girls, but it's essentially a horror story a la Jennifer's Body for... reasons you will see as you read. Aspiritual cousin to Stephen King’s Carrie. . . Bunny is a kind of pastel-toned goth lit, an examination of what happens when ‘soft’ femininity meets the tougher kind—but one that also recognizes how blurry the distinction can be.”— TIMEAwad was born on August 22, 1978, in Montreal, Quebec. Her father, an Egyptian Muslim, immigrated to Canada in the 1970s. Her mother is a French-Canadian Catholic of Serbian and Irish descent. Awad's parents met in Montreal. [6]

The reader finds Bunny humorous but also horrifying. In the early stages of the novel, the reader encounters unusual contours involving bizarre rituals. Consequently, Bunny is a dark comedy compared to (1988) Heathers' film and the cult-classic horror The Craft (1996). Nonetheless, the novel is about relationships and friendship. Update this section! A Degree in Useless: Lampshaded by Samantha. Before starting at Warren, she worked menial jobs as a receptionist and bookstore sales associate after she finished her English degree. At the end of their first hangout, our narrator is overwhelmed with all the kindness and cries – solidifying an intimate relationship with the Bunnies. She even accidentally sleeps over, and as she sobers up from the one-too-many drinks she had from the previous night, she recalls a peculiar conversation. When Samantha arrives at one of the Bunnies’ home, she is welcomed by her own specially-made drink – that may or may not be drugged – and she is introduced to the enigmatic world of friendship and fluff. One thing leads to another, and Samantha finds herself lying about her sexual endeavours with her high school crush. How after they were in a play together, her crush – Rob Valencia – ravaged her; how she experienced her mind-body-spirit connection as she orgasmed. She kept out the part where Rob Valencia did not do those things and that she had a massive crush on him due to the fact he reads Dante’s Inferno by candlelight.Everything's Better with Sparkles: The Bunnies cover Samantha in sparkles before they drug her at her first Smut Salon. Probably happy that she is in the process of being converted into this cult-like group, Samantha ventures outside during the Salon to get the said animal in question. Whilst outside, she imagines being beheaded by an axe-wielding maniac. Then, a bunny jumps into her lap, which signifies that she is now on the right path to be a full-fledged Bunny. The Line Between Reality and Madness: I

She has a gloved hand – though not as bad as the other Drafts with fewer functional appendages – which is a sure sign of being a Darling. After finding out about being fooled, the Bunnies take revenge by beheading Ava with an ax, signature style. Before I start rage-hating this book, I want to express the one aspect that I loved for most of it: the writing. Holy shit, the writing was amazing! The details given to locations, the senses, appearances, even emotions was done so well and added depth to scenes that ordinarily wouldn't get. However, the amount of detail started to weigh down the story considerably towards the end, to the point where you could skim whole paragraphs and not miss anything crucial.

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As the lives of Samantha and the Bunnies become increasingly intertwined, Samantha’s independent nature, as well as her grasp on what is real and what is not, diminishes. This shift serves to heighten the tension in the novel and is delightfully frustrating for the reader. Juxtaposed against this new codependency she has fallen into with the Bunnies, Samantha’s relationship with her only close friend, Ava, becomes strained and takes off on its own toxic and confusing journey. Ava looks at me, slipping drunkenly down the pillar. I have said hello to no one. Not the poets who are their own fresh, grunty hell. Not the new incoming fiction writers who are laughing awkwardly by the shrimp tower. Not even Benjamin, the friendly administrator to whom I usually cling at these sorts of functions, helping him dollop quivering o al onto dried bits of toast. Not my Workshop leader from last spring, Fosco, or any other member of the esteemed faculty. And how was your summer, Sarah? And how’s the thesis coming, Sasha? Asked with polite indifference. Getting my name wrong always.

With her Tic-Tac clouds of disorientation, Samantha is welcomed to the Workshop with a new official title: Bunny. The Line Between Reality and Madness: II Alright, I hope that cleared it up a bit. Please let me know if it didn't. Anyway, what I wanted to talk about was my interpretation of the story. This book is indeed, as everyone says, a bit crazy when looking at the gory and cult aspect of it. But it's about more than that. The book focusses mostly on three things I think. Everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door - ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. Together with the Bunnies, she creates "Hybrids", half-man, half-rabbit creatures based on their ideal men, with the goal of reclaiming the narratives of women's lives. Ava was Samantha's imaginary friend created from a swan who used to swim in the campus fountain, and is always associated with said swan.Except Ava. She continues to smoke and stare at them like they’re a four‐headed beast. When at last I lower my hand, I turn to her. She’s looking at me like I’m something worse than a stranger. Ava’s origin as a representation of the campus swan is hinted at right in the first chapter when Samantha mentions she yells at tourists and eats trash, which only birds can do. Graduation for Everyone: Even if the Bunnies become terrible students as a result of Max’s meddling, they still graduate with Samantha. Our narrator, Samantha, isn’t a bunny, much to her joy, and unconscious disdain. She even deliberately mentions it, because she is so happy that she isn’t part of that infantile clique: What do you make of the Bunnies’“Drafts,” the violent conceptions behind them, and the specific ways in which they arrive incomplete and repeatedly come undone? What do these constructions reveal about the psychologies and artistic processes of their creators?