Bunny
Mona Awad, 2019
Horror Mystery, thriller & crimeContemporary fictionGraphic novels & humour
A broke MFA student watches a clique of rich, eerie women call each other Bunny, then gets pulled into their workshop—a social satire that curdles into horror. A sharp, funny voice turns slowly uneasy, with dread gathering under the gossipy MFA workshop chatter.
Feels like dread and unease. About friendship, nature and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy satire that keeps its jokes barbed and lets horror seep in through friendship and art-school rivalry. The unease builds through a deliberately odd, lyrical narrative, so the blur between mean-girl comedy and nightmare may feel too slippery if you want plain realism.
Why read it
It lets you laugh at the clique and then feel the room turn wrong, which is a bracing way to look at friendship, ambition, and creative envy.
A page from the book
The private prayer of anyone who has ever watched a perfect clique from outside.
I quietly prayed for the hug implosion all year last year. That their ardent squeezing might cause the flesh to ooze from the sleeves, neckholes, and A‑line hems of their cupcake dresses like so much inane frosting. That they would get tangled in each other’s Game of Thrones hair, choked by the ornate braids they were forever braiding into each other’s heart‑shaped lit‑ tle heads. That they would choke on each other’s blandly grassy perfume.Never happened. Not once. Mona Awad.Awad holds an MFA from Brown and a PhD from the University of Denver; she teaches creative writing at Syracuse University.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Bunny for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy satire that keeps its jokes barbed and lets horror seep in through friendship and art-school rivalry. The unease builds through a deliberately odd, lyrical narrative, so the blur between mean-girl comedy and nightmare may feel too slippery if you want plain realism.
- What is Bunny like?
- A sharp, funny voice turns slowly uneasy, with dread gathering under the gossipy MFA workshop chatter. Feels like dread and unease. About friendship, nature and memory.
- What should I read after Bunny?
- If you liked Bunny, try American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis), The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins) and The Tenant (Freida McFadden).
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