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Introduction
Bunny is the third novel by Canadian novelist Mona Awad, published by Penguin Books in 2019. It is a quirky satire, dark and wicked yet interestingly insightful look into femininity and elite academic institutions' cult-like cohorts. It is a personification of cuteness and is weaponized by it as a metaphorical depiction of female rage. Shown through coquette descriptions and pretty, girly aesthetics which are juxtaposed by the gore and violence of the plot, in a dark academia setting.

Synopsis
Set in New England at Warren University on an exclusive creating writing program. Bunny is a spell bounding novel about misfit, Samantha Heather Mackey. Samantha, a self-conscious, MFA fiction writing student who despises the cohort of bunnies who are her socialite class mates. Until the bunnies send her an invitation to which Samantha is drawn into their home to the 'Smut Salon' where she falls down their rabbit hole and loses herself in their gory yet saccharine world as she enters their cult like clan. Samantha ditches her only friend Ava, another outsider art drop-out, to be included with the bunnies. She then begins to take part in the extra-curricular activities at the bunnies' homes, where the workshops include creating monstrous, violent creations which leave her questioning her own sanity. Her reality begins to blur as her world comes crashing down around her, her friendship with Ava breaks as the connection with the Bunnies intensify.

Samantha is drugged by the bunnies into part-taking in their murderous rituals, in which they turn bunnies into men to use for their own desires. She must explore the bunnies nightmarish, fever dream to begin to fully understand their power.

Bunny is a dark and twisted fairytale about isolation, loneliness, belonging and desire. Fitting into the genre of contemporary horror, it has various gothic elements laced with pink, feminiate themes. This book exquisitely depicts female friendships with submissive yet hilarious narration by Samantha.

Themes
Female friendships, femininity, dark academia, social class, humor, horror, belonging and loneliness. There are links to different genres in Bunny, such as fairytales and myths, which have been applied to themes of the "elite ruling class" and "hyper femininity". These are shown through the relationships the characters have amongst each other and the settings the plot takes place in.

Bunny is a mix of The Secret History by Donna Tartt meets Mean Girls in a deliciously evil story line. It has been compared to that of Stephen King's Carrie (novel) Heathers and Scream Queens.

Content Warnings: - Animal Cruelty, Gore, Blood, Drug Use, Sex, Violence and Murder.

Settings
Bunny reflects it is dark academic routes being set in New England, similar to that of other dark academia phenomena's such as The Secret History. The setting of this academic landscape creates a studious atmosphere rich with academic competition and the need to be belonging. The use of juxtapositions is also present in the setting, as outside of the Warren campus, the area is described as desolate, urban and unsafe. There are descriptions of how bad the high crime rate is, with references to decapitations, random attacks and rape. The theme of social class is very present in the settings. The bunnies live in safe, gated houses, whereas Samantha lives in a flat which is not stable in a dangerous area. Showing the elitism of the bunny clan and what they metaphorically represent. It shows us, the readers that Samantha is vulnerable to the bunnies through her social class, background, and isolation. The themes and settings are intertwined in this novel.

Characters

 * Samantha Heather Mackey. Samantha is the main character in this novel. The novel is told from her point of view and is centered around her experience.
 * Ava. Ava is Samantha's best friend; she is the closest person to Samantha as her mother is dead and her father is distant. Ava is Samantha's only support system in the story.
 * Duchess. Duchess is the main bunny. Her real name is Eleanor. She is the leader of their experiments and dominates the group.
 * Vignette. Vignette is the second in command bunny she is the mean and slightly jealous of the clan.
 * Creepy Doll. Creepy Doll is the ditsy, feminine archetype in this novel.
 * Cupcake. Cupcake is the most caring of the bunnies, but that is really because she wants something from Samantha.
 * The Lion. The Lion is Samantha's personal tutor at Waren University. She is rumored to have secret relations with him by the bunnies, in their out of hours meetings.
 * Fosco. Also known as Ursula or KareKare by the bunnies. Fosco is the creative writing lead for the bunny's class. She loves the bunny's ad is infatuated by them. She is also seen as a generous character when she allows Samantha over to her house in the Christmas holidays for a Yule Tide Party with her family.

Adaptions
AMC Productions have acquired the rights to Mona Awad's 2016 novel '13 Ways of looking at a Fat Girl' in 2019. Whilst also acquiring the rights to Bunny, before it was published. they plan to turn Bunny into a TV series. The script writer, Megan Mostyn-Brown has been appointed to adapt Bunny for the silver screen, who has previously worked on adapting other horror novels for television such as NOS4A2 by Joe Hill (novelist). She is also said to be the executive producers of the project.

Structure
Bunny is told in two parts. Part One consists of chapters one to fourteen. It ends with the second time that Samantha takes part in the bunny's workshop. Part Two is the rest of the book in which it takes a sinister turn for Samantha as she starts to disassociate with the rest of the world, her paranoia and mental health decline as she is drawn into the cult of bunny.

Reviews
—Margaret Atwood, via Twitter —Lena Dunham, author of Not That Kind of Girl —Quill and Quire, STARRED REVIEW —TIME —Kristen Roupenian, author of "Cat Person" and 'You Know You Want This'.
 * "O Bunny you are sooo genius!"
 * "Mona Awad’s precision is only matched by her wit as she mounts one of the most pristine, delightful attacks on popular girls since Clueless. Bunny made me cackle and nod in terrified recognition. You will be glued to your cashmere blanket."
 * “Gripping [and] frenetically readable . . .In this exploration of how women’s repressed rage and desires can manifest, Awad weaponizes cuteness in a ferocious and dynamic way.”
 * "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 . . . This isn’t your garden-variety–or even your rabbit-hutch–view of feminist sisterhood . . . It's a spiritual cousin to Stephen King’s Carrie."
 * "The Secret History meets Jennifer’s Body. This brilliant, sharp, weird book skewers the heightened rhetoric of obsessive female friendship in a way I don't think I've ever seen before. I loved it and I couldn't put it down."