Bunny | A Horror Book Review 🐇🪓

[@noteworthyfiction]

I have not and do not plan on reading bunny (not a fan of gore), but I was interested to hear your review. I'm surprised to hear about the cult factor as no one has mentioned that (is it a spoiler?). Great review and the bunny and hatchet in the title is hilarious!

[@alexfrankfiction]

Hey Nicole, thanks for watching! Yeah, I consider it to be a spoiler, which is why I put it in that section. Admittedly, I haven't seen other reviews so no idea if other people place any emphasis on the cult aspect or not. Thanks for being one of my regular long-form review viewers 😊

[@noteworthyfiction]

@@alexfrankfictionmakes sense. I love your long forn reviews. They've helped me figure out whether or not I'm interested in some books. Even though they contain spoilers you don't dwell on them so long that my bad memory clings to them, so it works out.

[@yuukimoon906]

I've been watching your channel for a couple of months, and just now i realized that yours is not one of those big and famous YT ones. I'm usually not compelled to comment by the huge amount of spam and useless stuff here, but given the fact that you have approximately 650~700 subscribers at this point in time, i feel like you deserve the compliment and it won't be immediately buried on random stuff. Good Job, and keep up the good work, i love the way you're clearly exited by books and the content you create! Thanks for the recommendations and hope to watch more videos!

[@alexfrankfiction]

Your comment absolutely blew me away. I cannot begin to express how much your words meant to me. Thank you so very much and it's wonderful to have you here! I hope to hear from you again in the future 😊

[@heidi6281]

A really interesting portrayal of a cult was in the tv show the Left Overs, with great acting to boot.

[@alexfrankfiction]

Never heard of it so thanks for the recommendation!

[@katsnoveladventures1863]

Bunny sounds like a well-written book; however, it doesn’t sound like a story I’d enjoy. 😂 My friend Amy recommended I start reading Mona Awad with All’s Well. Nice review, Alex! 😊

[@alexfrankfiction]

Thanks so much, Kat! It is well written in terms of diction at least 😊 Conceptually it's cool too, just could have been tweaked in some areas. Hope you had a lovely weekend!

[@katsnoveladventures1863]

@@alexfrankfiction Had a wonderful weekend, but a little tired. 😴 🤣 I’ve been kind of lazy today. Today is sort of the one day between one busy week and the next busy week. I need to chill and regroup.

[@alexfrankfiction]

@@katsnoveladventures1863 I'm glad you gave yourself that! I'm with you 💯%

[@CherryCheetah]

Yeah - I agree with the points you made. Although now I need to read Hard-boiled wonderland - I read other Murakami books, not all and this one is one of those I haven't read yet.

[@alexfrankfiction]

Cool! When you get to it, please let me know what you think!

[@Alicia-606]

Great review, Alex. I stopped at the spoiler section, bc I plan on reading this one day. 🐰

[@alexfrankfiction]

Thanks, Alicia! Good luck with the read! Hope you like it!

[@Clara-oy7pu]

This is the third book I have read by Mona Awad (I read All’s Well first and Rouge second). I think out of the three this is her least compelling/least developed book. It was hard for me to figure out what the message was, as much of what I thought might be the message was undermined or half-baked. I’m starting to believe that Awad is purposefully poking fun at the reader because she is explicitly characterizing people who discuss art as being pretentious. I’m being generous in that interpretation though, because it wasn’t very masterfully done. I still enjoyed the imagery/aesthetics of it. I liked the descriptive language. Don’t think it’s her best! I think Rouge would be a good next read, although I have given all of her books 3/5 stars (I didn’t love the ending of All’s Well).

[@alexfrankfiction]

That is great to hear your perspective, Clara, and also good to know I'm not the only one who had problems with "Bunny." Interesting that you've read 3 books and all of them were 3 stars. That gives me something to think about, and I appreciate "Rogue" as the next choice since I don't know that I'm super interested in "All's Well." Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

[@Tetsujin-28]

Spoilers: I'm glad I watched the 2nd half of the review because I didn't know the book takes that hard turn. You didn't do the "room transition" thing. Murakami: all his books are weird/strange/original. "Killing Commendatore" is up there on the strange. Borne (Jeff VanderMeer) is another wild/strange tale. Chthon (Piers Anthony) is the most bizarre book I've ever read by 5 miles. I liked it, but couldn't recommend it. Great content.

[@alexfrankfiction]

No, I was battling the sun so there wasn't a transition. Seemed to work okay without one though! "Borne" is a book I'm looking forward to reading one day! It's on my TBR. Thanks for watching!

[@wbebbs]

Interesting review. My thoughts on Bunny are much in accord c yours. The atmosphere was v well developed and the ending had surprising weight. The conversion and deconversion were much too quick and too pat. I also found H B Wonderland v intriguing, absorbing and moving. All Murikami I have read has proven v worthwhile even though his sexism is sometimes a trial. Thanks again.

[@alexfrankfiction]

Well said, Bebbs! You and I are on the same page! Hope you have a lovely day!

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

Best wishes with your reading choices. Hope you get some great stories.

[@alexfrankfiction]

That is a truly lovely wish! Many thanks to you and likewise!

[@Ayaesthetic]

!!Spoiler!! But did Samantha imagine Ava or did she manifest a real person out of the swan? Also the ending..was she schizophrenic all along?

[@alexfrankfiction]

Hey there! I think she manifested a real person from a swan using the power of her imagination. So it's a little column A and a little column B. If she hadn't had the strong imagination, she couldn't have accomplished what she did. She had natural talent. I don't think Ava was a hallucination either. I think the story has magical realism elements 😊 What did you think?

[@Faye_L]

I really should've hated this book for the dirtiness alone (I usually hate that), but I felt like it was satirizing the obsession, so I thoroughly approved. 😂 I didn't really see it as needing to be a believable depiction of being indoctrinated into a cult, so the things that bothered you didn't bother me. It felt more like magical realism, and an allegory for the writing process (killing your darlings, wrestling with plot bunnies to make them do and become what you want, etc). Samantha was already a natural writer before joining the MA program, and that environment was stifling her ability to make perfect art on her own. The Bunnies were fake, they had no natural talent, but they looked down on Samantha because, in their eyes, SHE was the one who couldn't do the amazing magical things they could do with their plot bunnies. I've found myself in that position, writing-wise, so many times that it killed my desire to be an author, which I feel is what Samantha was going through in this book, so it spoke to me and inspired me on so many levels.

[@Faye_L]

To be clear, imo Samantha's indoctrination into the Bunnies wasn't indoctrination into a cult, but rather her lack of self esteem regarding her writing getting the better of her, and her acceptance of the status quo, that she had to go through this specific writing process in order to write well. (Which, of course, included an obsession with sexuality.) When she drops the Bunnies so easily, it's because she's realized that she has a natural ability that they don't have - she created something perfect all by herself, without needing to be taught how to do it (and it wasn't for sexual gratification). It's such a common thing for people with natural artistic ability to be sent to school for their craft and find their natural talents stifled from trying so hard to follow the rules and give their professors and classmates what they want. Awad's insight into the experience is absolute genius to me.

[@alexfrankfiction]

Hey Faye! Ah, I get to hear your thoughts at last! I appreciate your perspective on this books and I feel you have additional insight as someone with a writing background. Your knowledge of "plot bunnies" was also interesting to me and I like your link there because that's not something I was familiar with before talking with you during my live show. I'm not an author myself and likely will never be one so thanks for your thoughtful comments! I'm really glad to hear that you loved and enjoyed the story!

[@Faye_L]

@@alexfrankfiction I'm so happy to finally hear your thoughts on it, too! I wish we could have talked more openly about it while you were reading it, but I'm just glad you didn't hate it! 🐇

[@alexfrankfiction]

@Faye_L absolutely didn't hate it and I get it after reading Bunny that you can't say much 😊

[@TheBookHerm]

I want to re read this as I don't think I was in the right mood for it the first time I read it.

[@alexfrankfiction]

Well I hope you enjoy it more the second time 😊 thanks for watching!

[@missstarbuck]

I watched the whole video. I was really curious if Bunny would be something for me, because i am interested in weird stories, but the horror part kind of made me doubt. When you said in the first part there is gore, i new this was not my weird book haha. Also i am not a huge fan of unlikable characters i think?? Don't know that for sure yet.. i had one book with that which was..meh... but another book with that which was nice haha. But yeah... since i am not planning to read the book, i watched the spoilers as well :D How is that other weird book you named and you liked? Not horror i hope? Worth it to look it up?

[@alexfrankfiction]

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is an interesting read that ticked my brain a lot. I can easily see where some people wouldn't like it because it's quite absurd BUT I liked it haha! Thanks so much for watching until the end!

[@missstarbuck]

@@alexfrankfiction Well if i ever come across it, i might pick it up :) And you're welcome of course :)

[@wbebbs]

@@missstarbuck H-B Wonderland is, like all his fiction, surreal and sometimes non-linear. I have read several Murakami and found some creepy or unnerving but never gory or horrific.

[@missstarbuck]

@@wbebbs Thank you :D I will definitely add this one to my wishlist :)