February 9, 2026

A Fever Dream Set in a Girl Cult and I Kinda Get It

Bunny

by Mona Awad

Author  Mona Awad
Publisher  Viking
Year  2019
Pages  305
Genre  Literary Horror · Dark Academia
Themes  Academia · Obsession · Female friendship · Surrealism · Identity

A graduate student in an MFA program is on the outside of a clique of wealthy girls who call each other Bunny and seem to share a consciousness. When she finally gets invited into the group, things stop making conventional sense almost immediately.

“We’re going to make something beautiful and we’re going to make it together, Bunny.”

What It Actually Felt Like

The only way I know how to describe Bunny is a fever dream paired with a schizophrenic acid trip in a girls’ cult, which is a sentence I didn’t expect to write today but here we are. You have to let go of wanting this book to make conventional sense and just ride it.

The satire of MFA culture is sharp and specific and genuinely funny if you know that world at all. The horror elements are unsettling in a dreamlike way. The plot is difficult to follow if you need linearity. All of this is intentional and whether it works for you depends entirely on whether you can surrender to the weirdness.

The Honest Part

The book chooses atmosphere over clarity and not everyone is here for that. If you need to understand what’s happening this book will frustrate you. If you can float in it, there’s something real there.

Who This Is For

Literary horror fans who like their books weird and layered. This one was a bit of a fever dream through the eyes of a college sorority if that sounds interested to you, you’re in the right place.

⭐⭐⭐  Confusing in a way that somehow works. Best read in one sitting.

Tags  horror, literary fiction, dark academia, surreal, mood: dream-like and disorienting

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