Please no spoilers as I’m not even half way through but I can already tell this is going to be a favorite! I don’t think I’ve ever laughed this hard with a book and I *love* the dark, bubbly, bizarre nature. TYIA! Y’all never disappoint! 💓
I have to put a P.S. here 😅 – Please do not say the secret history (as someone had previously said), granted I’m only half way through with Bunny but I see zero similarities outside of dark academia
by heatherb2400
10 Comments
I’ve got to be honest. I don’t think there is anything else in the world quite like Bunny. Maybe try one of Awad’s other novels? Very weird to lump Secret History in there.
I’ll go out on a limb and recommend The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. It’s got the dark and bizarre boxes checked and there are scenes that will leave you wondering wtf is going on, but it’s definitely a different tone from Bunny
I haven’t read *Bunny* yet, but maybe Bora Chung’s anthologies? She has one called *Cursed Bunny*, and I read a few stories from it that were pretty bizarre.
I haven’t read Bunny but I’m halfway through Big Swiss by Jen Beagin and it’s funny and crazy, it’s a fun read so far
Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas?
I’m really enjoying this trend of weird women’s writing that is a bit satirical, bit fantastical, bit horror. Some recs:
Patricia Wants To Cuddle by Samantha Leigh Allan. It’s a satire of TV dating shows like The Bachelor but it’s also very weird and mashes in horror tropes also.
A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan that starts out being about parasocial relationships on Instagram and ends up in some kind of Twilight Zone place.
Anything by Melissa Broder – I’ve read The Pisces and it made me want to read everything she’s written because it was so delightfully weird, about a woman hooking up with a merman.
Supper Club by Lara Williams – I saw this described as Fight Club for women which I kind of get. A group of young women “reclaiming their appetites”. Less fantastical than some of the others but I think it fits the bill.
Something I enjoyed as much as Bunny was Motherthing by Ainslee Hogarth. And I loved Bunny, so so much
Bunny is really unique in that it blends surrealist horror, satire, and the “dark academia” aesthetic, all while being very conscious of.its female perspective. I’ve never read a book that did all four, but a few do two or even three.
Someone suggested Motherthing and Catherine House and I ardently second those recommendations.
I’d also suggest Liar Dreamer Thief, which in my opinion has that same identity-driven fever dream feeling.
Natural Beauty also fits. Also, the narrator is broody like Smackie but ends up working for a wellness brand and all the uncanny forced bubbliness this brings.
Kill For Love is more thriller than straightforward horror but it combines both satirical elements and, again, identity. It is like a female 21st century take on American Psycho. Again, lots of uncanny bubbles.
The World Cannot Give has both the academia and satirical elements, as well as the female perspective. More tongue in cheek than really bubbly but it’s, in my opinion, the best equivalent to Bunny’s campus aspect.
Maybe not SIMILAR as others have said as *Bunny* is so distinct…maybe *Nightbitch*? I loved both.
Shit Cassandra Saw
I also loved All’s Well by Mona Awad – different story, obviously, but very similar female rage & fever dream vibes.