Bunny is one of the best books I’ve read this year – and one of the strangest. I mean, I love strange books, but there were times when I had to set the book down and say “What the [heck] did I just read? Seriously, what did I just read?” Crazy stuff, but worth the effort.

Samantha is an MFA student at a stereotypical New England private school. She is an outsider and quite lonely – her only friend is Ava, an artist, who mocks everything about the university and Samantha’s fellow students. In particular, she mocks “The Bunnies” – a group of four fellow students/writers who cling to each other, call each other Bunny (all of them call all of the others Bunny; it would be so confusing), and are everything pink and perfect. Samantha hates them, but she’s clearly also a jealous of their easy friendship and camaraderie.

Then one day Samantha receives an invitation to join them at one of their gatherings (“Smut Salons”) and although she swears to Ava she won’t go, she caves in. Her curiosity and loneliness won’t let her stay away.

I won’t tell you what happens next; even if I did, you wouldn’t believe me. It is such a wild take on the creative process that I could barely believe what I was reading. The effect on Samantha is devastating and she begins to spiral out of control, to the point that as a reader, I wasn’t sure what was real and what wasn’t, and I’m sure Samantha felt the same way.

I saw so many great reviews of this book that I had to give it a try. As I said earlier, it is definitely worth the effort – it is strange and lyrical and disturbing and I was really caught up in Samantha’s story. I’ve been recommending this to a lot of fellow readers, even though it might not be for everyone. Still, I strongly suggest you give it a try.

This book came to me by way of the Akron-Summit County Library.