Episode 12.2: ‘We Love You, Bunny’ by Mona Awad
Back in season three we dove in Mona Awad’s ‘Bunny’ with no idea what we were getting into, and even less idea how foundational a text it would be for this podcast and our discussions around dark academia and genre.
We were both fascinated with how Awad would revisit Sam and the Bunnies, even though it’s not dark academia as we know it.
In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracised and then seduced by a clique of her saccharine sweet, rich girl cohort (who call one another ‘Bunny’). An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus Workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with wondrous yet deadly consequences.
When We Love You, Bunny opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers ― and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny. Frankenstein by way of Heathers, We Love You, Bunny is a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete standalone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to a dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever dream, Mona Awad.
How is ‘We Love You, Bunny’ going to reframe our ideas of ‘Bunny’? How on earth will Awad follow up on her landmark fever dream novel?
In this episode we discuss:
Can a prequel or sequel undermine the original novel? Does that happen with the Bunnyverse?
The unexpected link between ‘Katabasis’ and ‘We Love You, Bunny’ - Alice down the rabbit hole
The unexpected segway into a slasher
You can listen to it here:
TEXTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘We Love You, Bunny’ by Mona Awad
‘The Monk’ by Matthew Lewis
OTHER MEDIA AND POP CULTURE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ (1975)
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