I saw Bunny on someone’s PopSugar list for dark academia, and thought, ooh, I love dark stories set in schools! I loved Madam, The Secret History, Academy Girls, and so many others.

Bunny is set in a prestigious MFA program, in a cohort where there are four pretty girls who are best friends and affectionately call each other Bunny, and a fifth girl called Samantha who sits in Workshop hating them all. Well, it’s not exactly a subtle book.

At least Bunny accurately describes MFA workshops, particularly a certain style of circular, congratulatory workshops and careful phrasing to avoid saying wtf was that? after a classmate’s piece. Lots of talk about Work and Process, when obviously Work doesn’t mean a paying job. But this kept going until I no longer felt like Samantha was an interesting fish out of water, a struggling writer among dilettantes, and more just wanted her to quit hating everyone around her or quit the program. (And since Samantha’s main characteristic was scowling rebel, it seemed weird how many times she just drank random concoctions and swallowed unidentified pills in this story.)  This was a novel when I was on Team Nobody. The Bunnies were too twee and annoying, while Samantha and Ava were self-consciously scowling outsiders, and all the MFA staff were the worst stereotypes of MFA staff. 

And then the dark part of the dark academia. Obviously the Bunnies are up to something, and I enjoyed discovering exactly what that was. The magical worldbuilding was frustratingly inconsistent, and I spent a lot of the book wondering how things worked, and not in the exciting discovery way, more in the confused way. (Did the dead Drafts leave blood and bodies, or not? I still have no idea.)  There was a couple moments when I thought the Bunnies were becoming maenads, with all the drunken celebration and bloody sacrifice that entails, but it never quite materialized.

I do like that this story featuring so many terrible MFA workshops prompts readers to leave workshop-style feedback: Interesting concept, look forward to reading the final version with developed characters and a consistent world.

My PopSugar Dark Academia prompt, but not recommended.