We Love You, Bunny: A Novel

by Mona Awad Narrated by Sophie Amoss

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Creepy, kooky and crackling with energy, We Love You, Bunny is the long-awaited return to the world of the sickeningly sweet (and maniacally maddening) clique — and this time, the Bunnies are taking center stage.

Longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize

Named a Must-Read Pick by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, People, Associated Press, Marie Claire, Bustle, The Boston Globe, Goodreads, Women's Wear Daily, and more

“Dark academia clan, rise up! We Love You, Bunny feels like Han Kang's The Vegetarian meets...Heathers.” -People

The highly anticipated follow up to the viral sensation Bunny, a brilliantly written, laugh-out-loud funny, dark, and delirious novel set in the Bunny-verse-a world that Margaret Atwood declared “soooo genius.”

In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “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 deadly and wondrous 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 both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"[A] dark, twisted satire of academia and the cultlike world of writers." —The New York Times

"Dark academia clan, rise up! We Love You, Bunny feels like Han Kang’s The Vegetarian meets the 80s film Heathers." –People

“Anyone who loved Awad’s fascinating fever dream novel ‘Bunny’ from 2019 is surely thumping their tail for ‘We Love You, Bunny’. Now, we hear the Bunnies’ side of the story as they kidnap Sam, who has just published her first novel about the cult-like circle of MFA girls. Readers can expect origin stories and revenge plots in this combination prequel and sequel.” —USA TODAY: Fall's Most Anticipated Books

“You don’t have to have read the original Bunny book to dive into this one—though it’s so good and strange that you really, really should. We Love You, Bunny serves as a prequel, a sequel, and a standalone journey into the bizarre Bunny hive-mind. It mashes up Mona Awad’s familiar combo of dark academia, fairytale-y and horror-y elements, and wry humor to tell the Bunnies’s origin story.” —Marie Claire, “The 20 Best New Novels You Need to Read in 2025”

“Dark comedy never had it so good.” —Hamilton Cain, The Boston Globe

"Awad, in this perfect follow-up to a masterful weird-girl gory cult favorite, has once again crafted the perfect campy bloody celebration of striking prose, gorgeous characters, and sardonic horror." —Joshua Lambie, The Southern Bookseller Review

“Dark academia lovers, this one’s for you." —Scary Mommy: The 20 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2025

"Awad’s Bunny (2019) is beloved — and regularly included in “best of dark academia” roundups — for good reason: It’s as sharp as axes wielded by the Bunnies (think Mean Girls’ Plastics, but if they got MFAs). With We Love You, Bunny, a companion novel that functions as both a prequel and a sequel, she recreates that singular magic." —Bustle

“[Awad’s] command of acerbic wit and satiric plotlines, talent for characterization, and sharp metacriticism of creative writing programs make her story sing in the way only bleeding tongues, broken hearts, and battle axes can... It’s Bookstagram-worthy dark academia that’s alarming, allegorical, and nuanced and unravels Bunny catastrophically and captivatingly. Fans of Atwood, R.F. Kuang, and Marisha Pessl will savor this book, whose heady, unsettling intellectualism builds on Awad’s reputation as one of today’s boldest feminist satirists.” —Library Journal (starred)

“Awad adds another brilliant roast of academia to the shelves, once again unmatched in playful language... with dialogue-heavy, laugh-out-loud funny, cinematic prose... Readers will laugh to tears and be fully immersed in this ethereal trip back to Warren.” —Booklist (starred)

“ [Awad] sticks the landing with a delightfully unexpected and unhinged ending. Her wit, humor, and metafictional prowess are on full display.” —Kirkus

"The Bunnies get to tell their side of the story: it’s an Alice in Wonderland, dark academia, slasher romp that is so much fun.” —Lit Hub, "Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, Part Two"

“Awad’s prose remains as biting as ever, skillfully oscillating between the lyrical and the absurd. Readers need not be familiar with Bunny to appreciate this outing, though fans will relish the deepened mythology and twisted callbacks. This bold satire breaks exciting new ground in the Bunny universe.” —Publishers Weekly

"We Love You, Bunny is playfully self-aware as it looks both to the Bunny origins and towards a new chapter—another banger from Awad to obsess over." —Reactor Mag, "30 More SFF Titles to Look Forward to in 2025"

“We Love You, Bunny returns to the uncanny terrain that made Awad cult-famous [and] burrows further into the fragmented, hallucinatory terrain she began to chart in Bunny. Her commitment to the surreal is gripping, as is her evolving command of structure — the way her stories fold in on themselves, mimicking the mental contortions of her narrator. With its feverish premise, metafiction turns, and a built-in cult following hungry for more, We Love You, Bunny is poised to be the buzziest release of the season.” —Women.com "Most Anticipated Book Releases of Fall 2025"

Praise for Bunny by Mona Awad

"Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly 'Get In Trouble' Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell! No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled! O Bunny you are sooo genius!" —Margaret Atwood, via X (formerly Twitter)

"A wild, audacious and ultimately unforgettable novel." —Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times

"A dark, dazzling fairy tale . . . A touching story of true-versus-faux friendship that many women will relate to is at the heart of this novel, but fans of the occult will find plenty to love about the Bunnies' sci-fi-adjacent ritual experimentation. As if grad school needed to get any scarier." —Vogue, "The Best Novels of 2019"

"Awad is a stone-cold genius." —Ann Bauer, The Washington Post

"Wacky and delicious." —Lauren Groff, via X (fromerly Twitter)

"[One of] the most cerebral and compulsively readable books of the season . . . This compelling novel about a mysterious grad school clique draws a bit of inspiration from Mean Girls or Heathers...before long, the novel takes a turn into the surreal, applying the logic of a horror movie to its incisive exploration of cruelty between young women." —Vanity Fair

"Every time I open it up, I stumble upon a crackling sentence." —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

"Outstanding . . . highly addictive, darkly comedic . . . Awad will have readers racing to find out how it all ends—and they won’t be disappointed once the story reaches its wild finale. This is an enchanting and stunningly bizarre novel." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

"A work of toothsome and fanged intelligence....wickedly hilarious." —The New Yorker

"A viciously funny bloodbath . . . Awad gleefully pumps up the novel's nightmarish quality until the boundary between perception and reality has all but dissolved completely. It's clear that Awad is having fun here—the proof is in the gore—and her delight is contagious . . . Wickedly sharp . . . A near-perfect realization of a singular vision." —Kirkus, STARRED REVIEW

"Mona Awad’s prose is dangerous. She crafts beautiful meals laced with poison." —The Paris Review

Library Journal (starred review)

[Awad’s] command of acerbic wit and satiric plotlines, talent for characterization, and sharp metacriticism of creative writing programs make her story sing in the way only bleeding tongues, broken hearts, and battle axes can.”

Kirkus Reviews

2025-08-16
Awad returns to the world ofBunny (2019), armed with her signature satirical and surrealist flair.

Samantha Heather Mackey has written a novel, and when she arrives on the dreamy and violent campus of Warren University, where she got her MFA, for her book tour, her fellow former students known as the Bunnies kidnap her and confront her about her thinly veiled autobiographical debut. Now the Bunnies are finally getting their say—and, boy, are they talkative. Offering a kaleidoscopic view of what went down before, during, and after the events chronicled inBunny, the girls can’t contain their rage, disgust, jealousy, boredom, and hurt over Samantha and her novel. Eventually, Aerius, the Bunnies’ “First Boy. First Draft. First Darling.…First humiliation,” cuts in to offer his side of the story: How he came to be; his understanding (and misunderstanding) of the world; and how he causes, circumvents, and fits into the events of and beyond the first novel. Though he avoids the Bunnies (his “Keepers”) at all costs, they yearn and search for him, their finest work—even if you account for his bloody, violent streak. Considering whether Aerius was the town’s deranged murderer, they slyly say, “But ultimately, we simply did not think so, no. Because he’d come from us and we were lovely. As has already been stated.” This novel is at its best when musing about creativity, writing, and “the work”; skewering academia and elitism; and straddling the slippery border between reality and fantasy. Billed as a standalone, it is most successful as a companion to its predecessor, though at times it reveals too much about the mysterious lore and elusive dynamics of the first novel. Awad’s pacing is uneven, but she sticks the landing with a delightfully unexpected and unhinged ending. Her wit, humor, and metafictional prowess are on full display in this prequel, sequel, expanded upside-down revision, or whatever you want to call it.

Hilarious, grotesque, and standing slightly in the shadow of its sibling.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193527190
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/23/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

CUPCAKE

So funny to think of that first Workshop. How fucking scared I was as we entered the so-called Cave. Like you, I'd pictured a literal cave, Bunny. Ancient, oozing walls. A primal, womb-like darkness. Maybe Ursula standing there, backlit and in bell sleeves, like in a Stevie Nicks video. But it was just a boring black box theater, remember? In the middle of the space: a hollow square of tables with chairs around all sides. The table was lit from above by a single spotlight, like this was a theater and we were the central act. Something comforting about that. I knew that world, of course, Bunny, all too well, from my stage/throw-up days. Vik was already there, wearing another shirt of another gross plaid. She hadn't brushed her wavy auburn hair in what looked like two years. She had no pen in front of her, nor paper, no laptop, not even a phone. Instead she was sitting on a backward-facing chair like she was fucking it. Chest pressed into the backrest, legs manspreading sexily, talking in French to the girl with the silver hair, who turned to look at us—our shoes made such echoing clicks. The silver-haired girl smiled. Hi, she said with her mouth but not her voice. I was certain she'd gone to some illustrious overseas academy, like in Switzerland maybe, a school so elite that I hadn't even heard of it, Bunny, a castle nestled in snowcapped mountains and mirror lakes.

Hi, Kyra and I both mouthed, awestruck.

Quickly we took seats beside them.

There was another girl there too, of course, Bunny. You. Remember? Sitting there with your head down, your long dark hair like a curtain drawn over half your face. Wearing some sort of sad-girl T-shirt. A wolf barking winsomely at a moon or something. A black cardigan to drown in. We could see your one eye peeking out of the hair curtain, and that was all. You stared at us so darkly, and then you looked back down at the table and that's where you kept your eye. We could not say hello to you or even smile at you because you were hiding in your hair, Bunny, like Cousin Itt. Please remember that the next time you call me a bitch in your mind. Or in print, k? That you didn't make it easy for us, socially, from the very beginning.

Now, the chair beside you was empty, and that chair was just a little bit bigger than the other chairs. So we assumed, of course we assumed, that this was the teacher chair. Soon to be filled with the one and only Ursula. In fact, I could hear, in the dark just now, a clicking like footsteps. As you know, Bunny, when you're in the Circle (which, yes, I know is literally a square, but metaphorically it is a circle, just like the classroom is metaphorically a cave), you can't see beyond it at all. The circumference of spotlight does not extend beyond the Circle, suggesting the process of Creation, how we are always mostly in the dark, in a state of either un- or half knowing. So at the sound of the footsteps, I filled with such excitement. I made a small sound of glee, like a hiccup. The silver-haired girl smiled at me again, her jewel eyes burning brightly. I was expecting Ursula to appear out of the black at any moment. To point at me and smile. To say, Hello, Coraline. You are exceptional. You will write the book club book to end all book clubs, and I will help you find this book inside yourself and I will help you birth it from your mind's vagina. From your soul's vagina, rather. Into a living entity of double-spaced pages beautifully screaming.

I was expecting to smell her, Bunny. Her author photo suggested a very specific incense. Myrrh laced with fir trees. I expected her iridescence, her brilliance, to blind me a little. I was nearly crying in anticipation as the footsteps inched ever closer.

And then?

We saw it was someone else. Not Ursula at all.

A fucking man.

Very tall, with sleeve tattoos of birds and trees. He had wild, leonine hair, and he was wearing a black T-shirt advertising some sort of Swedish metal band like my older brother and his friends sometimes wore. Um. Who the fuck was this, please?

I glanced at Kyra, whose face looked as confused and afraid as I felt.

The man half smiled at us. He told us hello, his name was Allan.

Allan?!

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