We Love You, Bunny

by Mona Awad

Genres: Literary Fiction; Humor & Satire; Gothic; Horror

Synopsis

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, Samatha 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.

Release date: September 23, 2025

Publisher: S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books

Print pages: 480

Sample

Hi, Bunny.

It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? We missed you, we really did.

So much.

And look at you now, wow. All gothed out again. Back to wearing your scary-bleak clothes and your dark hair still hanging in front of your eye, how funny. You’ve been busy since we last saw you, haven’t you? Very busy, apparently, scribble-scribbling in the dark. Publishing your little novel. About us, so fun. And it’s enjoyed a somewhat moderate success. Good for you! Amazing, really, what people will read nowadays. That’s why we brought you up here, in fact, to Kyra’s attic (remember this attic?) for a little congratulatory toast among old friends. A cozy reunion of sorts with your former MFA cohort, those you’ve left in the literary dust, so to speak, ha ha ha. Not that we’re bitter, Bunny, oh my god, not at all. We’re raising our glasses to you, aren’t we?

What’s that, Bunny? You can’t raise your glass?

Oh, because of the restraints, that’s right.

Sorry about those.

Well, we’ll toast for you, how’s that? We could use a bit of a tipple, frankly, under the circumstances. A little Light and Sunny, remember those? Oh, we wouldn’t squirm in that chair so much, Bunny, not if we were you. It’s just going to cause more bruises on those wrists, that neck, so like a swan’s…

But we digress.

Sorry again we had to tie you up a little. But it’s just so very lovely to catch up like this, isn’t it, just the five of us here in the dark? You all cozy in your chair, and the four of us standing close and adorable in our rabbit masks, making a semicircle of such love and understanding all around you, our dresses shining prettily by the light of the hunter’s moon. It’s a hunter’s moon tonight, Bunny, oh yes. Look at it full and glowing through the window (on All Hallows’ Eve, no less!), and the night so beautifully full of screaming. Your screaming included. 

Probably you’ve dreamed of this moment, haven’t you? We have too, trust. And when we saw on the Warren student listserv that our very own former peer was coming back to town, on tour for her debut novel, the first among our cohort to publish, we thought, Why not make those dreams a reality? Why not support our old friend Sam Mackey?

So funny, your face, when you saw us in the audience, by the way. How we were applauding you, not with our hands so much, but with our eyes. You sort of froze for a minute, didn’t you, at your podium, at the sight of us sitting there in the very back row, each of us in a different color dress so that together we made such a happy rainbow, we embodied the holy elements of earth, air, water and fire. So smiling at you. So supporting. You sort of cried a little when you first made eye contact, didn’t you? We did too, Bunny.

Oh, don’t cry, Bunny! We’re not going to kill you, don’t be silly! This isn’t your novel, this is reality, remember? We’re not murderers IRL, despite the very ick brush with which you chose to paint us. No, no, we’re just going to have a little chat, is all, one by one by one by one. Taking turns with you in our telling, doesn’t that sound fun? Sort of like the ultimate Smut Salon. (You remember Smut Salon, don’t you?) As for your novel, well, we have no intention of commenting, don’t worry, k? About all of that: no comment, as they say. Except that you got it wrong. So f---ing wrong. About us.

Ax murderers? Please.

(Oh, best not to struggle, Bunny, it will only make the restraints more ouch.)

We thought we’d tell you the story, the lovely little story, Bunny, of us.

 

How we came together that first year.

How, together, we broke reality and basically reinvented the laws of the natural world.

How we, too, made something beautiful once, oh yes. More beautiful than anything you could ever dream in your small, small mind. And real, too. Before. Long before you ever walked into the picture. When you were nothing, in fact, but a small, dark speck in the corner of our minds and eyes.

So sit back, relax, and listen, k?

Because here tonight in the moon-splashed dark, it really is high time for us to make something beautiful again. ...