We Love You, Bunny - by Mona Awad (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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 [this follow-up] 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"--

Book Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY, and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER
A FINALIST FOR THE 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

The highly anticipated follow-up to the viral sensation Bunny, a brilliantly written and delirious literary horror novel set in the Bunny-verse--a world that Margaret Atwood declared "soooo genius."

In the cult classic novel Bunny, Samantha Heather Mackey was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls in her New England MFA program 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.

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 in this "dark, twisted satire of academia" (The New York Times).

We Love You, Bunny is both a prequel and a sequel, and a darkly comic and totally complete stand-alone novel that "feels like Han Kang's The Vegetarian meets the 80s film Heathers" (People).

Review Quotes

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

"This was the perfect spooky-season read--and dare I say, I preferred this to the prequel. Mona Awad hits the nail on the head with this dark academia freaky fever dream. The origins of this New England MFA student clique are revealed, and we get all the witchcraft and laughter that bring the 'Bunnies' to life." --Scientific American, "Favorite Books of 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 creates a genius statement on the thin line between fiction and reality... Everything is written with complete intention... making [readers] interact with the story as if they, too, have stuck their head down into a rabbit hole. Awad is a master of writing a distinct voice for each of her characters... Suffice to say, Mona Awad has done it again with We Love You, Bunny. Its genius is like the perfectly terrifying fever-dream you would get after watching both Frankenstein and Alice in Wonderland while high on cold medicine" --BookTrib


"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"

"Mona Awad's long-awaited follow-up to her cult classic novel, Bunny, takes readers back into the eerily haunting universe of Samantha Heather Mackey--a world in which MFA students are really as scary as they seem. We Love You, Bunny offers an alternative perspective on the events from the first book, with Sam getting a front-row seat to the Bunnies' attempt to clear their names. This twisty sequel ultimately pulls back the curtain on their mystical life-giving powers." --Harper's Bazaar, "The 30 Best Book Releases of Fall 2025"

"Mona Awad's latest novel is a surreal, satiric, pitch-black plunge back into the newly dubbed 'Bunny-verse' of her 2019 novel Bunny, and a deeper dive into the unnerving, saccharine university cult that made the first book an instant classic." --Entertainment Weekly, The Must List Newsletter

"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

"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"

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

"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

"[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)

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

About the Author

Mona Awad is the bestselling author of the novels Rouge, All's Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. She is a three-time finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award, the recipient of an Amazon Best First Novel Award, and she was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Bunny was a finalist for a New England Book Award and was named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film with Bad Robot Productions. Rouge is being adapted for film by Fremantle and Sinestra. Margaret Atwood named Awad her literary heir in The New York Times's T Magazine. She teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University and is based in Boston.