Book Bites: Bunny

Bunny by Mona Awad
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Bunny is an intentionally confounding bit of sad girl dark academia. The story follows loner Samantha as she navigates her second year of graduate study in a top-flight Creative Writing MFA program…by joining a coven of barbies who magik campus bunnies into malformed, brainless men to serve at their beck and call (and sometimes be axe-murdered). However; the text is so full of sly references to schizophrenia and meta-commentary on fiction that the line between what is real and what is not in the world of the book becomes blurry bordering on nonexistent. Awad gleefully plays with themes of belonging, of the love/hate relationship between art and money, of generational trauma, all while dousing the reader in buckets of blood and gore. It's an admirable effort, but the text is averse to endorsing any one reading to the point that no single punch really lands. Bunny is an interesting book, that, by design, spins a hollow-feeling narrative.

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Book Bites: Half His Age

Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Half His Age, much like it’s teenage protagonist, feels like a book that wants to be but does not quite achieve. McCurdy shows great talent; the prose sparkles with moments of pure, truthful insight. There is a passage about couples going through the motions of recounting dinner party anecdotes that feels beyond McCurdy's years. 

However, the narrative is thematically muddy. Is it about a teenager being groomed? Waldo our protagonist would probably say no. The object of her affection, nebbish Mr. Korgy is a slumping shrug of a character. The book is often bold, brazen in its sexuality, but also oddly timid, only dancing around the fallout of a teacher sleeping with his teenage student.

While McCurdy’s playing with gray morality is laudable, in the end the narrative feels like a sting of “and then” “and then” “and then” that doesn’t quite grasp any narrative string. Character growth feels unearned. There’s a lot to enjoy and themes to sink one’s teeth into, but the book doesn’t quite stick it’s landing.

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Book Bites: Dungeon Crawler Carl

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dungeon Crawler Carl is, to use the appropriate lingo, an enjoyable dungeon crawler slightly undone by its repetitive gameplay loop. Dinniman's accomplishment here shouldn't be understated: he's successfully written the Hunger Games for the Hitchhiker's Guide crowd. The book is a rollicking good time. Carl and Princess Donut (a sentient cat) are a delight to follow through this never-ending maze of traps and sophomoric humor and off-the-wall monsters. The book is legitimately funny (if sometimes groan-inducing). The downside here is that Dinniman hasn't quite mastered the tension and release of a smoothly-flowing plot. The battles themselves are so full of action they can drag, and the spaces between can feel empty. A lot this book is Carl MacGyvering plans and, by narrative tricks, not divulging them until a battle scene hits. There's plenty here to like though; genre fans should eat it up and ask for seconds.

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Book Bites: Listen for the Lie

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Listen for the Lie is a solidly entertaining thriller. The narrative follows amnesiac Lucy, unable to remember the night 5 years ago when she (supposedly) killed her best friend, Savannah. When a podcaster starts digging dirt, she's forced to return to her rural Texas and face the truth. Tintera does a good job of ratcheting up narrative tension without cheap twists or intentionally withholding information. Certainly, amnesia is used to its full effect here. And although the story falls deep into the small town politics of who is sleeping with who, with characters who only exist to be red herrings for a chapter, Listen for the Lie manages to to be a fun, sexy thriller.

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