You're Really Into Bunny Desserts

Or want a book with "Promising Young Woman" vibes

Mar 29, 2021

Hi friends,

I’m currently knee deep in boxes and newspaper, as I deal with all the last-minute logistics for my move tomorrow. Kathleen Barber kindly agreed to substitute for me this week and she has three fantastic recommendations for you.

Kathleen is a former attorney, incurable wanderer, and yoga enthusiast. Originally from Galesburg, Illinois, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her family. (We’ve only met on the internet and I’m hoping post-pandemic we’ll be able to meet in person.)

Kathleen’s first novel, Truth Be Told, a twisty thriller, was adapted for Apple TV+ by Reese Witherspoon, in a show that stars Octavia Spencer and Aaron Paul. Her second novel, Follow Me, is a propulsive examination of the social media age. I highly recommend both.

I’ll be back next week with recommendations and a Q&A featuring Ashley Holstrom, who lays out and type sets books.

And, now what to read if..

You’re Hoarding Chocolate Bunnies in Advance of Easter

Bunny by Mona Awad

Let’s say that you love the movie “Heathers” but thought to yourself, I want this to be weirder and darker and more feminist. Allow me to introduce you to Bunny. Easily one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, it’s also one of my most recommended reads.

The story is set in an intensely competitive writing program, where our protagonist Samantha is in a cohort with a clique of girls all named Bunny. The Bunnies are outrageous characters—Regina George’s Plastics dialed up to ten, and darker—and Samantha initially steers clear of them. But when they invite her to their exclusive, so-called “Smut Salon” to “workshop” with them, and Samantha sees what they’re really workshopping … well, I don’t want to give anything away, but let me just say that the book takes a hard left in the direction of “American Horror Story: Coven.”

Wild plot aside, one of my favorite things about Bunny is the writing — it’s gorgeous and unique, and I was constantly underlining passages to reread later. You’ll never look at bunnies the same way.

You Prefer Your Bunnies Made Out of Cake

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett

Rabbit Cake is a difficult book to categorize. With its cheery title and cute cover (bright yellow with pink lettering and a cuddly cartoon bunny), you might pick it up thinking it’s a light, humorous read.But then you learn it’s about twelve-year-old Elvis processing her mother’s untimely death, and the way her remaining family falls apart with grief. Perhaps it’s a sad book, you think, or at least a serious one.

In fact, it’s all of the above: Sad, in parts, but also hopeful and quirky and very often funny. Elvis is a delightful narrator, and she navigates her unenviable circumstances — a mother whose drowning she worries was intentional; a troubled, sleepwalking sister; and a father who copes by wearing his dead wife’s robe—the best way she knows how.

It’s one of those books you’ll be thinking about long after you finish … and also a book that will make you crave cake, preferably rabbit-shaped cake, just like Elvis’s mother used to bake.

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“Promising Young Woman” Made You Crave a Feminist Revenge Story

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

They Never Learn is a wild ride, from start to finish.

Lest you think it’s like anything else you’ve ever read, it opens with one of its point-of-view characters, Scarlett, a well-respected university professor, murdering a frat boy in cold blood. You quickly learn that said frat boy is just the latest in a string of terrible men Scarlett has murdered on campus. She’s thus far disguised the deaths as accidents or other non-homicides, but her current target threatens to throw a wrench in things. Meanwhile, freshman Carly plots revenge against a fellow student who sexually assaulted her best friend.

I’ve been a fan of Layne Fargo’s since her first book, Temper, which hooked me with its intense characters and no-holds-barred plot, and They Never Learn is all that and more. It is dark and shocking and simmering with feminist rage, and I loved it so much.

Have you read any of these? What did you think?

What To Read If