![\"Author](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650131_72_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nAmong novelist Mona Awad\u2019s prized possessions is a handmade rabbit brooch with delicate hanging daggers. It\u2019s a gift from a reader. The present was inspired by Awad\u2019s goth-tinged comic novel \u201cBunny,\u201d which has garnered a cult following on social platforms like BookTok over the last several years with readers who call themselves \u201cbunnies.\u201d Driven largely by these devoted fans, the book\u2019s sequel \u201cWe Love You, Bunny\u201d hits shelves this month in paperback, while Awad hops across the U.S. on her latest book tour.<\/p>\n
The bunnies are so enamored with Awad\u2019s horror-adjacent satires centered on academia and female friendships (and often compared to \u201cHeathers\u201d and \u201cMean Girls\u201d), they have created their own online \u2014 and offline \u2014 aesthetic universe.<\/p>\n
Their videos and artwork, spanning Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, bring the novels\u2019 surreal, \u201ccreepy-cute\u201d aesthetic to life. The fan art features moody Ivy League backdrops with bunny ears, heavy tomes, blood-red candles and saccharine doll-like fashion. It\u2019s a style ripped straight from the book\u2019s antagonists \u2014 one of whom wears a pink dress patterned with beheaded girls. Some bunnies cosplay lace-adorned, ax-wielding characters and post the images on social media, or illustrate them.<\/p>\n
Sara Ah Sing, a 30-year-old multidisciplinary artist in San Diego who considers herself a bunny, is one such illustrator. She discovered Awad\u2019s fiction when she went down a BookTube dark academia genre-themed rabbit hole. \u201cI was taken aback by how intense and vivid the descriptions were, and not only detailed, but very viscerally described \u2026 Mona Awad is not a generic prose writer,\u201d Ah Sing says.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Author Mona Awad writes and dreams up her fiction in La Jolla, where she has a second home. <\/p>\n
(Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
She recalls a protagonist called Cupcake. \u201cShe\u2019s described as a person who looks like a cupcake \u2026 something like \u2018The Children of the Corn\u2019 going to prom. And, it\u2019s like, OK, what does that mean? For an artist it begs for interpretation \u2014 and I just have to illustrate it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her imagination has been reignited with the sequel, \u201cWe Love You, Bunny.\u201d Ah Sing illustrated its tortured central character, Aerius, as a muscled romance book cover star \u2014 with a twist. \u201cInstantly when we meet him in the new book, he\u2019s described with all these delicious descriptions. He\u2019s got all these very specific tattoos that are in very specific places on his body,\u201d Ah Sing says. \u201cHe\u2019s wearing pearls and has auburn hair that covers one eye \u2014 it\u2019s like a playground for your brain reading that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Awad\u2019s vivid descriptions have led to all kinds of fan-led creations. Los Angeles-area Bookstagrammer Michelle Grondine, 40, is inked with five \u201cBunny\u201d-inspired tattoos. \u201cI have one on my inner ankle, one on my forearm, one on my collarbone, one on my lower back of a cat reading \u2018Bunny\u2019 and one on my thigh,\u201d Grondine says. Each of the tattoos varies in style, not unlike the distinct personalities in the book\u2019s fictional MFA cohort.<\/p>\n
Grondine plans to attend Awad\u2019s upcoming event<\/a> at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on Sept. 21 with her best friend, Valentina Feldstedt, who lives in Northridge. The two met online after Grondine spotted Feldstedt\u2019s \u201cBunny\u201d social posts, and they quickly bonded over their shared obsession. They have collected various editions of the series (including the Barnes & Noble-released \u201cWe Love You, Bunny,\u201d<\/a> which features a bonus chapter), gone to see Awad live several times and crafted Taylor Swift Eras tour-style friendship bracelets for fellow fans and Awad (whom they call \u201cour alpha bunny.\u201d)<\/p>\n \u201cBunny\u201d author Mona Awad\u2019s spread of her fan art and gifts in her home in La Jolla. (Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times) <\/p>\n Feldstedt, 30, has her own \u201cBunny\u201d tattoo, which she says doubles as an excuse to pitch the novel to strangers. \u201cIt\u2019s weird, but if you get it, you get it,\u201d Feldstedt says. \u201cAnd if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re not a bunny \u2014 and that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Awad says her sequel, in part, owes to bunnies like Ah Sing, Grondine and Feldstedt. \u201cWhen readers started finding it online and creating and expanding the universe of it, it gave me permission to go back to it,\u201d Awad reflects.<\/p>\n She walks around her Boston home and plucks up a fan-made crocheted rabbit toting an ax. Another fan, a nail artist, crafted spooky bespoke black and purple press-ons decorated with intricate white hares. Awad says there\u2019s a song written about the book by an indie band from western Massachusetts called the Greys<\/a>, and you can buy fan-crafted \u201cBunny\u201d merch on Etsy. <\/p>\n A poster signed by fans at Mona Awad\u2019s book signing for \u201cWe Love You, Bunny\u201d at the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n (Ariana Drehsler \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n But \u201cBunny\u201d didn\u2019t always have such a rabid fan group. In fact, when the first book was published in 2019, it received critical acclaim, but Awad was disappointed it wasn\u2019t selling as well as her previous novel, \u201c13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cI was like, well, maybe it\u2019s just a weird book,\u201d she recalls on a Zoom call in her literature-lined home. A few years later, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Awad got a call from her publisher. The book was selling, and they couldn\u2019t figure out why. \u201cIt was beginning to sell more than 1,000 copies a week, which is crazy two years after publication,\u201d she says. Around that time, BookTok and BookTube had discovered her novel. Next came the bunny ears.<\/p>\n \u201cMore and more readers were tagging me on Instagram, and they were dressed in bunny ears, or they had a bunny tattoo, or they were sharing visual art that they had made, envisioning the characters \u2014 paintings, ink drawings, cartoons, comics, so many different iterations of this \u2014 and then all of these reels and collages that were just so incredible to see,\u201d she says, pausing to emphasize her amazement. \u201cI was really startled by it. It just kind of came in this wave, and then it just grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Jane Friedman, a books industry veteran who tracks publishing news, trends and the intersection with technology in her newsletter \u201cThe Bottom Line,\u201d <\/a>says that intense literary fandoms aren\u2019t entirely new. \u201cApart from BookTok, there have always been these really obsessive fan communities,\u201d Friedman says. \u201cThe internet and social media just made it easier for them to come together, making them far more powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n Friedman emphasizes that some critics are concerned that a so-called BookTok phenomenon pushes literature toward consumerism and waters down literary quality. \u201cYou can sometimes see authors chasing a trend rather than writing what they would ordinarily write, hoping their book will go viral,\u201d Friedman says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the case here. It\u2019s probably a mix of timing, serendipity, literary quality and, you know, the stars aligning.\u201d<\/p>\n Awad was born in Montreal to a French Canadian mother and an Egyptian father. She grew up in a French-speaking family, and when her mother enrolled her in an English-speaking school, she recalls feeling like a complete outsider. It was an experience that would happen again and again \u2014 like later when her family moved to a Toronto suburb (where, of course, she had a few goth years), and again in her 30s during grad school when she earned her MFA at Brown University.<\/p>\n 1 <\/p>\n 2 <\/p>\n 3 <\/p>\n 4 <\/p>\n 5 <\/p>\n 1. Superfan Valentina Bunny lives in Northridge. (Valentina Feldstedt) 2. Madelyn Bunny hails from Kentucky. (Madelyn Chimento) 3. L.A.\u2019s Michelle Bunny has five rabbit tattoos with plans for more. (Michelle Grondine) 4. Valentina Bunny, left, and Michelle Bunny with author Mona Awad. (Michelle Grondine) 5. Chloe Bunny lives in Australia. (Chloe Bunnie) <\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of my first taste of New England, which was very, very mythical to anybody who doesn\u2019t come from there … It was disorienting in ways that I suppose were productive in retrospect, but it was hard. It was my first taste of being critiqued. It was my first experience of sharing work with others and having them talk about it with me, and it wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d she says. \u201cI mean, the whole world of the MFA felt like fodder for horror.\u201d<\/p>\n Being an outsider looking in remains a central theme across her novels, including her other critically acclaimed works, and it resonates deeply with readers. The wildly imaginative \u201cBunny,\u201d often described on TikTok as a \u201cfever dream,\u201d has been translated into 17 different languages. Awad notes that she has an especially huge readership in war-plagued Ukraine, where the book is a breakout bestseller. \u201cIt\u2019s so moving to me,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat they say is that it\u2019s a very anti-fascist book, and it\u2019s a very anti-establishment kind of book. It is about resisting the pull of the clique, finding your own ground, standing on your own ground, and being authentically yourself and embracing that.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a theme she will continue in the third Bunny book. \u201cThe minute I turned in \u2018We Love You, Bunny,\u2019 I missed the characters and the world,\u201d Awad reflects. She knew there would be another one. Although Awad has deep roots on the East Coast where she\u2019s taught university-level creative writing courses \u2014 her students perhaps not so unlike some of the MFA characters in her \u201cBunny\u201d-verse \u2014 nearly all of her books were written in Southern California, where she has a second home and plans to write her next novel. She notes that a short story<\/a> she wrote in 2025 for the New Yorker was set in the San Diego area, as was her novel \u201cRogue.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s been such a generative place for me,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve become sort of superstitious about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Her next book is taking shape as she works and dreams near the ocean. Meanwhile, her existing work is set to make waves in Hollywood. \u201cBunny\u201d is slated to be adapted into a film by J.J. Abrams\u2019 production company, Bad Robot, and was recently acquired by a major streaming service \u2014 although Awad can\u2019t disclose which one yet. She says she\u2019s been deeply involved. \u201cI feel like my vision of the book is being honored, which is really meaningful. Part of the reason that\u2019s so important to me is because I want to honor my readers\u2019 connection to it.\u201d<\/p>\n That deep bond is something Awad witnesses firsthand nearly every night on the road, where her digital fandom materializes into physical rooms filled with devoted readers (often donning rabbit ears). \u201cThe thing that moved me the most about going on tour for the hardback \u2014 and it\u2019s happening as I\u2019m on tour for the paperback too \u2014 is seeing just how many people bond over the book,\u201d Awad reflects. \u201cNot only the art that has been generated by \u2018Bunny,\u2019 but so much community and friendship has been formed. You see this kindred spirit through reading, and it\u2019s the most beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Mona Awad presents \u201cWe Love You, Bunny\u201d at Skylight Books on Sept. 21. 1818 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among novelist Mona Awad\u2019s prized possessions is a handmade rabbit brooch with delicate hanging daggers. It\u2019s a gift…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[266507,740,8659,266508,266513,21651,93,266510,61,60,266511,11915,266512,270,4911,36215,107367,266509,1962],"class_list":["post-627492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-awad","tag-book","tag-booktok","tag-bunny","tag-bunny-ear","tag-character","tag-entertainment","tag-grondine","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jane-friedman","tag-kind","tag-mona-awad","tag-movies","tag-novel","tag-reader","tag-sing","tag-valentina-feldstedt","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Bunny"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650131_258_.jpeg\")
![\""Bunny"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650132_606_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650132_832_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Superfan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650133_372_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Madelyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650133_714_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"L.A.'s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650134_636_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Valentina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650134_122_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Chloe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789650135_383_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n