A lifelong Vermont resident, Annabelle is a full-time college student who moonlights as a bookseller. Starting at Northshire in the children’s department, she has since been trained on the adult floor and switches between the two on a regular basis.
Compared to both Heathers and The Craft, Bunny was a wild ride. The Heathers comparison is quite apt, only instead of making their fellow high schoolers miserable, the Bunnies are fake woke grad students who write about womanhood as if they created the concept. As for the reference to the Craft, well just read it and find out. Samantha is just trying to get through each day and overcome her debilitating writer’s block so she will actually have a reason to graduate. Even though she spends most of her time with her friend Ava, Samantha is fascinated by the Bunnies and is quickly drawn into their whirlwind life of pastels, drugs, and a dash of the occult. This book is so mind-bending that you almost have to suspend your judgment until it’s all over, otherwise nothing will make sense. And even then it still might not make sense. Bunny is perfect for anyone into dark academia and who isn’t afraid of a bit of gore. I really, really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to Mona Awad’s next novel coming out later in 2021. ~ Reviewed by Annabelle Mackson
A finalist for both the Booker and Pulitzer prizes, A Tale for the Time Being follows Nao Yasutani, a teenage girl coping with moving back to Tokyo, a result of her family’s rapid financial decline in the Silicon Valley. Nao struggles with depression and suicidal ideation, exacerbated by her family problems and the bullying she receives in school. The only thing keeping Nao from committing suicide is her desire to document the life of her great-grandmother Jiko in her diary. The novel also follows Ruth (a self-insert of the author) as she and her husband are searching a beach in British Columbia for debris from the 2011 tsunami. Ruth finds Nao’s intact diary, and is immediately enamored with her story and fate. A Tale for the Time Being explores the similarities of these women, the Japanese stigma of suicide, and how each of them are learning to adjust to their particular situations. This book is brilliant and well worth its many accolades. ~ Reviewed by Annabelle Mackson
A Pale View of Hills follows Etsuko: a Japanese expat living in England, who is recalling the time she spent living outside of Nagasaki shortly after WWII. During this time she was married to a different man and pregnant with her first child, now deceased. Etsuko’s life in Nagasaki is a solitary one, except for her tense friendship with Sachiko, a single mother to a young daughter. The novel explores Etsuko’s memories with Sachiko, as well as establishes her as an unreliable narrator; not everything she remembers is truthful. Ishiguro beautifully details this mother’s grief and does a brilliant job of writing a story where the true meaning is just below the surface. For a debut novel, this is very strong, especially considering Ishiguro’s range as an author. ~ Reviewed by Annabelle Mackson
This book is a slap in the face you know you had coming; it might sting, but you can’t be mad at it. What else can you expect from a few hundred people living out in the boondocks of Ohio and West Virginia with booze, no money, and way too many guns? Throw in some corrupt lawmen for flavor and you’ve got yourself a party. This is a fantastic book about terrible people, and terrible things forced upon the people who aren’t. This book is for everyone, but especially those feeling a bit bored with their current reads. ~ Reviewed by Annabelle Mackson
This book hit me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Dannie is a very Type-A planner and has her five-year plan down to the last hour. But just because you’ve planned something out, doesn’t mean that it will end up that way. As someone who plans ahead as much as I can, seeing how Dannie had to navigate and cope with events outside of her control was very poignant to me. My favorite part of this novel was Dannie’s character development as well as her friendship with Bella. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves slice of life type books but is also willing to put up with a whole lot of heartbreak. ~ Reviewed by Annabelle Mackson
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