BUNNY ROOM [2025] By Oscar Brady
My Review 3.0 Stars
This novel was nominated for Group Book Read on Splatterpunk Horror Book Club in August 2025. It was unsuccessful in securing sufficient votes to be competitive. However, upon reading the Book Description I noted the cannibalism theme and felt it would be a perfect selection for a Buddy Read with a good friend of mine.
This book is written by a new-to-me author, and I am aware that this novel was not his first, but other than that I know nothing about Brady, who calls Virginia home. Secondly, I would like to lodge still another irritation with the party responsible for the genre designations. It is labeled “Erotic Horror”, and I almost spit out what I was drinking and no! it was not booze. I want to be honest. This is defined as sensual or sexual imagery which are blended with horrific overtones or story elements for the purpose of sexual arousal. I buy a LOT from Amazon, so I probably notice their cavalier disregard for correctly designating a genre for their readers more than others.
For readers who have NOT read this book I will clue you in on the correct genre designation. It is the Sub-Genre: Extreme Horror, Full Stop. Most of the time I use the terms “Extreme Horror/Splatterpunk” together but they most assuredly are different. Splatterpunk has a message and contains extreme horror. “Extreme Horror, Full Stop” designates “Extreme Horror” (with no message or plot, just gore, violence, torture, etc.)
I am not prepared to flatly declare that I have not (or will not ever) read and/or enjoy an “Extreme Horror, Full Stop” novel. “Bunny Room” was problematic for me not only because it was non-stop sadistic torture, but because the author did not make the effort (or did not know) that it was important to some readers that things that happen should be plausible. It is irritating or sometimes funny when I read something that is simply not believable. It would require more than for me to “suspend disbelief” I would need a frontal lobotomy.
Everyone has seen the movie “Big Driver” by Stephen King, right? We have watched it at least six or seven times. Anyway, the female protagonist is a writer, and she drives alone to a town where she has been invited to host her most recent hardback mystery. She is ready to pull out and leave when the President of her fan club (middle aged woman) assists her to plug in a shorter scenic route home and eliminate that nasty freeway drive. Tess is just driving along and suddenly by this run down gas station her tire blows. Planks with large nails are driven through them are strung across the roadway. So, this is similar to causing a car or van to break down in a specific spot so the bad guys can approach it and con the passengers.
There is this family of cannibals. They do not have to abduct folks and then imprison them, starve them, dehydrate them, torture and mutilate them, sexually violate them, and of course eat body parts. Oh, no. Granddaddy has money to burn, lots of land, and plenty of money to spend at the grocery store for groceries. His granddaughter is young and really wants a baby to raise as her own. She has a sadistic vicious streak but mostly follows Grandaddy’s orders. The third member of the family unit is a large man, huge as a lumberjack, and mentally disabled.
They acquire four (4) prisoners, oops! “bunnies”, more than enough for the winter. I will reveal no details due to potential spoilers. There is also a cheerful anecdote shared by the horny teenage cannibal about a “whole family of bunnies” they had kept captive for a long while carving pieces off the parents and “little kid bunny”.
So okay, the author was so focused on writing excellent extreme horror, much of it original I must say, that he sloughed when it came to making outcomes believable. I can’t go into much detail but implausibility in this book KILLED me! Okay, here’s one. Does anyone believe that a man who is half dead (dehydrated, starved, already chronically ill and weak) could endure having his entire array of genitals torn off by a strong set of teeth and eaten, leaving blood flowing from the open areas with no first aid…and be alive the next day with a whole new lease on life? This is utterly insulting narrative written here. He didn’t need his penis and testicles; they only got him in trouble anyway. Yeah, that is what I would think after being neutered.
I do have a few positive points to share. First, I know that there are many readers who enjoy extreme horror, full stop. This book was one which did not hold back on descriptive prose that made me cringe. I also recognized that I was actually sick in my stomach in one instance. Gag-worthy is the right word. Neither “Exquisite Corpse” nor “Child of God” made my gorge rise (well that is not entirely true since McCarthy’s writing style made me turn green with nausea more than once). The extreme horror was OTT, imaginative in my opinion, and hellishly effective in “Bunny Room” sans plot.
There were no satisfying plot twists at the end. Potential included the family discovering the victim they just dined on was terminal and infected with CJD [Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease]. Other animal prion diseases are being monitored in the US. This is similar to an episode of X-Files and was also a sublime trick they pulled on the Termites who were eating one of the good guys [Bob] at a nice fireside chat. He informed them he had been “bitten” only after they had been gleefully eating him [TWD]. Second, modify the plot so that the one victim’s spouse at home somehow tries to locate her and gets nabbed by the cannibals. Ideally accompanied by the cheating spouse’s lover. The author could have thrown the poor reader a bone and let those two get captured and tortured since they sure deserved it.
Finally, I am thrilled that my Buddy Reader didn’t take out a Contract on me here in the States. She is one who appreciates and enjoys Extreme Horror, Full Stop. Thank goodness. I was shaking in my boots since I am the one who chose it.
“BUNNY ROOM” DIDN’T CHECK ALL THE BOXES FOR ME