A boiling Bunny

Bunny ★★★★
SE Tolsen
Mirari Press

This is not a cute story about bunnies. Rather, it’s a horror novel about an aunt named Bunny who is seemingly possessed by the demon drink as well as an unknown demon. It’s creepy and weird but there are dogs. Good dogs. Dogs that are saviours.

It begins in 1994 with 20-year-old Lou Lou getting ready for a date. Her six-year-old son, Silas, dressed in his dinosaur-print pyjamas, blocks the doorway, pleading for her not to go. Lou Lou is a single mother but her sister Bunny lives with her and will babysit Silas — much to his absolute terror. He knows that the mugs that Bunny and his mother continuously drink out of do not contain coffee, tea or water. It’s mostly gin. This night, however, Bunny chooses white wine.

The evening starts off pleasantly enough. Silas and Bunny are watching a rerun of Baywatch. Aunt Bunny is tickling him but the tickling quickly becomes a harsh stab between his ribs with her finger. He is bleeding. He hears whispering and falls asleep.

Seinfeld is now on. The house is dark with only flickering images of Kramer and Elaine lighting up the lounge. Suddenly Aunt Bunny is behind the TV, then on the ceiling, then running around the house taunting Silas, tearing wallpaper, howling ecstatically. He finds a hiding space under a dresser but she finds him. “‘I see you’ It’s barely a whisper. He almost doesn’t hear it. ‘I see you... I see you,’ she says, louder, clear, faster. Bunny slowly turns her head towards him. Silas glimpses a glinting blue eye through the blonde hair covering her face. ‘I see you. I see you. I see you.’ Her head turns until two eyes bore into him from across the room. They’re not her eyes: they’re the same colour and shape, but they’re not her eyes.”

Fast forward to 2018 and Silas is living in New York with his girlfriend Rose and their adorable rescue mutt Goober. Their screenplay has been sold but they have to make major changes to it. To have enough time to rewrite it they have to give up their apartment, jobs and stay with his mother in his childhood home. Silas is reluctant but he reckons it will be fine because they only need to stay there three weeks, Aunt Bunny is now living in a cabin and Goober will be able to be with them. However, his mother didn’t mention that the cabin burnt down and she and her sister have been living together, coexisting by drinking together. Co-depending with another presence.

Goober is the first one to notice the other presence in the house: “Three hours after the house goes dark, a shuffle in the hall alerts Goober. He raises his head and his ears prick up to catch the faint sound. The shuffling pauses outside the bedroom door. The silence grows heavy. Goober isn’t concerned with this shuffling thing, but there is another thing with it. His canine mind, unfettered by intellect and rich in instinct, senses the silence for what it is — a predator measuring prey. I love MomDad, he warns it as he lowers his head and creeps towards the door.”

Things go from bad to worse. Bunny is a force to be reckoned with. Goober is there to make sure he protects Rose and Silas. Can they survive the three weeks?

This is the first novel by husband and wife writing duo Emma Olsen (who was born in New Zealand and Vere Tindale (who was born in South Africa). Critics liken Bunny to Stephen King’s books and it is similar to his first works where the supernatural is often an allegory for the role that addiction plays in family dysfunction.

But there are heartwarming, light moments, especially with Goober and his “MomDad”. Olsena and Tindale write in their acknowledgment: “In many ways Goober is the heart of this story, the moral compass, the unbiased love and goodness that we are all capable of but seldom live up to. Goober brings out the best in Silas and Rose... This book is filled with horror and gore, but there is also a layer that we hope you felt, and that is (in part) a love story showcasing the bond between man and dog. We are convinced that animals are the one true form of magic that is left in this world, and meeting these two dogs has only further solidified that belief. A good part of this book, possibly the most significant part, is a tribute to rescue dogs.”

It is a proper horror and there are scenes that can be disturbing. So reader beware.