BookBunnies

Marshmallow reviews Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Today Marshmallow reviews Dear Debbie, a psychological thriller by Frieda McFadden published in 2026.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like books about murder, revenge, and vigilante justice, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Debbie Mullen might seem like a happy, contented housewife, but she has secrets far beyond what meets the eye. Like most mothers of teenagers, she is struggling to keep communication open with her two daughters, Lexi and Izzy. Lexi is a brilliant honors student senior but her boyfriend Zane is basically a stereotypical jerk. He is exactly the type of person that every parent hopes their child stays away from. So that is a bit of an issue for Debbie, as Lexi is determined to keep on seeing Zane and keep Debbie out of her life. Izzy is not as stereotypically rebellious, but she is silently hiding her problems from her parents too. Since she started playing soccer at a young age and she loves the sport with all her heart, Izzy has become one of the best players on her school’s team. Naturally, it is a bit of a shock for Debbie to learn that Izzy was kicked off the team (or possibly quit, though Izzy won’t tell her which). All of this chaos coincides with Debbie being fired from her part-time job at the local newspaper where she runs an advice column called ‘Dear Debbie’ (hence the name of the book!) Frankly, she is not having a good time.

This was not the life Debbie had imagined for herself when she was younger. With an IQ of 178 and an acceptance to MIT, she was told she would be the next Bill Gates. Unfortunately, she dropped out around halfway through for reasons she keeps hidden from everyone around her. Now, Debbie loves her family but feels under stimulated and underestimated. She keeps herself busy by maintaining an immaculate house and a lush garden, building apps every now and then, and keeping her family safe. She developed one app named Findly that allows her to track her family members (with their consent, of course, and in turn they can track her whereabouts at all times). That is how she learns that her husband is acting strange, “driving” around at night and turning off his location sharing for long periods of time. This is a cause for concern, but she also has other things to worry about, specifically, other people who she feels need to be brought to justice.

Debbie keeps a file on her laptop of secret Dear Debbie responses she wrote but never sent because they all ended with her advising the reader to take matters into their own hands in often violent ways. She decides to take her own advice and becomes somewhat of a housewife from hell. You’ll be surprised by how layered her plans are because nothing she does is unintentional.

Marshmallow is reading Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden. — Marshmallow is reading *Dear Debbie* by Freida McFadden.

Marshmallow’s Review: Whatever you think about Dear Debbie, it is definitely a very impressive storytelling job. I did not see the main plot twist coming at all. I saw some of the others, but not the main one! I was shocked by how everything ended up being neatly tied together. Some of it felt a tiny bit like a stretch, but it was overall extremely impressive. Frieda McFadden seems to write a lot of this type of book, with “shocking central plot twists”, and I can tell that she has gotten very very good at it.

I enjoyed reading Dear Debbie and found its plot to be stimulating; it kept you constantly guessing at what was to come. I also liked how the story was told from several different perspectives and how that style ended up concealing certain key parts that were revealed at the end in a rather fantastic manner. Debbie is a bit of a psychological case study though. She is extremely good at managing her emotions on the surface but creates karma in secret in ways that are definitely illegal.

I would like to suggest that thrillers like this may have normalized murder a bit. And this is the first book I have read written from a murderer’s perspective, so I found it very disturbing. I did not like how simply and matter-of-factly she pulled the trigger(s). I don’t think bunnies younger than fourteen should be exposed to such a blase take on death. That said, it was a good book though. The writing is very fresh and entertaining, and the characters are all created in a very well thought out way. Some are very clearly designed to be hated and they definitely do make you feel as such. All others are made to be understood as three dimensional individuals with deep nuance.

Debbie herself has a story that is slowly peeled open to show her deep seated trauma and pain. It is revealed towards the end of the book (SPOILER!!!) that she was sexually assaulted as a college student, leading to her festering anger and eventual exit from MIT. This makes Dear Debbie suddenly hold much more weight than the average psychological thriller because she represents the extremes of what can happen when a mostly normal person is pushed to the limits of what is humanly endurable.

Reading Dear Debbie is entertaining of course. But I would also recommend reading this book as a way to think about and discover the darker parts of human nature and self control. When you read about Debbie’s own sense of justice, it makes you investigate your own with more focus. I don’t think everyone she punished deserved exactly what they got, but it was definitely a book that makes you understand why hurt people hurt people. The cycle of pain is one of the most tragic parts (if not the most tragic part) of the human experience and condition. Reading books like this one makes you realize just how ingrained that process is. Only when we read and recognize such a pattern can we acknowledge its existence and work to make a truer, better form of justice based on rehabilitation and the prevention of pain in the first place. In an imperfect world like our own, Debbie’s definition of karma is naturally understandable. I just hope that one day the cycle of pain and ‘justice’ becomes something we only read about in books like this.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 98%.

Marshmallow rates Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden 98%. — Marshmallow rates *Dear Debbie* by Freida McFadden 98%.

Caramel reviews Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian “Box” Brown

Today Caramel reviews Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian “Box” Brown, first published in 2016. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: Today we are talking about a graphic novel about my favorite computer game, the one and only, the classic: Tetris!

Caramel: Yay! This is, as you said, a comic book about Tetris and how it rose to popularity.

S: So it is not quite fiction then, right?

C: No, it’s more so a fictionalization of a real event, like the movie Oppenheimer.

S: That makes sense. I am very excited that you read this book because I really like Tetris. But I also am curious about the whole phenomenon it became. It was everywhere and people were almost addicted to it for a while.

C: Yeah, this comic book explains all of that. It is interesting to me because, you know, there are a lot of games today. It seems like when Tetris came out, it was a huge deal partially because there weren’t as many big games.

S: Now that’s not quite true, there were other video games, but I think it is probably true that Tetris is a class of its own. It was so popular and it just took over.

C: And it is such a simple idea. Blocks falling down and you are trying to place them in empty spaces just the right way so the pile won’t get too big.

S: Isn’t it interesting that my favorite computer game and yours both have blocks?

C: True, but my favorite game may have slightly better resolution.

S: Well, Tetris did not really need much resolution really. But you are right of course, Minecraft is so much more visually detailed, and of course you can build so many different things with blocks in Minecraft. It is a lot more sophisticated. But you know, that was part of the appeal of Tetris. It is so basic, so simple, but it is also very challenging.

C: True. It can get really hard. Especially when it gets faster and faster.

S: Yup. So tell me a bit more about the book.

C: The book starts with a strange scene about humans and play and art and entertainment. And about why people play. There are many pages about early games people played, and art about games and how games might be related to art too. Then there are a few pages about the founding of the Japanese company Nintendo. And we get into computer games eventually. But we do meet the coder who built Tetris very early on. It was a Russian programmer named Alexey Pajitnov. He thought about how when he was a little kid, he used to play with pentominoes, which are shapes made of five squares, and how it was difficult to place them in a box when he was done playing with them. Then eventually we get back to him, and we follow him through his life, as he develops and shares Tetris with the rest of the world. He moves to the United States and the game gets even more popular.

S: That sounds interesting! Quite a crash course in the history of games!

Caramel is reading Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian "Box" Brown. — Caramel is reading *Tetris: The Games People Play* by Brian “Box” Brown.

S: Did you learn anything new from the book then?

C: Well, basically everything! I knew about the game, I have seen you play it even, but I didn’t know much else about it. I also did not know that other people liked the game as much as you do. It apparently became a really big deal. People started seeing Tetris tiles everywhere even when they were not playing and so on.

S: But I bet you can sympathize. Have you ever looked around you after playing Minecraft for a while and seeing cubic blocky things?

C: No! Because I am a normal bunny.

S: Well, hmm, that is interesting. Maybe the blocks in Minecraft are too different, there are too many different distinct shapes to make your brain go wacky like that.

C: Or … maybe I have never played Minecraft for too long. Maybe I should play more to see if I get to see things as Minecraft blocks?

S: Hmm, I don’t like that idea.

C: Oh, too bad. Because I really did like it.

S: Sure you did. Okay, let’s get back to the book. What did you think of the color scheme of the book?

C: It’s all black and white and yellow, yet the art is still detailed. It is really interesting. The game itself has a lot of color, though they are the main primary colors, but the author chose only these colors. I wonder why.

S: Yeah, that is an interesting observation, Caramel. The yellow adds color but also is not distracting. Maybe the Tetris colors would be a bit too distracting.

C: Maybe. The story was interesting though I was not expecting to learn about the games ancient Egyptians played when I began reading. I thought it would be only about Tetris.

S: But the book also has a subtitle.

C: True. The subtitle is “The Games People Play”. So I guess it makes sense that there could be more general stuff about games.

S: That part reminds me a bit of another book I read recently called Around the World in Eighty Games. I even reviewed it for a math journal.

C: That book looks interesting too. I bet it has a lot of games I don’t know about.

S: Well, you can borrow it whenever you like. I still have a copy.

C: Maybe I will.

S: Okay, Caramel, this seems to me like a good place to wrap up this review. It is after all a school night, again.

C: Yep.

S: What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Tetris: The Games People Play by Brian "Box" Brown and continues to wonder if it can provide him with any justification for more Minecraft time. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Tetris: The Games People Play* by Brian “Box” Brown and continues to wonder if it can provide him with any justification for more Minecraft time.

Marshmallow reviews The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Today Marshmallow reviews a classic, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, originally published in 1925.

Marshmallow’s Quick Take: If you like reading celebrated classics, then this is the book for you!

Marshmallow’s Summary (with Spoilers): Nick Carraway is a man from the Midwest who came to New York City to work in the bond business. Living in West Egg (a peninsula home to the newly rich), Nick regularly visits his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, both of whom reside in East Egg (the peninsula across the water from West Egg where the wealthy, “old money” families live). As an outsider to the East Coast’s culture, he views himself as an honest, open-minded man with a perspective free of bias and judgement. His next door neighbor is a mysterious man who remains shadowed in uncertainty though.

This man is the titular Gatsby. He hosts extravagant parties with hundreds of guests, many of whom aren’t invited to be there but show up nonetheless. His house is beautiful, hinting unsubtly at how great his wealth must be. His origins are the focus of much speculation, but–because nobody is particularly close to him–no one is really able to discern much. Gatsby is somewhat like the Wizard of Oz: idolized in a distant, cryptic way with an impenetrable past but a present power that seems to know no bounds.

As Nick eventually gets closer to this new neighbor, he learns that there are indeed limits to his powers. Gatsby is infatuated with Daisy Buchanan, whose house is just alluringly across the water from his own. They had a passionate romance five years ago, but she agreed to marry Tom while Gatsby was at Oxford after the first World War. In a way, this reveals a tinge of superficiality within her. Yet, she is still as perfect as ever for Gatsby, who views her as the pinnacle of womanhood, grace, charm, beauty, wealth, and achievement. He wants nothing more than for her to openly declare to Tom that she never loved him. After all, Tom is busy having an affair with a middle-to-lower class woman in the “Valley of Ashes” (a much less wealthy part of the city).

Amidst this chaotic mess, Nick positions himself as the objective narrator watching the ideals of America degrade in the lap of luxury. Regarded as “the great American novel,” The Great Gatsby similarly casts itself as the defining text of its era, quietly revealing the reality of the 1920s Jazz Age and how America reached both new heights and horrific lows during that unforgettable time.

Marshmallow is reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. — Marshmallow is reading *The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Marshmallow’s Review: This is perhaps one of the best classics to read for younger bunnies. Even though it was written a whole century ago, I found the style to be the most comprehensible and understandable from the very start. Fitzgerald has a very clear style of prose and surprisingly lacks the extravagant descriptions that often characterize most ‘great works’ of literature. This was both a blessing and a curse in a way. I liked how pleasant it felt to understand the language of this book so easily, but it definitely left more to the imagination than most books. I suppose that might have been better in the long run though because I still had a very abstract yet meaningful image of the setting within my head by the end of the book.

Of course, the setting and time period are undeniably discernible from the dialogue and character behavior; certain characters (e.g. Tom Buchanan, Nick Carraway) describe events and people in ways that are not acceptable today. However, if one is mindful, this is not a major distraction; I find it interesting though how this reveals imperfections in Fitzgerald’s prose, much like how Carraway’s narration is frequently brought into question by literary critics. The main focus of the book is on examining America during that period and specifically within the context of the American Dream. And today, a century later, there are still a lot of things this book can tell us about the United States.

There are so many wonderful, online resources that go into a heartening level of detail and depth. Reading this book slowly is definitely a must; reading it slowly and then checking in with what others have synthesized from it is even better! Each of the characters have such depth and nuance, gently accumulated over the years through different perspectives and lenses. I personally doubt that Fitzgerald intended for everything to be viewed the way it has been. While I think the claim that Nick is gay might have merit, for example, I cannot confirm 100% that Fitzgerald meant for him to be so. Other interpretations (such as the common claim that Daisy represents the allure of wealth, Nick Carraway serves to contrast Midwestern ideals with the supposedly morally bankrupt East, etc.) are similarly interesting and worth investigating. Such research after or during the reading of this book is imperative, and I feel doing this deeper dive has expanded my understanding and appreciation of this book in more than one dimension.

Overall, I really enjoyed unfolding different aspects of this book. Even though it is quite a short book (taking up less than two hundred pages in the edition I read), the sheer amount of detail and depth there is to uncover is a joy in its own right. It might take some time, but it is worth it.

I would recommend The Great Gatsby to almost everyone; it lacks the sexual content, confusing verbiage, and obfuscatory abstractness that often bars youth and the general public from enjoying what is deemed as great literature. With The Great Gatsby, the only thing that determines your ability to appreciate the first “American novel” is your willingness to.

Marshmallow’s Rating: 100%.

Marshmallow rates The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 100%. — Marshmallow rates *The Great Gatsby* by F. Scott Fitzgerald 100%.

Caramel reviews Max, a Little Axolotl by Joey Spiotto

Today Caramel reviews a cute book by Joey Spiotto, Max, a Little Axolotl, published first in 2025. As usual Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, this book must have been a great find for you, because you love axolotls, right?

Caramel: Yeah, it was and I do.

S: So tell me a bit about it then.

C: So in the beginning Max, who is, as stated by the title, a little axolotl, is living in a lake in Mexico when all of a sudden, humans show up and start polluting and ruining the environment. Then a human captures Max and puts him in a little tank, then takes him to an aquarium, called the Aquarium of the Bay. There, there are other water animals. And Max makes friends.

S: Cool story!

C: Yeah! The other animals in the aquarium try to play a ball game with Max, but he doesn’t know how to play the game. They lose the ball in a cave, in which they believe there to be a sea monster.

S: Ooh, so that sounds exciting! I am guessing nothing too terrible happens though, I mean other than Max’s original home being polluted…

C: Yeah, what they think is a sea monster is just—-

S: Ooh, let us not give away all the details!

C: Okay, I guess that makes sense.

S: Did you know that Lake Xochimilco actually exists? Wikipedia says that it is the last remaining natural habitat of the axolotl.

C: No, I didn’t. But that’s really sad.

S: Yes. There are a lot of endangered animals out there. It is really sad.

C: And axolotls are so cute! And my other favorite animals, the pangolin, are also endangered. It is just not fair. Why are all the cute animals, other than us, of course, endangered?

S: I don’t know. But of course, even if they were not cute, it would be sad, right?

C: Yes, of course, but it does seem to be most of the cute ones, just saying.

Caramel is reading Max, a Little Axolotl by Joey Spiotto. — Caramel is reading *Max, a Little Axolotl* by Joey Spiotto.

S: So what did you think of the drawings of the book?

C: They were all very cute and very very colorful.

S: Somehow I was reminded of some of your other favorite books in this genre. I am thinking of the Narwhal and Jelly books. The pictures are cute, the characters are water-based animals who are friends, and there are also some facts in the book, too.

C: Yeah, I can see that! But this one has more kawaii aspects, like the artist gave Max shiny big eyes and colorful spots and such, whereas Narwhal and Jelly don’t have such things; they are in some ways more simple.

S: Yeah, I see what you mean. What did you think of the facts at the end?

C: They were actually very informative.

S: I liked how he titled that section “Facts-olotl”..

C: Yeah, me too. It was funny! The title is also funny that way. I mean, try saying “Max a Little Axolotl”. It rhymes!

S: Yes! I had not noticed that! How cool is that?

C: Very.

S: Okay, so did you learn anything new? Because I know you already know a lot about a lot of things.

C: Yeah, I did. In fact, did you know that axolotls are actually amphibious, meaning they could live on land, but they spend their whole lives underwater?

S: That is so weird! And no, I did not know that. Thank you for teaching me Caramel.

C: You’re welcome!

S: Okay, so this might be a good time to end this review. What would you like to tell our readers Caramel?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel enjoyed reading Max, a Little Axolotl by Joey Spiotto and recommends this to other young bunnies who love animals. — Caramel enjoyed reading *Max, a Little Axolotl* by Joey Spiotto and recommends this to other young bunnies who love animals.