But then again, that goes without saying. Snare is probably one of the most gory and disturbing stories in this entire collection, which is why it’s one of my favorites. Various mental health and societal issues are addressed within these stories if you pay attention closely, and it’s important that we understand the message the Bora Chung portrays in each one. The man’s business did extremely well, and his daughter, with her pale face, continued to be locked away in a dark room. That is the kind of father that exists in this story, and it’s deeply unsettling as you continue to read. Imagine feeding your own daughter to your son because the latter bleeds gold and it would catapult your name into the spotlight. I really liked the way the story is written and the entire idea behind cursed fetishes meant for harm.Īs for Snare, it tells the story of greed at its finest. The plot twist that involves the narrator is the cherry on top for me. The title story Cursed Bunny has an interesting premise where a lamp in the shape of a bunny is sent to a person as an act of revenge, causing damage to his bloodline instead of him due to his own ignorance. Out of the 10 stories, the top 3 that stood out to me the most were Cursed Bunny, Snare, and Reunion. It’s like when you read a children’s book and there’s a “moral of the story” section on the last page trying to teach you a lesson. To me, they feel very lessons-driven as they address the issues that we deal with in reality nowadays.

So I was a little bit disappointed when most of the stories are only mildly unsettling. That doesn’t mean that the latter stories are bad or anything, they are just simply not my taste compared to the ones I enjoyed reading more.īefore I started reading, I had this picture painted in my head by people who have already read the book, saying that the stories are disturbing and gory. Just like any other short story compilation or anthology, there were stories that captivated me and others that did not. This book kind of put me in a reading slump for about two weeks. When we make our cursed fetishes, it’s important that they’re pretty. Blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science-fiction, Chung uses elements of the fantastic and surreal to address the very real horrors and cruelties of patriarchy and capitalism in modern society.Īnton Hur’s translation skilfully captures the way Chung’s prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous. Title: Cursed Bunny Author: Bora Chung Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Sci-Fi My Rating: ★ ★ ★ SynopsisĬursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung.

Cursed bunny book review