Review: Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
Cursed Bunny
by Bora Chung
translated by Anton Hur
Publish Date: July 15, 2021 (first published 2017)
Kindle Edition
187 Pages
Standalone
Genres: Short Story Collection, Horror, Sci-Fi, Magical Realism
Cursed Bunny is a genre-defying collection of short stories by Korean author Bora Chung. 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.
My Review:
I have gone from not wanting to read any anthologies/short story collections to saying f*ck it, let's do this sh*t. I can't remember which Bookstagrammer posted about this but it caught my attention and I just HAD to get it... even if I did swear off all things *BUNNY* a while back. 🙄 But alas, here I am and even better that I get to support a Korean author! Full transparency, I had no idea this was a short story collection until I started reading it. 😄
The opening story was NOT what I was expecting and I instantly knew this was going to be a quite unique collection and then story after story after story, I was mesmerized... even in the ones that I didn't like as much as the others (as often happens in collections/anthologies). And I LOVE that Chung brings us a mix of genres: horror, sci-fi, magical realism.... YES PLEASE. But each story, whether horrific or fable-like, holds a lesson to be learned. I believe Embodiment was my favorite in this collection - and this particular story expresses the stigma around unwed mothers. I honestly can't stop thinking about this one, y'all.
Throughout the stories, I definitely had that Korean feeling of "han", which is hard to describe but touches on resentment and rage. Consider Parasite and Squid Game in terms of social commentary and that is basically what is sprinkled throughout this entire read.
Turns out, I was right, some people really are pieces of shit. #iykyk 💩
And I'll leave you with this: "Once you experience a terrible trauma and understand the world from an extreme perspective, it is difficult to overcome this perspective. Because your very survival depens on it."
★★★★
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