Cursed Bunny: Shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize

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Few story collections greet their reader with an introductory sequence as disarmingly gross as the one in “Cursed Bunny.” “The Head” begins: A story about robot helpers Goodbye, My Love immediately reminded me of similar A.I inspired by stories by Ted Chang or Kazuo Ishiguro Fables of frightening moral clarity told in calm, bell-like prose, Cursed Bunnyaims to unsettle. It's as assured and brilliant as a nightmare. With an unflinching gaze and a sly humor, Chung has built a world both unfamiliar and eerily familiar, whose truths echo into our own. The indelible work of a master.” Equally horrific is Snare, a fable-like narrative playing on Aesop’s The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. A man finds an injured fox that bleeds gold, and instead of freeing it, keeps it alive but constantly wounded and bleeding, so he can profit from its pain. Generational curses abound once again, and the man is forced to repeat his evils with his own loved ones, and so the pattern continues.

If you were the kind of child who was enthralled by Scary Stories to Read in the Dark, Bora Chung writes for you. Like the work of Carmen Maria Machado and Aoko Matsuda, Chung’s stories are so wonderfully, blisteringly strange and powerful that it's almost impossible to put Cursed Bunnydown. In short, this collection may, in fact, be a cursed object in the best possible way.” Cursed Bunny is a creepy good time with something for everyone if only you dare to enter Bora Chung’s nightmares. For those curious, her award winning story The Head can be read here. These sharp social critiques and eerie stories are so well balanced and so much fun, I certainly will be thinking about them for a long time to come. Especially on dark and stormy nights… The first two stories will grab your attention and probably determine if you set the book aside or not. The first is about a haunted toilet ( The Head ) Male power is a consistent theme in Chung’s stories. Powerful men – both those born powerful, and those who become so – will stop at nothing to retain that power. In the twisted fairy tale Snare, a man finds a fox caught in a trap. The fox bleeds gold, so the man takes her home to make his fortune. Arguably the most disturbing of all the stories, Snare persists down a dark path of blood-drinking, child abuse, and incest, leading to a visceral end. The story leans heavily again on the abuse and dismissal of women (the fox begs for mercy in a woman’s voice then never speaks again). However, Chung also explores the effect such behaviours have on other men. In the title story, a CEO, cursed by the vengeful friend of a man once crossed, is concerned only with success and lineage; a hospitalised son is ‘worthless’ to him. Bora Chung was born in 1976, in Seoul. [1] Her parents were dentists. [2] She completed graduate studies in Russian and East European area studies at Yale University, then went on to gain a PhD in Slavic literature from Indiana University. [1] [3] She taught the Russian language, literature and science fiction studies at Yonsei University. [1] [4] She is a social activist. [4]Bora Chung's Cursed Bunnymines those places where what we fear is true and what is true meet and separate and re-meet. The resulting stories are indelible. Haunting, funny, gross, terrifying—and yet when we reach the end, we just want more." These Slavic influences are ripe within Cursed Bunny, but more on that later. What also drew me into this book specifically was the cover: it screams danger and as if something were to leap out of you from some surreal dreamscape. BOOK REVIEW: PEOPLE WHO TALK TO STUFFED ANIMALS ARE NICE (JUNE 2023) BY AO OMAE – SHARED EXPERIENCES OF ESTRANGED MODERN YOUTH

a b c d e Hong, Beth Eunhee (2022-03-30). "[Herald Interview] 'Cursed Bunny' author Bora Chung on writing from the margins". The Korea Herald . Retrieved 2022-05-25.Book Genre: Adult, Anthologies, Asia, Asian Literature, Cultural, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Magical Realism, Science Fiction, Short Stories Home Sweet Home (즐거운 나의 집) beings with a dispute about property tax between a young couple who own a small mixed-used building and one of their tenants, owners of a blood-sausage stew (순대국집) restaurant. But the building, which they were sold at a 복덕방, an old fashioned term for an estate-agent’s office which Hur romanises as bokdeokbang and also translates literally as fortune gainer, has secrets of its own. An assorted collection of short stories by Bora Chung. The cover was enough reason for me to jump into it. Some really nice finds, some not. My toilet is no longer the safe place I once knew, and I’m never touching a bunny lamp no matter what. A great start with some really outstanding stories, the momentum gradually diminishing until by the end I was just eager to finish to move on. To return to Chung; I couldn't help but ask is she also relying on the wow factor - to gain attention and notoriety? Her work is described as innovative, genre defying, an exuberant mix of styles - but IS IT ART?

At their best, though, these stories use a vocabulary of the grotesque to articulate truths about female bodies, living in a patriarchy, and the brutal vampiric logic of capitalism. Surprisingly, there's little sense of place in these tales which could pretty much happen anywhere - except, ironically, the last one located in Poland. While the stories in Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung blend elements of horror, fantasy and the surreal, each is viscerally rooted in the real fears and pressures of everyday life.”The stories then moved towards heavier, somewhat sadder dark fantasy territory. I am not a great fan of fantasy or fairy tales and that was prevalent in the longer writings of “Ruler of the Winds and Sands”, “Snare” or “Scars” which can teach much about the exploitative nature of humans. There’s even some good science fiction hidden in the scary folds of AI brains. The idea of women not being fully in control of their bodies is repeated in other stories too, particular in The Embodiment, in which a young woman is surprised to find herself pregnant after using too much birth control, and is then continuously told by health care providers that the baby will not be ‘a normal child’ unless she finds a father for it. The story is also a comment on single motherhood and the constant societal pressure and judgment women face when it comes to their bodies, and their personal choices, and the grief of losing yourself in the midst of these pressures. The first Korean speculative fiction to be longlisted for the Booker Prize, Cursed Bunny was first published by a tiny independent Korean publisher specializing in SF and then the English translation was published by a tiny independent British publisher and I am so very proud of Arzak and Honford Star. And I am eternally grateful to Anton Hur for all his efforts and achievements.

Una variada colección de cuentos cortos por Bora Chung. La portada fue suficiente razón para aventurarme. Algunos muy lindos hallazgos, otros no tanto. El inodoro ya no es el lugar seguro que alguna vez conocí, y nunca voy a tocar una lámpara con forma de conejo, no importa qué. Un gran comienzo con unas verdaderamente sobresalientes historias, el impulso gradualmente disminuyendo hasta que para el final solo deseaba terminar para seguir con otra cosa. Chung debuts with a well-crafted and horrifying collection of dark fairy tales, stark revenge fables, and disturbing body horror. Clever plot twists and sparkling prose abound. Chung’s work is captivating and terrifying.” Now there are ten stories in this collection, but I’m not going to discuss all of them in this review—that’s something for another time. I’m going to focus in and pinpoint the stories I found most interesting and had values I could take away with, so let us delve a bit deeper, shall we?

If I’m being vague about these stories it is because they are best read with no idea what is coming. Each takes a surprising turn that is less a twist-ending and more a natural and well-earned sudden shift in perspective or revealed information that makes you feel like the floor has dropped out from under you. This book gave me chills several times as well as made me rather uncomfortable in ways that truly capture the power of a well-written story. Godammnit! I liked this one. It's about greed and how everything has a price. I was gasping at the twists in this short story. Many of these stories end with a descent into darkness or the unknown. Sometimes that’s frightening and sometimes it is a hint of something more positive to come. Just as in life, Cursed Bunny’s stories are unexpected, with both rewards and horrors to be found – sometimes at the same time. She got angry. “I never gave the likes of you permission to live in my toilet. I never even created the likes of you in the first place, so stop calling me your mother. Leave before I call the exterminators.”