A review by samdalefox
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.75

I hand on heart honest to God do not understand why people think Bora Chung's work is good. It's just not. There are plenty of much better written feminist speculative body horror short story authors, such as Catherynne M. Valente (Japanese), Yoko Ogawa (Japanese), Izumi Suzuki (Japanese), Carmen Maria Machado (American),  Kathryn Scanlan (American),  Laura van den Berg (American), Angela Carter (British), James Tiptree Jr (American), Cassandra Khaw (Malaysian). I beg people to read these authors and compare. If people are refering to the visceral grotesqueness of Chung's writing, I specifically direct you to Scanlan's 'Dominant Animals'. 

I am clearly in the minorty here but I feel Chung's work is entirely half-baked; many promising ideas are simply not developed at all. Having read both the 'Cursed Bunny' and 'Your Utopia' collections now I also see that her themes are repetitive and predictable, there were no 'twists' or 'shocks' or 'mic drops' at all. I find them utterly boring and un-interrogative. Her works add nothing new to genre. The specific analysis of Korean culture is also lacking. At first I thought perhaps it was the translation of her writing style, but having compared to translated authors Han Kang and Kim Sagwa I'm convinced the deficit comes from Chung's own limitations as an author, not the translator. 

The collection averaged at 1.75 stars. The marginally better stories for me were 'Snare' and 'Reunion'. In all instances I am not sure what I was meant to have taken away from the story. I wasn't entertained and any moral or reference to folk law or contemporary issue was vague in its commentary. I am not convinced of Chung's work and shall not be reading anything further from her.

  • The Head - 1.5⭐ Utterly predictable, what's the moral of the story, is there one?
  • The Embodiment - 2.5⭐ Visceral, disturbing, potentially a commentary on the difficulties of being a single mother?
  • Cursed Bunny - 1.5⭐ Predictable, not scary. Not intriguing, why not say more about the practice of cursed fetishes?
  • The Frozen Finger - 1⭐ Nonsensical.
  • Snare - 3⭐ Slightly better. Read like a fable or folk tale. The focus was clearly on men's entitlement to and exploitation of others, in particular women. Lost it in the second half, had potential to be better.
  • Goodbye, My Love - 2⭐ Fine. Potentially interesting but yet again, not explored enough. A sketch of a half formed idea.
  • Scars - 1⭐ Terrible. A worse version of 'The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas' by Ursula K le Guin.
  • Home Sweet Home - 1⭐ why, what was the point, barely a twist. Didn't care. Was the child killing people? Sense of comfort? 
  • Ruler of the Winds and Sands - 1⭐ Boring, barely existing point. Told not shown throughout; such lazy writing.
  • Reunion - 3⭐ Ok. Still unsurprising twist, Chung does ghosts A LOT, but I liked this reflection: "Once you experience a terrible trauma and understand the world from an extreme perspective, it is difficult to overcome this perspective"

     
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