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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
Las premisas de estos cuentos que navegan entre el terror clásico y el horror social me interesaron mucho, pero la sobre explicación constante y el tufo de moraleja de cuento de fantasía en el desarrollo de los textos me desanimó. No sé si la traducción agrega un tono entre moralista e infantil, o es que es un libro enfocado en lo que llaman el "young adult", pero la potencia de las historias se consumía en frases que justificaban comportamientos, sucesos o presencias.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
first few stories were strong just for the rest to fall a little flat for me
Aunque algunos cuentos son más poderosos que otros, se aprecia la variedad con la que el libro presenta el terror: todos con un toque weird, alguno más noir, otros más fantásticos, la mayoría con algo de horror actual y cotidiano. Se agradecen los cuentos folk en tono fábula, que yo en lo personal aprecio mucho, porque son atemporales y se pueden ubicar en casi cualquier cultura. Y también porque siembran la ilusión de que son historias antiguas.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
These are fable-like short stories, and the best short stories I have read in several years. Try the opening page and read it aloud to your friends, it's funny. The author is a social activist who, while highly educated as a translator, is in other ways 'on the margins', mainly through her grassroots protesting for women and against labour exploitation. I recommend listening to an interview with her.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
I didn't like this as much as Bora Chung's other short story collections, but there were still a lot of very interesting concepts explored. A little bit too much on the body horror side though, not as much of a fan of that
(3.5 rounded up)
The bad part of short story collections is that there's bound to be a few that are a miss.
I'm not sure if I use a different scale than the top-rated reviews, but I'm not sure if I'd characterise this as horror or grotesque. It has to be horror (literary horror?), because it can't be any other genre, but I can't say I felt horrified much at anything. Vaguely surprised, at most? But positively so!
I get why people like it.
The bad part of short story collections is that there's bound to be a few that are a miss.
I'm not sure if I use a different scale than the top-rated reviews, but I'm not sure if I'd characterise this as horror or grotesque. It has to be horror (literary horror?), because it can't be any other genre, but I can't say I felt horrified much at anything. Vaguely surprised, at most? But positively so!
I get why people like it.