Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - Cursed Bunny

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Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

80 reviews

kay_ne's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Stars listed is the overall rating rounded down... below are individual ratings for each short story.

Spoiler for each reading is just so this review isn't a long block of text.

Don't worry, spoilers are nested in the spoilers.

Overall: 4.375 stars

Note: I tried to list the content warnings but I can't remember all that happened in the short stories. So read when you're in a good place to.

The Head | 3.75 stars

Really was not expecting how it ended

with the new self shoving the old self into the toilet like what the heck

and it was an interesting read for the first story of the book. It was also sort of humorous(?)- was not feeling any creepy or horror sort of vibe through it until the end. I was also not vibing with the concept since it's waste and the woman's family not taking her seriously like it's normal, but story as a whole was okay.

The Embodiment | 5 stars

This was a sad read. The ending really hit when

the driver (who was her first date) came to the room too late. If they kept in contact then maybe the baby could have been saved and she cried. But it wasn't his fault nor hers either, it's the weird dystopian world they're in needing a father instead of being able to raise the child on their own. :(

Cursed Bunny | 4.25 stars

The short story that the book is titled after! Beginning was very interesting with how families have their own profession that they specialize in. The main character's family's specialty is in the

occult- they call the objects they make as cursed fetishes, which I found weirdly worded. I assume it is because of translation. I'm not sure what would I could describe it.

The story does create tension/suspense on what would happen next to

the CEO's grandson after taking the cursed bunny lamp and once finding out about the symptoms this would've happened to the CEO himself and no one would've batted an eye because they would blame it on his old age.

The ending was interesting, sort of confusing as well since the grandfather (storyteller's not the CEO's)

is dead and would reappear to the storyteller. I think it has to do with not making the cursed objects for personal reasons which the grandfather did.

It was also sad with what happened to the

CEO's family (his son and his grandson), their lives been taken because of the lamp.

The Frozen Finger | 5 stars

The story was really good in my opinion. I am assuming that the protagonist is

the teacher that had an affair with Teacher Choi's ex-husband and then that lead Choi to commit suicide

. And the story is about

the weight of her guilt in causing it. There was also the ring, so I guess Lee marries Choi's ex-husband after they divorced and then something happened. It is sadly a cycle that happens to Lee.

Snare | 5 stars

This was a good read- really had me on the edge of my seat in what was happening and the way it was written reminded me of Grimm fairytales because of the subjects that the story has which can be upsetting to some. Much greed on the father's side and his children and wife were victims.

Goodbye, My Love | 5 stars

This made me tear up ;-;

Scars | 4.75 stars

The story was much longer than the previous ones, about 50 or so pages. It was sad

the the village's fate lied in the hands of a crow monster and when reading it I thought it would be like the village's fate did not actually depend on the crow, but it did. I feel for the protagonist and wish him luck and hope he can find a place of his own in that world.

Home Sweet Home | 3.25 stars

The story was okay and there was a creepy factor with the

deaths of the people that wronged the landlord. Sad that her husband was cheating on her and threw away all of her hard work in the past seven years. She probably knows that the child was the one that caused the deaths though, and I think the child is a ghost? Or some being that the woman had decided to take care of as her own.

Ruler of the Winds and Sands | 4.75 stars

This was a cute story and I liked the ending. The

sorcerer is such a nice dude and the princess (grass plains) tried her best in doing what she thought was right. The prince (desert) really was a dick in the end :( glad she didn't end up with him.

Reunion | 3 stars

It was an okay read and it was sad. For me I did not understand or know how I felt about it when reading but it was an okay story to end the book. Though,

the bondage thing was a quick turn in the story. I was not expecting that but his reason for getting tied up was to feel like his been given permission to stay alive and that was heartbreaking to me.

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emilymdxn's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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whosjessanyway's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense fast-paced

3.75

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ellinda's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

It might be harsh, but the stories in this book al felt like they could have been written by your average literature student who wanted to write something edgy and shocking. None of the stories stood out to me in the "genre-defying" way they had been described everywhere.

It was very difficult for me to get through the stories and after the first 2 I wanted to give up, but I felt like I needed to give the other stories a chance because in a short story bundle you're always bound to have ones you like and ones you dislike.

For me, the only two redeeming stories in this book were the ones titled "Goodbye, my love" and "Reunion". But ever the former of those two felt very predictable without bringing anything new to the table.

It seems a lot of people liked this book just fine, but to me personally it delivered on none of the promises people had made about the book. The stories are not "sick and twisted" and they don't bring anything new to the types of stories they are telling. It had poor prose and some of the writing just felt immature.

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patsybarker's review against another edition

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made me feel sick

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious

4.25

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kleine_elster_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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caitlindoesntread's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

(Short story collection (10 stories): Horror, social commentary) Read this in four days. It possibly damaged me forever?? Some of the body horror descriptions are so grotesque that I literally felt sick. However, lots of the stories were written beautifully and at each twist I found myself pausing to think about the metaphorical implications or what real-life issue it could have been representing against the backdrop of a strange, scary, magical and suspenseful reality. Some of the stories I really enjoyed are "The Head, "The embodiment", The Frozen Finger" and "Snare". These were short, to the point and gripped me throughout the story. Some stories that I really did not enjoy were "Goodbye, my love", "Home sweet home" and "Ruler of the winds and sands. For the last two that I mentioned, I literally had no clue what was going on, especially in "Ruler of the winds and sands" and they were long, boring and repetitive. I neither liked nor disliked "Cursed bunny", "Scars" and "The reunion". Although "Scars" was WAY too long.

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micasa's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

buku ini berisi 10 cerpen dengan topik yg berbeda-beda dan beberapa di antaranya mengkritik isu sosial. mungkin Bora Chung tidak bermaksud utk memberi kritik pada hal spesifik yg terjadi di masyarakat, namun menurutku tulisannya berhasil menjadi ‘warning’ untuk pembaca.

sebagai pembaca juga, aku akan menuliskan review disini :

1. ‘Kelinci Terkutuk’ adalah pembalasan dendam akan suatu hal di masa lalu yg sulit utk dilawan. jadi, dipilihnya cerpen ini sbg judul buku memang cocok utk menarik perhatian pembaca. aku suka dg konsep cerita bahwa pembalasan dendam jg akan menyakiti diri sendiri.
2. buatku, ‘Si Kepala’ menjadi cerpen dg tema kritik sosial kpd orang² dg kuasa lebih atas seseorang. selama membaca, aku agak ngeri membayangkan sosok kepala & meski aku sempat memprediksi ending cerita, kisah ini ‘ngeri’ dg pertanyaan sosok tsb.
3. ‘Menstruasi’ tidak semengerikan yg aku kira krn fenomena ini pernah tjd kepadaku sbg perempuan, tapi tentu saja tanpa drama & akhir cerita yg mengejutkan semua orang. aku rasa, isu menstruasi wanita tdk menjadi hal yg tabu agar tdk terjadi miskonsepsi spt yg disampaikan cerpen ini.
4. ‘Jari-Jari yang Dingin’ membawaku ke tempat yg cukup horror sekalipun aku baca cerpen ini di siang hari. all about the feels, i must said. this is straight up giving you chills.
5. ‘Perangkap’ membuatku marah-marah seharian dan mengutuk perilaku tokoh fiksi yg minim akhlak, wah pokoknya silahkan baca sendiri & petik moral value-nya.
6. ‘Selamat Tinggal Cintaku’ adalah kisah fiksi ttg robot & manusia yg aku yakin beberapa dari kalian tahu ini akan berakhir dimana tapi krn ini horror, iya ini cerita cinta yg seram.
7. ‘Bekas Luka’ adl satu-satunya cerita yg membuatku merasakan mixed feeling. sejujurnya, saat membaca aku agak bosan krn cerpen ini lbh panjang dr yg lain & kisah ini juga mengingatkanku dg novela 'The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas' dr Ursula K. Le Guin, sangat mengerikan juga menyedihkan.
8. ‘Rumahku Istanaku’ bikin emosi dan aku bersimpati dg tokoh wanita disini, selamat berjuang utk kehidupan yg lbh baik. semoga kamu kuat sampai akhir.
9. ‘Penguasa Angin dan Pasir’ terkesan seperti dongeng tapi dg tokoh² & plot yg lebih realistis. tokoh wanita disini, juga hebat.
10. ‘Reuni’ adalah cerpen yg menjadi favoritku dan tiap² perenungannya terasa dekat dg rumah, karena senyatanya yg mengerikan adalah hidup & kita masih harus bertahan sampai akhir.

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chocolate_pondue's review against another edition

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I'm not a general fan of horror so I don't think I was the right audience for this book. A lot of the stories seem gratuitous and a few of them I didn't truly understand. There were a couple that hit me emotionally (

The one with the blood-clot baby, the one with the boy and the crow monster, and the one with the androids

), but other than that, I just became uninterested in it.

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