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brilokuloj's review against another edition
Graphic: Miscarriage, Abortion, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship
year23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Murder, Miscarriage, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Gore, Incest, Sexism, and Body horror
medini_l's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Excrement, Incest, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Car accident, Gore, Abortion, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Cannibalism, and Violence
poempelnator's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
And (for me) lots of horror (like really body horror right on the first short story) and that's not fully my jam.
I found some story's amazing and others really not, but overall interesting. So 3.5 is the middle ground for me.
Graphic: Blood, Abortion, Medical content, Miscarriage, Body shaming, Cursing, Sexism, Murder, Violence, Colonisation, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Pregnancy, Excrement, and Animal death
laffi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Graphic: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Vomit, Physical abuse, and War
laurel616's review against another edition
Graphic: Miscarriage, Body horror, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Vomit and Misogyny
ninesensical's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
Graphic: Miscarriage, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Sexual assault and Incest
splatteredbastard's review against another edition
Graphic: Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Violence, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Alcohol, Child death, Blood, Body horror, and Death
linalina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Medical trauma, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Violence, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Antisemitism, Dementia, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Excrement, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Abortion, Grief, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, War, Kidnapping, and Vomit
jesshindes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
There were a few groups of stories in this book, for me: the first two in particular are body horror tied to femininity. A woman who gets pregnant by taking too many birth control pills and has to find a father for her unborn child. A woman haunted by a head made from her own excrement. There's also a haunted house story about a woman whose husband gets them into debt that I might put in the same bracket. The stories are weird - like bad dreams - but they get at some of the pressures and anxieties to which women are subject, in the UK as well as in Korea. I have been reading more and more horror and speculative fiction recently and I really enjoy and admire the way that it can be used to set everyday fears in a new light by refiguring them into something strange and less familiar - I think that's exactly what Chung does here.
There are also a number of stories that have a less nightmarish and more fairytale sort of quality - not any less dark, but still tonally different, with a strong moral throughline and often involving magical animals (the titular story is one of these). For me it felt like lots of these were about human cruelty (usually but not exclusively masculine cruelty) - the horrible things people will do to others in order to protect or advance themselves and their interests. Some of these have a kind of Pillowman vibe, if that helps to place them. Again, they made a strong impression on me even though they were often pretty bleak. Chung's vision of the world is a fairly dark one although she does usually leave a chink of (more or less ambiguous) hope.
Overall I thought each of these stories was strong and the collection itself expressed a distinctive voice and a distinctive take on human experience. I have enjoyed reading books from Japan and Korea for giving me insight into societies that feel in some respects quite different from mine and I actually thought this did the same thing even though it wasn't telling a realist narrative. It also confirmed my continuing appetite for the speculative. More weird books to come, no doubt!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Torture, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy