Cursed Bunny: A Genre-Defying Collection of Short Stories!

Posted On April 14, 2022

Hi Readers! The International Booker Shortlist is out! And your gal just read one book from it! I highly recommend it. Even though I have not read the other books yet, I feel Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung is truly deserving to be the winner! Check out my review!

~~BRIEF INTRODUCTION~~

Gory. Gross. Filthy. Savage. Horrific. Repulsive.

These are the adjectives I have seen which are used to describe Cursed Bunny. I don’t disagree. But, neither do I agree completely. Is it really possible to sum up a collection of ten short stories which are genre-defying? Would you use the same adjective for a magical realism story as you would for a fantasy or science fiction story? You wouldn’t. Yet, I have seen so many reviews using these adjectives. The irony is that these adjectives are the ones which caught my interest & finally made me read the book.

Cursed Bunny is a lot of things. It is inspired. It is sarcastically poignant. It is whimsically brilliant. It is simplistically brave. It is shyly monstrous. It is horrifically fantastical. It is naïvely gory. It is hauntingly revelatory. And, I think you should read it!

~~THOUGHTS ON THE TEN SHORT STORIES~~

‘The Head’ seems gross at first, but then it seems like the life of a woman who leaves her true self in her youth. Gets married, has kids & life passes her by until she decides to reunite with her true self. ‘The Embodiment’ seems bizarre at first, but then it seems like the unfair view of society towards unmarried pregnant women & single mothers. After these two shockingly profound stories, I couldn’t understand what was so gory & repulsive. The first two short stories easily have a 5/5 rating from me.

Moving on, ‘Cursed Bunny’ was like reading an entirely different book altogether. It was magical realism interspersed with revenge & curses. Who would not enjoy that? Then, ‘The Frozen Finger’ left me befuddled. Was it a time loop? Was it a ghost? Was it something else entirely? What it wasn’t was any of those formerly mentioned adjectives. ‘Snare’ is the one short story which you could say was a bit gross. It should come with trigger warnings. But then again it seems psychotic at first, but later it seems like a simple story teaching humanity about what it means to be human. I rated Cursed Bunny at 3.5/5, The Frozen Finger at 2/5 & Snare at 3.5/5 stars.

‘Goodbye, My Love’ is the shortest short story, which felt inspired by Klara and the Sun, but it is unmistakably Bora Chung’s niche based on how it ends. This one at first seems like it wants to show how humans start to feel emotions for their Artificial Companions. But, later on it is actually about how these Artificial Companions feel deathly emotions for their human owners. I liked this story quite a lot & is easily a 5/5 for me.

The seventh one is ‘Scars’. This is the longest story of the ten. It seems horrific & savage. And, just this instance I will admit that it actually is. It contains constant abuse. Nevertheless, being so long, this story held my attention & I quite enjoyed it. Like the ‘Cursed Bunny’ story, this one also has themes of superstition, curses & monsters. So, yes, that was a stark change from the earlier story. I rated it at 4/5 stars.

‘Home Sweet Home’ has to be the weirdest story from this collection. It shifts all the time from being the story of a couple to being a mystery to being criminal to being paranormal. I loved how it easily it flowed in all these mini-themes in an already mini story. This really goes to show the incredibly talented writing style of Bora Chung. This one is again at 4/5 stars!

Now comes the ninth story which is the basis for which I refuse to call this book by any of those adjectives. ‘Ruler of Winds and Sands’ is a fantastical story which, after reading I felt like it was a cutesy Children’s Fairy Tale story. It has a prince & princess. There is a curse on the prince’s family. For a change, the princess is the one who goes to fight off the curse. And at the end, there is a wonderfully simplistic life lesson about how greed is bad. This little story is a contrast to all the other stories. It is naïve yet impactful. This is one is 4/5 as well!

And now, finally coming to the last story, ‘Reunion’. You know how, if you are an ordinary person, your birthdays go by? You get a few calls at 12 AM from your friends. You get up & your family wishes you. There’s a nice big breakfast. Then suddenly your relatives pop in to surprise you. Then you get a surprise delivery of cake sent by your colleagues. Then something more & more! It basically gets better & better. Such is Cursed Bunny. It gets better & better & then in the final story, the author pours everything gold from her brain on to the characters & the story to give it the final magical perfect touch! Needless to say, the last chapter was stunningly written. Even if I tried, I won’t be able to tell you what it’s about, because every time I will re-read it, there will something new that I missed the last time. It’s an easy 5/5!

So, that is all. I hope you enjoyed this & I do hope you pick it up & enjoy the book!

Until next time,