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rickireadss's review against another edition
3.5
this wasn’t my favorite of the series, but also wasn’t bad either. i just wasn’t as invested. BUT THE EPILOGUE????? i LOVED it. it tied up the series so well and had my heart very happy to see jasper&hollyn and andi&hill months and years later.
⚠️: sexual assault, addiction, religious bigotry, toxic relationship, death of parent, car accident, grief, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism, child abuse
⚠️: sexual assault, addiction, religious bigotry, toxic relationship, death of parent, car accident, grief, gaslighting, suicidal thoughts, alcoholism, child abuse
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Addiction, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Car accident, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Alcoholism
brokenbodybitch's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
I was very let down by this book. The parts I liked about it, I really liked but the parts that I don’t enjoy almost, if not completely ruin the story and I nearly dnf’d multiple times.
Eliza is a therapist and she runs into her office neighbor and he’s hot and mysterious and tattooed (which she loves) and they are talking and being all cranky and snippy with eachother and without thinking she blurts out why she’s at the office on Christmas and not with family and instantly the tone changes and a friendship starts. He’s super like protective and sweet but then you find out his back story and I almost DNF’ed right then and there (will explain below)….it doesn’t fit the story and felt like it wasn’t handled the best especially for how delicate something like that is…I was a little horrified to be honest that the author chose to include that entire plot line.
Not only did Beck’s backstory feel incredibly unnecessary and iffy but Eliza is supposed to be a therapist…if she was my therapist I would fire her so fucking quick. She doesn’t act like how I think a therapist would conduct themselves, she’s constantly…ok not constantly but like a lot, in her own head not aware of Becks or other characters trauma. She also doesn’t seem to understand what the term privacy means which for a therapist is kinda a big deal. I understand sometimes fictional therapist are exactly great for the sake of a story but this was incredibly uncomfortable to read.
The first half was great and then it fell apart from there and don’t even get me on how rushed the last like hour is and how that whole plot twist was handled….also it’s just added in there with barely any discussion that oh yeah he’s an alcoholic like uh what the fuck…if you are going to add these heavy things you have to give them the attention and care they require
The explaination of what I found incredibly uncomfortable;
(TW for sexual assault, coercion, victim blaming, self unalive and anything you can think of related to that just be cautious of)
His backstory;
So basically…he was born into a cult and his first girlfriend was ‘brainwashed by the cult’ and she only slept with him because she felt like she had to and she not only lost her virginity but had it filmed (not by him but still) and had that posted online AND that video went viral all before she was ready to have sex, all because he wanted to rebel and she thought if she said no he would hate her and leave her (which they kinda touch on but it’s just like oh well that’s not your fault because it wasn’t your intent which what the fuck) and whatever. That -saying yes bc you feel like you have to/ie non enthusiastic consent- is a painfully common occurrence because of societal pressures not just cults and it’s not talked about properly yet again and right after he comes out and says all this she’s basically like oh it’s not your fault it’s hers and the cults for not being able to tell you she wasn’t ready and it felt really victim blame-y and honestly was quite triggering and then it’s brushed off for a smut scene… so like not only did it seem insensitive and unnecessary but it was not handled well at all and completely brushed off FOR SEXUAL SHIT😳🥴
The ‘plot twist’;
So they haven’t talked and then all of a sudden he calls her and is like I need you and it’s because his first girlfriend/ex wife shows up because she thought he was sending her money out of love and not the guilt for what he did and that she’s going to unalive herself If he doesn’t get back with her and that’s why he needs her help and that’s kinda how Eliza and beck get back together. But it’s also not just that the ex wants to unalive like the plan is described in detail and then they talk about admitting her and again not all that well handled.
I have spent enough time feeling icky because of this so I’m not going into anymore details. None of this is given the weight it needs for such a sensitive topic and it felt like this iffy at best consent was handled like a miscommunication trope or something like it was just so uncomfortable and the last half of the book I had to DRAG myself through
*Anyway thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for this audio arc*
Eliza is a therapist and she runs into her office neighbor and he’s hot and mysterious and tattooed (which she loves) and they are talking and being all cranky and snippy with eachother and without thinking she blurts out why she’s at the office on Christmas and not with family and instantly the tone changes and a friendship starts. He’s super like protective and sweet but then you find out his back story and I almost DNF’ed right then and there (will explain below)….it doesn’t fit the story and felt like it wasn’t handled the best especially for how delicate something like that is…I was a little horrified to be honest that the author chose to include that entire plot line.
Not only did Beck’s backstory feel incredibly unnecessary and iffy but Eliza is supposed to be a therapist…if she was my therapist I would fire her so fucking quick. She doesn’t act like how I think a therapist would conduct themselves, she’s constantly…ok not constantly but like a lot, in her own head not aware of Becks or other characters trauma. She also doesn’t seem to understand what the term privacy means which for a therapist is kinda a big deal. I understand sometimes fictional therapist are exactly great for the sake of a story but this was incredibly uncomfortable to read.
The first half was great and then it fell apart from there and don’t even get me on how rushed the last like hour is and how that whole plot twist was handled….also it’s just added in there with barely any discussion that oh yeah he’s an alcoholic like uh what the fuck…if you are going to add these heavy things you have to give them the attention and care they require
The explaination of what I found incredibly uncomfortable;
(TW for sexual assault, coercion, victim blaming, self unalive and anything you can think of related to that just be cautious of)
His backstory;
So basically…he was born into a cult and his first girlfriend was ‘brainwashed by the cult’ and she only slept with him because she felt like she had to and she not only lost her virginity but had it filmed (not by him but still) and had that posted online AND that video went viral all before she was ready to have sex, all because he wanted to rebel and she thought if she said no he would hate her and leave her (which they kinda touch on but it’s just like oh well that’s not your fault because it wasn’t your intent which what the fuck) and whatever. That -saying yes bc you feel like you have to/ie non enthusiastic consent- is a painfully common occurrence because of societal pressures not just cults and it’s not talked about properly yet again and right after he comes out and says all this she’s basically like oh it’s not your fault it’s hers and the cults for not being able to tell you she wasn’t ready and it felt really victim blame-y and honestly was quite triggering and then it’s brushed off for a smut scene… so like not only did it seem insensitive and unnecessary but it was not handled well at all and completely brushed off FOR SEXUAL SHIT😳🥴
The ‘plot twist’;
So they haven’t talked and then all of a sudden he calls her and is like I need you and it’s because his first girlfriend/ex wife shows up because she thought he was sending her money out of love and not the guilt for what he did and that she’s going to unalive herself If he doesn’t get back with her and that’s why he needs her help and that’s kinda how Eliza and beck get back together. But it’s also not just that the ex wants to unalive like the plan is described in detail and then they talk about admitting her and again not all that well handled.
I have spent enough time feeling icky because of this so I’m not going into anymore details. None of this is given the weight it needs for such a sensitive topic and it felt like this iffy at best consent was handled like a miscommunication trope or something like it was just so uncomfortable and the last half of the book I had to DRAG myself through
*Anyway thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape for this audio arc*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Cults, victim blamingafi_whatafireads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
**Takes huge breaths before writing my thoughts on this book**
This book, was possibly, one of my best reads this year. It was so mind-blowing, well-written and extremely well-curated. Its not easy to get a collection of short stories, where all the stories are just brilliantly written, and Miss Bora Chung executed it well. Cursed Bunny has the formula of a standard Korean Literature but with a twist of its own. These collection of short stories shows the versatility in Chung's writing, where she had inserted elements of Body Horror, Gore and elements of fantasy in her writing into critiquing various elements such as Politics, Greed and Repercussions of Revenge and Vengeance but also with a mellow tone that definitely tugs your heart and made you almost tear up at some stories.
The thing about these stories is how its very open to each own's interpretation. I had buddy read this with Farah and I loved how our discussion was so lengthy and our points in interpreting each stories are so different. Its interesting how a 20-30 pages of words in each chapters will leave such a huge impact. Chung has a way to enamour the readers from the very first line of her stories. It caught your attention and its such a page turner that you will constantly think about some of these stories even after you've finished them for a long time.
Amongst the 10 stories in the book, some of my favourites would be :
The Embodiment
This story was pure genius and just so very sad. Its an indication of body horror to show the absurdities of society's expectations on single mothers and children of wedlock. It was dehumanising, written in such a way that makes us in disbelief all the time reading the story. Miss Chung had also shown the power of the patriarchy and how women are expected to follow a certain set of rules in order to be accepted into society.
Cursed Bunny
This book, was possibly, one of my best reads this year. It was so mind-blowing, well-written and extremely well-curated. Its not easy to get a collection of short stories, where all the stories are just brilliantly written, and Miss Bora Chung executed it well. Cursed Bunny has the formula of a standard Korean Literature but with a twist of its own. These collection of short stories shows the versatility in Chung's writing, where she had inserted elements of Body Horror, Gore and elements of fantasy in her writing into critiquing various elements such as Politics, Greed and Repercussions of Revenge and Vengeance but also with a mellow tone that definitely tugs your heart and made you almost tear up at some stories.
The thing about these stories is how its very open to each own's interpretation. I had buddy read this with Farah and I loved how our discussion was so lengthy and our points in interpreting each stories are so different. Its interesting how a 20-30 pages of words in each chapters will leave such a huge impact. Chung has a way to enamour the readers from the very first line of her stories. It caught your attention and its such a page turner that you will constantly think about some of these stories even after you've finished them for a long time.
Amongst the 10 stories in the book, some of my favourites would be :
The Embodiment
This story was pure genius and just so very sad. Its an indication of body horror to show the absurdities of society's expectations on single mothers and children of wedlock. It was dehumanising, written in such a way that makes us in disbelief all the time reading the story. Miss Chung had also shown the power of the patriarchy and how women are expected to follow a certain set of rules in order to be accepted into society.
Cursed Bunny
"Cursing others leads to two graves." Anyone who curses another person is sure to end up in the grave themselves."
This story was one that is so memorable and understandable it was chosen as the title of the collection of short stories. It was enticing and represents the consequences of greed and repercussions of vengeance and revenge , which is an recurring theme in most of the stories in the book; in which the consequences of Greed and Power in destroying family institutions, generational values and mostly, the lives of the people around them and others that are innocent. Stories in the book like Snare and Ruler of the Winds and Sands had brought forward the same theme with a twist of their own and its memorable in their own way.
Scars
"That was the first time he sobbed in earnest. Not the cries of someone driven mad with fear, but the tears of someone who understood and saddened by their own loneliness - the tears of a human being."
This quote alone showed the fantasy elements that had been inserted by Miss Chung with a sort of folklore tale coming true. It was one of the stories that are heartbreaking and it reminded me on a human's strength into survival during desperation, in which is talked about in Reunion
Reunion
"Parents who destroy their children's lives, who suck the life of their children's future, not only for the sake of maintaining their own illusions but also to zealously expand them into the lives of their children- such parents can almost be understood from the perspective of obsession"
The last story to the book was by far the most memorable one and left such a huge impact. A love story of a man and a woman with different sets of beliefs and the consequences of trauma inflicted from childhood that will shape a person even if they got older. It was very depressing and sad and tugged my heart so much.
With Reunion, Miss Chung had sealed the deal for me in showing how versatile her writing was. In inclusion with some Polish words , she had shown what it means to be human at the end , in which humans are filled with greediness, lack of compassion and in some cases, will ascertain to fates of loneliness at the end of their life. However, Miss Chung also showed there are times that we can change our own fate when we want to if we want to. The criticism to the patriarchy and misogyny and the broken systems of politics and power, its a curation of stories that will simply blow your mind and just AGH SO FREAKING GOOD! It will be a good book for a book club discussion and definitely one that I will reread at random times of the day. With it being shorlisted for the International Booker Prize this year, I hope that more of Chung's works will be translated and published ! Looking forward to it more!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
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