Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - For You & No One Else

**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

"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!

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