The 10 stories in Bora Chung’s CURSED BUNNY are addictively bizarre and genre-defying, providing a blend of horror, magical realism and science fiction. Each bone-chilling tale has been translated by Anton Hur with a degree of distance, causing readers to feel increasingly uneasy throughout the book.

Themes of womanhood, bodily autonomy, motherhood and family are explored with originality and grotesque imagery. The first story, “The Head,” begins when a head made of bodily excretion emerges from the toilet and calls the woman before it “Mother.” Her fear and frustration during these occurrences are palpable, and she is told repeatedly by her husband not to let it bother her, essentially waving off her concerns. The tension steadily builds over decades of this unwanted creation’s appearance as it is tethered to her in ways she never wished for --- yet she is the one who is responsible for its existence. I kept thinking about the ending for hours, sitting on it and the message it conveyed before moving on to other stories.

"Each story ended up devouring me with how bizarre and original they were. Bora Chung knows how to construct horror well, reaching deep under my skin and nesting in a place I can’t quite shake."

“The Embodiment” is about a young woman who has been menstruating for over 2-3 weeks straight and is prescribed birth control. The side effects of the pills end up being pregnancy, and she needs to “find a father” to raise the child, or else the cells won’t grow properly. Pregnancy is painted as horror in a way that is visceral and clever, and the whole concept of the story feels heavy considering the climate in the past year regarding women’s rights when it comes to their bodies. The constant input from other characters on the importance of a father figure certainly feels like a criticism of heteronormative rhetoric. Horror is meant to highlight the fears of a society. It is always interesting to see how it changes shape over time and through various lenses, and how one story can have so many different readings.

The title story follows a journey of revenge against the family of a wealthy CEO who has destroyed lives with his greedy actions. A cursed lamp shaped like a bunny brings suffering upon them. It all ties to the belief of never making cursed objects for personal reasons; as the Japanese saying goes, “cursing others leads to two graves.”

“Snare” deviates from the previous horror styles toward something that reads like a folk tale. A man comes across a fox in a snare that bleeds gold. He keeps her barely alive to earn money, which eventually has rippling consequences for his loved ones as he ensnares their lives --- and, in doing so, ensnares himself by his own greed. “Goodbye, My Love” seems to study the easy replacement of things, especially technology, as they get older, and newer and younger creations release. It is structured by AI being given human intelligence and a relationship with the owner, Seth. The story has a hazy warmth of forlorn yearning of lost loves and shifts by the end, punishing a flippancy toward the “damaged” models.

Other tales range from harsh solitary survival, secrets in marriage, escaped consequences, and a hero’s journey that ends in ways unforeseen, to a historic Polish town haunted by ghosts and trauma. Here, women are betrayed again and again by the men they should be able to trust unconditionally.

Each story ended up devouring me with how bizarre and original they were. Bora Chung knows how to construct horror well, reaching deep under my skin and nesting in a place I can’t quite shake. If “weird” fiction or interpretative horror is up your alley, then I recommend giving CURSED BUNNY a try.