Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Lapin Maudit by Bora Chung

46 reviews

evakarolina's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Violence, Death of parent, Suicide, and Rape

Minor: Incest

scifi_rat's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Medical content, Excrement, Slavery, Body horror, Grief, Violence, War, Abandonment, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Murder, Torture, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Sexism, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Animal death, Alcohol, Abortion, Infertility, Animal cruelty, and Infidelity

woolgatherer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

This was an interesting short story collection to read, with the reader drifting from one unsettling story to the next, never quite knowing what's around the corner. Perhaps what made the horror of these stories come alive as well as they did—even if fantastical—was the everyday nature of them. The horror isn't the eerie or supernatural; it's the people around you and what they're capable of doing to others for their own benefit. 

Chung explores different styles and genres in this collection; I found this interesting, but it also added to the density of this collection. I have given him praise before, but I have to give it again: Anton Hur did a phenomenal job handling these changes with his translation. 

While I didn't think all the stories were particularly memorable, the ones that really stick with you, well, will stick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Excrement, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Suicide

Minor: Incest

murmurations_x's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

Where to start with this collection of short stories? It seems like everyone either loves this collection or isn't a fan and then there is me, in the middle and I enjoyed it. I can see myself returning to re-read some stories but probably not the entire collection and that on reflection is because some are just too gross for me. Cursed Bunny is a mixing pot of horror, science fiction, magical realism, jumping from disgusting and grotesque to emotional to eerie it really does have a little bit of it all. Each of them being a nice length that you can finish a story(or two) in a sitting and not feel burnt out.

Where I think the difference between me enjoying it and loving it is really what I look for in a book, I picked this up because I love horror and I've really been enjoying translated fiction particularly from Asia and that's it. Those who love it seem to heavily discuss how these tales are used to address the greed/capitalism and the patriarchy in society and that's just not what I was looking for when I picked it up.

The body horror in this book is intense. I barely made it through the first two stories and I like to think I can handle my gore and body horror but this is the first book I've read where my stomach actually turned while reading so be sure to check the trigger warning before reading this book.

My favourite stories are Snare, Home Sweet Home, Goodbye My Lover and The Frozen Finger.

I just want to note the translation here from Anton Hur is excellent. At no point did any of this writing feel clunky or misplaced like it didn't transfer well into English, he did a fantastic job and reading other reviews of this book there seems to be a lot of praise for Anton which I'm delighted to see as a lot of time the work of the translator goes unnoticed by the reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Death, Blood, Violence, Sexual assault, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Rape

cocopeia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death of parent, Mental illness, Blood, Animal death, Grief, Incest, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

lilypad537's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Confinement, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual violence, Death, Trafficking, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Body horror, and Pregnancy

wellreadandhalfdead's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, and Misogyny

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Suicide

medini_l's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

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

dandelionsanddragons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

5.0

this book was amazing and a few of these stories will definitely stay with me for a long time

the head: 5/5 haunting. amazing.

the embodiment: 5/5 body horror, so creepy 

cursed bunny: 4.5/5 great story about capitalism

the frozen finger: 3/5 harder to understand but atmosphere is great

snare: 4.5/5 like a fairytale

goodbye, my love: 4/5 most realistic one 

scars: 2.5/5 dragged out too much 

home sweet home: 4/5 quite realistic and eerie

ruler of the winds and sands: 3.5/5 felt like something was missing, but read like a fairytale 

reunion: 4.5/5 heartbreaking

“no one asked us, when we were still nameless
whether we wanted to live or not 
now i wander the big city alone
looking in doors and windows 
waiting and waiting for something…”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, Incest, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Suicide, Vomit, Car accident, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Self harm, Trafficking, and Murder

seawarrior's review against another edition

dark reflective

5.0

The stories held within Cursed Bunny are blisteringly cruel and terribly beautiful. They are horrors, myths and fairytales that reflect the sharp teeth of grief and the scars of survival. I have never read anything quite like these stories and could never imagine one similar to them if I tried. Chung is a brilliant writer and inventor of fables, and I look forward to reading more of her work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Infidelity, Gaslighting, Incest, Suicide, and Child abuse