Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

53 reviews

cottagecorearsonist_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

hazardpossum's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Some of the warnings may have less but i dont remember how much is of what so i put it all on the most graphic. The way she describes things and reveals elements is chilling. Kept me horrified yet intriguied i couldn’t stop. The stories were all perfectly long enough to get across what it was without overstaying it’s welcome. Each of them very unique and making me feel lots of different things. I only bought it bc i saw it in store and read the first page which was just ‘haha speaking toilet thing’ and thought it would be funny. But i’m glad it was so much more than that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

tianaaaa's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

4.0

Very strange stories yet oddly fascinating and not a boring read. It's a unique book that includes fantasy, horror, science fiction and fairytale aspects.
I don't understand why people are complaining about how disgusting it is - you picked up a horror book, what did you expect? The book explores themes like the patriarchy, capitalism and unusual creatures in unsettling detail.

My favourite chapters was:

The head - a creature being made from the leftovers of a woman's toilet and it invades and ruins her life

The embodiment - A women who got pregnant despite taking birth control and was told that she would have to find someone willing to be the father in order for the baby to be alright and healthy however she is too late and just gives birth to something that is sort of described as a massive blood clot. Interesting take on societal pressures and how a child not having a father figure may not be normal whist also showing pressures of a single mother.

Cursed Bunny -Very interesting an satisfying to read. A greedy business eventually gets teared to the ground because of the sheer amount of rabbits eating documents.

Scar - The longest chapter in the book being about 52 pages. I was sort of confused about the ending but it sort of gave the meaning where a monster doesn't need to be horrifying to indity, sometimes it can be disguised as a man. The chapter itself is quite sad but it's action packed so it's still a gripping read.


Least favourite:

Ruler of the winds and sands - a princess tries to help a prince with his curse but gets stabbed in the back, a story about self discovering. I just thought it wasn't as interesting as the others and just seemed as a cliche fairytale.

Goodbye, My love - Sort of reminded me of a black mirror episode as it was a sci-fi horror. Basically, a woman has 3 robots in her house but the first one no longer works so the woman wants to have her replaced by another and so she tries to order another. However, the other 2 robots help the old robot and they just stab the woman because they explain how they don't like being replaced. Whilst I didn't hate this chapter, I did find it quite underwhelming and I just thought it wasn't very unique.


There are other chapters but this review would be too long to write about every one. In my option, not every chapter was interesting and just did have that cliche plot which made it a less unique and gripping read however Bora Chung still managed to cover a variety of genres such as greed, patriarchy and abuse in a unsettling but also sometimes humous way.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Excrement, and Murder

juffnstuff's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Animal death

valjeanval's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Well this is a weird and wonderful little collection which I'll be thinking about for a long time. It's definitely got more horror elements than I'm usually comfortable with, but I think it's a prime example of using genre to explore the way we function in society. "The Embodiment" in particular is going to stick with me, I feel. It's almost Kafka-esque in its surreality, and the translation, while pretty sparse, serves the subject really well. An awesome collection if you have both a strong heart and stomach.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Excrement, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

biscuitgale's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I usually steer clear of horror and short stories, so this wouldn't be my first choice of book, but I'm quite pleased I decided to read it. The stories are quite dark, confusing, and chilling that sometimes I rushed to end or had to put the book down altogether to take a break & process what I had just read. Some stories have surprising twists.

My favorite story was Ruler of Winds and Sands. It's also the most palatable story out of the book with the fewest horror elements. There are so many themes and complexities in these shorts that I'd like to give them all a re-read at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Incest and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Sexual content, and War

aliteracja's review against another edition

dark reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Murder

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy

cider_lover's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This collection of stories was simply too weird for me. I like to think that I enjoy things that are strange and off-putting but many of these stories just grossed me out with no (that I could tell) purpose. The suffering of the characters felt like it was pointless, which I know in some cases works to get a message across, but it didn't quite work because of the lack of connection with the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Murder

thomasdingemanse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, and War