It is accepted by you that Daunt Books has no control over additional charges in relation to customs clearance. We offer 1st class (express) or 2nd class (standard) postage options, and use Royal Mail as our primary postal service. There’s a fascination too with the grotesque and animalistic but nothing that any regular consumer of horror fiction’s likely to find especially shocking or disturbing. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. Personally writing style is very important to me (I love beautifully written books) and though how it’s written in the English translation (not particularly beautiful) and can still assuredly say I’m struggling to put this book down.

After reading this book (and Happy Stories, Mostly) I can no longer say that I do not like short stories.Not to say, Anton Hur also did a wonderful job with the translation, making it an easy and quick read. Otherwise, what could have been a day full of fun memories turns into a hot, grumpy kind of day when all the best things happened when the gates first opened and the heat of the sun didn’t burn your skin and suck you dry.

Since these stories are structured like fairy-tales it makes a lot of sense that there is a moral tale embedded within the text.

This book gave me chills several times as well as made me rather uncomfortable in ways that truly capture the power of a well-written story. The problem is me: horror aesthetics and my sensitivity are not very compatible and I tend to mull over grisly scenes for weeks. I could also understand how, in a situation where there was a single person who could kill you but also save you, all your survival instincts would be used towards satisfying that person. The title story chronicles the domino-effect tragedy caused by an enchanted fetish (the cursed bunny itself) that brings ruin upon all who touch it, set against the backdrop of a modernizing, postwar South Korea where revenge is its very own industry. The talking head is revealed to be a lumpy, sentient being formed from the protagonist’s bodily waste.

Anton Hur's translation skilfully captures the way Chung's prose effortlessly glides from being terrifying to wryly humorous. These ten stories by South Korean author Bora Chung started off with somewhat lighter, surreal, yet meaningful horror - the opening stories were just breathtaking: “The Head”, the story of a woman whose remains of all sorts, hair, skin, nails, feces assemble to form a new being; “The Embodiment”, in which a woman falls pregnant mysteriously to an even more mysterious “child”; and the titular “Cursed Bunny” in which karma finds its place through cursed objects.Chung illustrates how egotism can lead people to commit heinous crimes against others and it's appalling to think this is also the reality of today. It felt like it had something to say and it used the subversion of genre and expectations to do so, giving the main character more depth than any of the others that had come before. Then I’ll go far away from here and live by my own means, so please, just keep using the toilet like you always have. If I’m being vague about these stories it is because they are best read with no idea what is coming. One of the best things about Goodreads is that it broadens your reading horizons in baffling directions.