Member-only story
PSYCHE
Welcome to the Dark Corners of the Human Psyche
Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny of surrealism and psychological horror.
Trigger warnings of Cursed Bunny: violence, horror, gore, grotesque, death, cruelty, abuse, existential dread, sexual assault, and mental health struggles.
“If I could make one wish
I want to be just a little happier
If I’m too happy
I will miss the sadness”
― Bora Chung
One of those books that has taken over my mind is Cursed Bunny by the incredibly talented Bora Chung. It is about a collection of 10 thought-provoking short stories that seriously give me all the feels.
When I first read the opening short story titled The Head, it felt deeply draining. Bora Chung has this incredible ability to pour strong, almost overwhelming horror and negative energy into her writing, and it hits hard right from the start. The atmosphere she creates is suffocating and heavy, but in a way that’s utterly captivating. I’m also incredibly grateful to the translator, kak Deaz Putri (Korean to Indonesian translator) who managed to retain all those subtle nuances of dread and horror.
If you enjoyed Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, you might also enjoy this. There’s a note that says Cursed Bunny is a book for people who feel lonely. Reading these stories made me feel as though the authors were addressing me personally, bringing to the surface feelings and experiences that are hard for me to put into words. It’s as if the loneliness I occasionally experience is directly related to the way Chung constructs her stories. Everything about it, the people, the bizarre situations, the underlying tension, feels like an escape from my own head.
Reading her stories feels like staring into a distorted mirror, one that doesn’t just show my outward self but reveals the most hidden, deeply buried parts of me. It’s unsettling yet strangely familiar as if her writing captures the emotions I often struggle to express.
A part of me feels like Cursed Bunny is a friend. More like a soulmate who knows the darker, more complicated feelings that come with being alone, rather than a warm and comfortable friend.
