I really struggle with short story collections.

I enjoy the feeling of getting lost in a novel and spending a good few hours getting to know the situation, surrounding and characters. I feel most short stories just can't deliver that. It seems to me inevitable that the stories in any given collection will vary in quality - I read a great story and then the following one is an absolute dud which makes me want to give up on the collection ( Im looking at you 'Her Body and Other Parties'). So its a pleasant and welcome surprise when a short story collection is one of my favourite reads of the year so far.

Cursed Bunny is a collection of short stories in which the author varies genre - there's gross out body horror, ghost stories, sci-fi, fairytale, mythology. I would say the entire collection is incredibly dark and if I was forced to file it under one specific genre I would choose horror. Below is a short summary of each of the stories found in this collection:

The Head - one day a disgusting misshapen lump pops out of a woman's toilet. The lump claims to be the daughter of the child, but a daughter formed from the woman's bathroom waste. It's a disgusting story about bodily waste and the beginning and ends of human life. After my initial reading I thought, 'well that was gross and offputting, but nothing more', until I went to use the bathroom in later in the day and found myself darting out afterwards to avoid my own 'lump' and found that the thought of having a shower was genuinely freaking me out.

The Embodiment - another bizarre story with gross out elements. A young woman becomes pregnant and must find a father in time for her baby's arrival into the world. While this wasn't one of my favourites, I thought it was a very smart story exploring the perils and pressures of single motherhood.

The Cursed Bunny - a little boy lays in bed listening to his grandfather recite a story he has heard many times. Then grandfather tells an old family tale of the destruction of one of the most powerful family's in the region, all thanks to a cursed fetish object created by the grandfather's family. One of my favourites - a classic horror story with heart.

The Frozen Finger - the aftermath of a horrific car crash. An eery and stunning short story.

Snare - Maybe my favourite in the collection. A classic tale of greed gone wrong; a riff off the old tale of King Midas.

Goodbye, My Love - Classic AI gone wrong. I felt this was one of the weaker stories of the collection, due to the plot being predictable and tropey. ( If you have read any AI story or watched anything with AI you know this story)

Scars - Folklore/mythology feels. A strange man appears in a village with a murky past and many scars. This was one of the saddest stories in the collection.

Home Sweet Home - A haunted house story with a twist. While I found the final twist confusing, it was also different which I respected.

Ruler of the Winds and Sand - Fairy tale like. Feels like something you'd read or have read to you as a child.

Reunion - The ghost story of the bunch. I thought it was effective - more sad than creepy, but I suppose that's the case for most ghost stories.