This review was made possible by an ARC from NetGalley

Bora Chung’s Your Utopia is a collection of sci-fi stories that range from a virus causing people to leave Earth to commentary on capitalism to a sentiment car AI.

My two favorites were Seed and The End of the Voyage. Seed opens with five people landing on a planet, the inhabitants excited until the humans turn out to work for a corporation and are trying to find multiple ways to get the inhabitants in trouble with the courts, from water supply to soil. It’s a strong statement on capitalism and business vs. nature and how nature will find a way to prevail.

The End of the Voyage takes place in a near-distant future were a cannibalistic virus has taken over and a handful of selected humans have been chosen to head into space until the virus has been sorted out. This one takes on a layer of horror and I really liked how Chung handled the typical zombie virus story and made the infected polite and articulate.

I would recommend this anthology to fans of sci-fi short stories and readers looking for strong social critiques.

Weird, futuristic, techno-horror stories about what it means to be human. Some stellar stories in this collection!

This was a fantastic short story collection by Bora Chung. Having read Cursed Bunny, I was really excited to see what this author would do next. This collection did not disappoint and I think I liked this one a bit more. I loved the horror/scifi elements that were mixed into the stories. I think Bora Chung has a unique style and I can't wait to read more from them.

Bora Chung is one of the most creative and innovative writers I have read in a long time, and she delivers on this again in "Your Utopia." I love how she incorporates dark humor and horror into stories such as "A Very Ordinary Marriage," which is a funny and poignant story about aliens among us.

Incorporating themes such as AI, climate change and virus-scanning, this is also a very timely collection of stories.

I particularly enjoyed “The Center for Immortality Research,” a funny story about an employee at a firm that works towards eternal life.

The story of the old lady in "To Meet Her" was touching, especially with the real life connections shared in the afterword.

Excellent translation by Anton Hur.

Thanks to Netgalley and Algonquin Books for the eARC.

Your Utopia is a beautifully romantic interpretation of how humanity is interwoven with science and technology.

Each story allows readers to evaluate very real and timely developments in everyday life with the essence of what it means to feel alive, unique, and complex. The pain of being alive and the terror of the non-living blend in a natural and devastating series of accounts.

Bora Chung's masterful creation of each story demonstrates the brevity and anguish we are all victim to in life. Anton Hur's translation of Your Utopia presents readers with a flowing, surreal representation of beauty in an awful existence.

The most horrifying aspect of this collection is the normalcy. Little is more terrifying than the world we live in presently. It is the mundane and speculative that combine in these stories to leave readers second-guessing their routine because the future is not that far away.

On a personal note, I really appreciated the tiny references to biblical anecdotes: Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, Hail Mary. These seemingly tiny allusions add significant commentary on human rationale.

Highly recommend.

What a fascinating set of stories. I'm always mildly apprehensive about short story collections because I'm usually of the belief that if the story is written well, I'm left wanting more, and if it isn't done well, I don't really get the point. However, Bora Chung managed to articulate her points clearly AND make the pacing of each story feel satisfying. I have a feeling I will be thinking about this collection for a while.

In some respects, the more absurd of these stories remind me a little of Raphael Bob-Waksberg's Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory, while the more introspective, human-centered pieces feel akin to Ling Ma's Bliss Montage. I think short story fans in general will get a lot out of Your Utopia, but I'm hoping to convert a few people who don't typically gravitate to this genre/format, too.

Thank you to Algonquin for giving me the opportunity to read and review!

Parts of this I really loved, and other parts I didn’t, which is, I suppose, to be expected for a short story anthology. I nevertheless can’t help but recommend this as it was just an enjoyable book full of stories with interesting ideas, some of which made me cry. That being said, I’m not sure I will not be reading more Anton Hur translated works in the future, as it feels as though he removes the emotionality from the original works. This may just be coincidence, but his translation style feels almost obnoxiously blunt.

I SCRUMPT when I got this baby in the mail. I am beyond thankful to Algonquin Books, Bora Chung, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital and physical access to this dystopian favorite before it hits shelves on January 30, 2024.

Bora Chung has done it again with her short stories that pull you in and keep you intrigued from start to finish. Your Utopia takes a dystopian left turn, depicting tales about the Center for Immortality Research, alien wives gone oh-so wrong, sentiently emotional elevators catching maternal feelings for its riders, and so many more science fiction narratives.

I couldn't put this one down and now I must go and consume every other Bora Chung piece of ART.

The stories in Your Utopia were fine but they didn't hit me the way the stories in Cursed Bunny did. It's possible that if I'd read this first, then I would have loved it more.

This short story collection will certainly make you think. There’s a wide variety of topics included, so if you don’t care for one story, just keep reading. Chung doesn’t really stick to one genre, but a common theme is artificial intelligence vs. humans. My favorite story is about The Disease, where the only way you could tell if someone had been infected was if they casually tried to munch on the person closest to them at that moment. Disturbing? Yes. Absurdly hilarious? Also yes.

As always, I champion works in translation, and “Your Utopia” is well worth your time. Where else can you be introduced to the word “pollened”? (Answer: Absolutely nowhere. I even highlighted it in red before I read further and realized my mistake. It’s such a clever made-up word!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

A new collection from Bora Chung exploring similar themes of alienation. A major step down in prose, story, and insights in comparison to Cursed Bunny. The efficient minimalism and shockingly succinct turns of narrative that characterized Chung's first story collection are not to be found here. Your Utopia reads like a reader still finding their voice, still reliant on exposition and not fully capable of realizing a good idea. "Seed" is reminiscient of Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler in all the best ways, but rushes in its telling. "A Song for Sleep" is perhaps the only story up to par with those from Cursed Bunny, a perfect story for our emerging AI age, one worthy of Sayaka Murata. "A Very Ordinary Marriage" is a tale of alien visitation and marriage right out of Izumi Suzuki, save for Chung's signature paranoia. I'm hopeful for more fiction from Chung in the future.

Intended or not, Bora Chung's Your Utopia reads like a love letter to the unreliable narrator.

Through eight short stories, skillfully translated by Anton Hur, Chung examines modern culture and near-universal human experiences—relationships, memory, grief, loss, aging, loneliness—from unexpected perspectives. The title story, for example, is narrated by an autonomous vehicle roaming a post-human planet, while "A Song for Sleep" is written from a smart elevator's point of view.

Other highlights include a futuristic pandemic story that nevertheless echoes Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" and a satirization of industrial agriculture through what I can only describe as an Ents vs. Monsanto narrative. (For what it's worth, "I wonder what Bora Chung really thinks about late-stage capitalism?" is a question you will not be asking yourself as you complete these stories.)

Speculative and surreal, sometimes humorous and horrifying, Your Utopia is one of those books that stays with you long after you read the final page. This is one of those collections that is quick to read but long to think.

3.5 stars rounded up!

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

I loved Cursed Bunny, so I was excited to get an ARC of Bora Chung’s next short story collection, Your Utopia. This one didn’t work for me as well as Cursed Bunny did, but I did really enjoy it. Of note, I especially loved “The Center for Immortality Research” and “Seeds.” This was definitely more speculative than horror when compared to Cursed Bunny, and I really enjoyed the sci-fi elements in these stories. There’s a lot of neat ideas here to sit with and I think it’s absolutely worth picking up if you like short stories. Some are, of course, stronger than others but I think that each one has something interesting happening, and I really admire how Chung approaches the craft.

I'm a big fan of Cursed Bunny (this author's previous work) so I was very excited to have been approved to read her newest work, Your Utopia. As expected, this author's grotesque twist on sci-fi was an absolute delight to read! The unsettling feeling you get after finishing each story lingers until well after you've finished the entire book. Some of the short stories did fall flat for me, but I especially loved "The End of the Voyage", "A Very Ordinary Marriage", and "Maria, Gratia Plena". The author's note at the end about the real-life events that helped inspire her writing made me admire her even more.

As a fan of Cursed Bunny, I was very excited to read Bora Chung’s follow-up. I read this collection in one day, and I was once again mesmerized by her unique voice and deft social commentary, mixing humor and tragedy so thoughtfully. To me, the last couple of stories were her weakest (a bit too on-the-nose), but I enjoyed the majority of this collection very much.

I liked this a lot more than Cursed Bunny, I think these stories were more interesting and to my taste. I'm excited to continue reading from the author. even though not all stories were a hit for me. It's an interesting blend of horror and sci fi that will appeal to many readers.

These stories are weird and wonderful and give me the feeling of being in the passenger seat of a car speeding in a tunnel. I also really love the yellow on the book's cover, feels like just the right vibe.

I enjoyed Chung's Cursed Bunny, so I was excited to try her new collection, and also excited to get an ARC for it. But while Cursed Bunny is weird, creepy horror, Your Utopia is speculative (sometimes horror). I respect Chung's desire to explore different genres, but unfortunately it wasn't as successful for me. Having said that, I think anyone who mainly reads literary speculative fiction will get more out of this. As someone who reads a lot of genre sci-fi as well as literary speculative fiction, this collection treads a lot of familiar ground. I felt the same way about Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun, and that's very well-loved, so I think your mileage will vary here.

I thought all of the stories were at least "fine," but I have a few favorites:
1) The Center for Immorality Research - Perhaps the only one of the stories with some humor, and I had a good time with the silliness.
2) Maria, Gratia Plena - Moving story of how the criminals are often not the ones who receive that label.
3) Your Utopia - My favorite of the bunch, I think. An AI survival story that takes unexpected turns.

I enjoyed something about what Chung was doing in each story - like I loved the ending of Seed - but I found the rest of the story kind of forgettable. Each story tended to be a bit too long for me, with too much setup, which is a standard complaint from me given my preference for laser-focused short stories.

I selfishly hope Chung returns to the creepy stuff. :)

Lastly, the author's note gives me a lot of respect and admiration for Chung. Sounds like she's a wonderful human being.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I loved Cursed Bunny and was delighted to read this for NetGalley. I loved this collection even more. If I had to pick I think The End of the Voyage would be my favorite, followed by A Very Ordinary Marriage.

Read if you are a fan of horror with a scifi twist, not getting a happy ending.

I just reviewed Your Utopia by Bora Chung. #YourUtopia #NetGalley

Bora Chung, you are definitely a strange one and that is why I love you and why I love Your Utopia. I cannot wait for everyone else to experience this surreal collection of short stories.