K-LIT REVIEW Cho Yeeun’s 'Teddy Bears Never Die' shrugs off genre constraints

A copy of Cho Yeeun's "Teddy Bears Never Die" / Courtesy of Faye Leung

Is it a thriller? Is it supernatural horror? A revenge quest? A mystery? Or a coming-of-age tale of first love? Cho Yeeun’s “Teddy Bears Never Die” is all of the above, with the added zest of pithy social commentary tucked into the edges.

The story follows Hwayoung, a teenage girl living in squalid conditions and surviving on odd jobs after her mother died and she was forced out of school. She is fueled by one thing: revenge. Though the whole world is convinced her mother died in an unfortunate accident, she knows the truth is much more sinister.

One by one, her odd jobs dry up. At her wit’s end and teetering on the edge of despair, Hwayoung spots a grimy teddy bear in an alleyway that catapults her back to brighter days long past. Unable to leave it lying in the muck, she scoops it up and takes it back to the dingy apartment she shares with more than 10 people.

Imagine Hwayoung’s utter shock and disbelief when her teddy bear comes to life at a critical moment and saves her by hacking her assailant half to death with a hatchet. It turns out that the furry toy was possessed by the soul of Doha, a boy she had briefly been friends with and who never stopped thinking about her even after they parted ways.

That night, the two make a pact. Doha will help Hwayoung carry out her revenge, while Hwayoung helps him return to his human body. Thus begins a whirlwind adventure with murderers, vengeful spirits, an assassin and the key to two nefarious mysteries lying in wait.

Usually, when a novel tries to straddle this many moving elements, its fate is scathing 1-star reviews and ignominy. Not “Teddy Bears Never Die.” From start to finish, Cho keeps an iron grip on the many threads, weaving them together in a thrilling, multilayered story that unfolds at just the right pace.

This comes as no surprise from Cho, who is famous for juxtaposing heartwarming characters against chilling dystopian backdrops full of gore and violence. Since “superhero-landing” on the literary stage at age 23 as the winner of the Excellence Prize at the 2016 Goldenbough Time-Leap Fiction Contest, Cho has proven herself a master storyteller, and a prolific one to boot. To date, she has authored more than a dozen novels and short story collections, each received enthusiastically.

As the fourth full-length novel in Cho’s oeuvre, “Teddy Bears Never Die” proudly shows off the author’s growth beyond her youthful prodigiousness. The complex convergence of various plotlines at the book’s climax displays a level of narrative maturity compared to her debut novel, “Shift,” the English translation of which comes out shortly after the release of “Teddy Bears Never Die.”

Through translator Sung Ryu’s expert translation of Cho’s distinctive, cinematic writing style, English readers can now enjoy the exhilarating feeling of head-to-toe immersion in Cho’s unique world of bleakness dotted with pinpoints of light. As someone who has read every single translated Cho Yeeun novel to date, I can attest to the eloquence of Ryu’s translation, which perfectly preserves the experience of reading the author’s original words.

The vividness, heart and freshness of Cho’s writing stretch her appeal far beyond fans of horror and thrillers to include readers who simply can’t resist an absorbing story. This wide-ranging appeal is a likely reason for Cho’s near-celebrity levels of popularity. For Korean readers, Cho is not a rising star in genre fiction but a blazing sun in her own right, one that has drawn a solar system of admirers into her orbit.

In a poll of more than 400,000 people conducted by e-commerce site Yes24, Cho was voted first in the category of “Young Writers Who Will Shape the Future of Korean Literature in 2025.” Her most widely known short story collection, “Cocktail, Love, Zombies,” has sold more than 100,000 copies, and the wait for her signature at book events often runs for hours.

Another reason Cho’s books fly off the shelves may be her adept handling of social issues most relevant to her core readership: city dwellers in their 20s and 30s. Yamu, the fictional town “Teddy Bears Never Die” is set in, faces a sweeping gentrification drive featuring euphemistic talk about the necessity of a “city cleanup.” The reality was luxury living for a select group of well-heeled inhabitants, while those displaced by the new edifices of wealth were increasingly marginalized in the place they had always called home. This commentary surely strikes a chord with those who struggle to buy homes in Seoul while property developers flaunt the construction of batch after batch of gleaming luxury apartments.

Cho has spoken openly about her belief in writing for and about the marginalized in society, and about the cracks, imperfections and deviations from normalcy that so easily get glossed over, then forgotten. Viewed from this perspective, “Teddy Bears Never Die” is classic Cho Yeeun: two teenage misfits struggling to navigate a heartless world where true darkness lies not in shadowy supernatural forces but in the murky depths of human greed.

A book launch for both “Shift” and “Teddy Bears Never Die” will be held Saturday at Youngpoong Bookstore’s Jongno Main Branch, in the book and beer salon. Cho Yeeun will be on site to discuss her two new works in translation and sign copies. The event is co-hosted by Youngpoong Bookstore, Hachette Book Group, Honford Star, Seoul Silent Book Club and dbBOOKS. Admission is free; check @dbbooks.co.kr on Instagram for detailed information.

“Teddy Bears Never Die” can be purchased online from dbBOOKS.co.kr.

Faye Leung runs @the_bibliocracy, an Instagram account dedicated to singling out reads for savoring. She regularly posts book reviews and recommendations, and has a particular fondness for Korean literature.