luce (cry baby)'s Reviews > Green Frog: Stories

In recent years, there has been a surge in the publication of 'weird' short story collections, and unfortunately, Chung's Green Frog is a lacklustre addition to this trend. The ‘quirky’ tone and the use of absurdist and surreal elements felt almost formulaic as if Chung was following a checklist or creative writing prompts rather than genuine narrative experiences rather than genuinely experimenting with her storytelling.

The choice of the opening story was particularly baffling; it’s basically a series of instructions, not a story at all. To place this as your ‘opener’...it’s an odd choice. It was almost off-putting in a way. Usually collections like these open with a banger (and then fizzle out). But still, I moved past it hoping that the following stories would at least deliver on the themes promised by its summary. Sadly, they didn’t. Not only did they lack substance, but the style they prioritized felt derivative and not particularly compelling. Characters fail to register their presence on the page, and the story’s ‘quirks’ were entirely gimmicky. The only truly memorable one was the story about an amorphic praying mantis, but this story is really cut short and doesn’t really do anything (thematically or stylistically). They just washed over me. Neither bad, nor good, but certainly surface-level and forgettable. This is a pity as they promised to blend real-life struggles, specifically of Korean American women, with fantastical elements. However, I found the author’s exploration of bodies, desires, and memories to be tedious.

While I didn't love Chung's debut, it had an earnestness that I couldn't help but admire. In comparison, Green Frog feels rather contrived. Maybe if you have just started reading weird short stories you might find yourself able to appreciate Green Frog in ways that I was unable to.