Teddy Bears Never Die is a Korean revenge novel, as a girl teams up with a boy trapped in a teddy bear to find out the truth about her mother’s death. Hwayoung’s mother died during a mass poisoning at the luxury apartment block where she worked, an event that also killed Doha’s parents but left him alive. Hwayoung doesn’t believe her mother was poisoned and spends her days trying to save money to get to the truth. Meanwhile Doha lives with his uncle, whose son died during the poisoning, and then he wakes up trapped in the body of a teddy bear. After a chance encounter thanks to the plot of a dangerous criminal, Hwayoung and Doha team up to get revenge.
I loved The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre so I was very excited to read another book by Cho Yeeun. This one has a similar combination of bloody violence mixed with cutesy ridiculousness, all brought together by an action thriller storyline of crime and revenge. The narrative moves between the two main characters and their past and present, giving it a perhaps surprisingly deep plot given that it is also full of bloody scenes featuring a teddy bear that can move and talk, and the connection between Hwayoung and Doha forms an emotional core for the book.
Generally, Teddy Bears Never Die feels like a film in the way it cuts between scenes, and it would would be a great book to adapt. It has a more conventional focus on two characters than The New Seoul Park Jelly Massacre‘s vast range of perspectives, and I didn’t find it quite as engaging as that book, but I had a fun time with it. Cho Yeeun definitely writes my sort of ridiculous bloody novel.
Fiendfully Reading 
You must be logged in to post a comment.