I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Teddy Bears Never Die by Cho Yeeun, Translated by Sung Ryu Published by Run For It on May 26 2026
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 304
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Gritty crime drama meets killer teddy bears in this high concept, bloody tale of revenge.
Teddy Bears Never Die is probably one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, and the fact that it’s also a translated book (written by a Korean author and translated by a Korean translator), the “strange” factor jumps up to eleven. The beginning was rough for me, and I even considered DNFing it at one point. It’s confusing for a couple of reasons: the translation is sometimes awkward and some of the phrases are head scratchers. The hardest part for me, though, was trying to get into the rhythm of the structure. The story is told in very long chapters that can almost be read as separate stories. Eventually these chapters make sense as a whole story, but it took some time to wrap my brain around what the author was trying to do. But as you can see by my rating, it really grew on me, and by the end I was so glad I finished it!
The story revolves around two main characters. Hwayoung is a plucky girl who is barely surviving after her mother died from eating a poisoned rice cake. In order to keep her head above water, she sometimes does illegal jobs for a man named Youngjin, but on one such job, she discovers that Youngjin has lured her to a remote location, promising a big payday, but instead it’s a set-up and someone tries to kill her.
But before that can happen, Hwayoung is saved by a stuffed Happy Smile Bear, who is inhabited by the soul of a boy name Doha. The hatchet-wielding bear saves her life, and they decide to team up so that Hwayoung can avenge her mother’s death—which she suspects was not a poisoning, but something even more sinister.
There are quite a few mysteries going on, and luckily the author takes readers into the past to explain a few important things, like how Doha ended up inside a stuffed bear, what really happened to Hwayoung’s mother, and what became of Doha’s body—part of the plot involves the two main characters searching for the body and trying to figure out how to get Doha’s soul out of the teddy bear. Driving all these subplots is Hwayoung’s desire to find out who killed her mother and exact revenge. This isn’t a straightforward story by any means, but a twisty tale that backtracks, jumps ahead in time and takes a few side roads along the way. Each chapter focuses on one particular time in Hwayoung’s life, for example how she and Doha met as schoolmates (when Doha still had his body!), how the Happy Smile Bear became important to her, and how her loyalty to the bear’s memory and her friendship with Doha ultimately save her life.
Word of warning, there’s a quite a bit of graphic violence, murder, rotting bodies and more in Teddy Bears Never Die. Most of the characters aren’t very nice—think crime bosses, assassins and thieves—so the flavor of the story, in addition to the fantasy element of a sentient teddy bear, is a gritty crime drama. One thing I love about the book cover is that it’s a brightly colored, happy cover but with hints at the story’s darker corners. The cover exaggerates the relationship between Doha in his bear form (in the story he’s simply teddy bear sized) and Hwayoung, and the bloody hatchet tells you this isn’t a cozy teddy bear story at all.
I loved Hwayoung, who is about fifteen, I think. She’s passionate about finding her mother’s killer, and she understands that she might die herself while she’s trying to seek justice. And she’s OK with that. All of the blood and gore are offset by the sweet friendship between Doha and Hwayoung. Doha hurt Hwayoung when they were kids (in a bullying sort of way) and he’s determined to apologize and win back her friendship. Doha has an emotional backstory himself, as he was raised in the shadow of his popular and brilliant cousin. There’s a lot of familial friction that made me ache for poor Doha, but having Hwayoung back in his life, as dangerous as it is, makes up for some of those hurts.
As for negatives, I did struggle at times with the translation, although thankfully these incidents were few and far between. Still, phrases like “The unreleased emotion spread through her body, stewing her blood and harassing her every nerve” were puzzling and pulled me out of the story. And as I mentioned before, some of the action is confusing, and having to reorient myself at the beginning of each chapter slowed me down a bit. I would recommend reading this book in big chunks, which would help immensely with keeping all the events and timelines straight.
In the end, though, I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything came together. There’s also a nice emotional payoff that made me smile, and Cho Yeeun did a great job of tying up every single loose end and bringing each one to a satisfying conclusion. For readers who don’t mind working a bit, this is a fantastic and unusual horror story.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I read long chapters and immediately was like oh no… because I really dislike them but I’m glad eventually it grew on you and that the long chapters made sense as a whole story. As unusual as this book sounds it does fit with Korean stories in general I think.
I don’t like long chapters either! That’s why I think you have to sit down and just read this in big chunks.
This waa definitely uniquely formatted. I ended up loving it too but it was a tad slow in the beginning. Also, I was kind of expecting a giant teddy bear. Great review.
The cover is a bit misleading, but I ended up loving what they did, making the teddy huge. It gave the cover a fantastic graphic novel vibe, where everything is exaggerated.
I certainly prefer a story that has a rough start even to the point of contemplating DNF’ing it but then finishes strong, over the stories that start out so very well but somehow fizzle before the end. I’m still having a hard time getting my head around the possessed teddy bear without thinking of things like Chucky or the Gingerdead Man. 🙂
Yes, me too Todd. And you’re right, there were some Chucky vibes going on, although the boy inhabiting the teddy was a normal boy, not a killer. He just found himself in some tough situations.
Killer teddy bears! I think the pacing and translation problems would have left me DNFing — kudos for sticking with it! I’m glad you ended up enjoying it, despite the problem areas.
I’m glad I stuck with it too!
Sounds like a book not to read when your brain is tired. The premise is so funny, but I’m not sure I’d make it through this one. Though Hwayoung does sound like a great character.
LOL so true! It takes some work to figure things out.
Great review! I am debating if I can read horror since I got offered the newest Kelley Armstrong which is horror / thriller.
Thanks Anne! I think you should go for the new Kelley Armstrong. I was just offered it as well.
Sounds oddly interesting but not sure if it’ll make my TBR.
Very odd but ultimately very good:-)
I’ve been seeing this one around a fair bit but haven’t really paid it any attention as a killer teddy bear story really isn’t my kind of read at all. This does sound more complex and deeper than I’d expected though and you’ve actually left me curious about a title I’d previously written off. As to the format I wonder if that’s a cultural thing as a Japanese title that I read was written in a similiar manner with what seemed to be individual stories eventually tying together. I know they’re both completely different cultures but maybe these kind of stories are popular in both or something. Lovely review, as always.
It could be a cultural thing, although I’ve seen plenty of Western authors do similar things with format. I was surprised by how well everything came together in the end:-)
There’s a part of me that’s curious about this one, but it’s not really my scene. That said, you did a great job of not downplaying your issues with it while giving potential readers a reason to check it out.
Thanks Roberta! I was surprised by how the book turned around, I guess I just had to be patient:-)
Hmmm, I wonder if I’d get on better with the start because I’ve been reading other Korean fiction in translation. I do find getting used to reading books in translation can really use a lot of experience — at least, that was my experience with a lot of the Chinese novels I read. There are different conventions and a different style, and a different culture informing it, and it can all add up to make it more bewildering than it is after a bit more experience… On the other hand, I know very little about Korea despite reading ORV and Solo Leveling, so, maybe not.
This might have been my first Korean book in translation, so I’m sure there’s a bit of a learning curve. I would read more though!
I have an ARC of this that I’ve been oddly hesitant to pick up, haha, so this review is perfect. I think you’ve convinced me to give it a shot, it certainly sounds odd and I’m always up for that.
I’d love to know what you think if you read it!
Great review. I’m happy to see you enjoyed this – it certainly is an unusual and in fact unusually unique horror story.
Lynn 😀
Thanks Lynn! It was very unique.
I’m curious how I’ll do with the strangeness and confusion. I’ll definitely be a little more lenient when I try it since you said it gets better, but I figure I’ll also give it some grace since some things can definitely be lost in translation!
I did the same thing because it was translated. But I really did love the way everything came together in the end.
This sounds unique and I like the fun cover. It sounds like somethings were lost in translation. That’s good you stuck with it and it paid off in the end though. I’m stubborn and won’t DNF unless it’s really bad.
I could tell this was going to be an interesting/strange book. I am guessing it would be a DNF for me for sure if you considered it at all! Great review though, thanks for making it through and sharing it all with us!