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ezramol's review
4.75
I sort of read it simultaneously with Amphigorey one that's why I feel like my impressions are meddling with one another, nonetheless both works are those of excellence.
Fav stories: The Pious Infant, The Chinese Obelisks, The Deranged Cousins, The Eleventh Episode, The Disrespectful Summons, The Abandoned Sock, Story for Sara.
Fav stories: The Pious Infant, The Chinese Obelisks, The Deranged Cousins, The Eleventh Episode, The Disrespectful Summons, The Abandoned Sock, Story for Sara.
_lilbey_'s review against another edition
5.0
This is a completely biased review because many of the drawings are simple, none of the "stories" make sense and have unsatisfying conclusions, but man, do I love me some Edward Gorey.
droar's review against another edition
3.0
We had a copy of Amphigorey in the house when I was a kid & I remember re-reading The Wuggly Ump & the The Gashlycrumb Tinies over and over again. Even the less narrative stories grabbed my attention & held them. When I (very recently) found there were move volumes of Gorey's work I was super excited, but I found this volume fairly flat. The illustrations are, of course, gorgeous, but the stories were mostly meh. I enjoyed The Beastly Baby, The Evil Garden, & The Osbick Bird as they felt the most like the first volume. Overall, good but not spectacular, I probably wont actively seek out volumes 3 or 4 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
600bars's review against another edition
4.0
Wow it took us 2 weeks to read the first one and only 2 days to read the second! This one had so many ballet related stories. There was one costume in the Lavender Leotard that I remembered learning about in the Dance & Fashion book I read a couple weeks ago. I wish I had not returned the book because I googled and I could not find any information on it. Hopefully when I return to work no one will have bought it and I will find the page I am looking for. I learned that Gorey was an obsessive Balanchine fan and that the current exhibit at the Gorey house is about ballet. Maybe we will have to take a trip this summer. I also really loved that we got to see the draft of the Chinese Obelisk and the final product. The Gilded Bat was my favorite story.
meecespieces's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
ashleylm's review against another edition
3.0
A mix of decent, good, and disappointing short tales (and some hardly amounting to tale-dom, e.g. a nursey frieze). I've reviewed all the contents separately. Taken overall, this is not a must-read to the extent that Amphigorey was, not remotely. That was the greatest hits album, and this is a collection of other songs for the completists among us.
I hold out hope that I will enjoy the third and fourth volumes more, with my new, lowered expectations.
I also should point out that my edition, hilariously, sports a massive error on that initial page which lists publication dates etc. … it’s got the details for the contents of the original Amphigorey. So it proudly lists the original publication dates for "The Fatal Lozenge" or "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" but remains mum on the contents for this book. Copy and paste error? Surprised no one caught it.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
I hold out hope that I will enjoy the third and fourth volumes more, with my new, lowered expectations.
I also should point out that my edition, hilariously, sports a massive error on that initial page which lists publication dates etc. … it’s got the details for the contents of the original Amphigorey. So it proudly lists the original publication dates for "The Fatal Lozenge" or "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" but remains mum on the contents for this book. Copy and paste error? Surprised no one caught it.
(Note: I'm a writer, so I suffer when I offer fewer than five stars. But these aren't ratings of quality, they're a subjective account of how much I liked the book: 5* = an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish, 4* = enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = disappointing, and 1* = hated it.)
guinness74's review against another edition
3.0
Having read the first Amphigorey and this one all in the same day, I beleive I'm Gorey'd out. This one seemed a bit more whimsical, less dark, and a trifle more nonsensical than the first. It wasn't necessarily worse, just not exactly what I've come to expect from Gorey. Regardless, the art is still sharp and beautiful, but the stories are less engaging.
nightmare_maven's review against another edition
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0