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puckish's review
3.0
I am a huge fan of Eugene Smith's previous Tarot in Wonderland deck and also a lover of all things dark and spooky. As soon as I heard about this deck, I was so excited and pre-ordered immediately. While I am not the biggest Edgar Allan Poe fan, I have read many of his works.
As far as the deck itself, the cardstock and print quality is comparable to the Tarot in Wonderland. It can also be compared to the other new "big box" Llewellyn decks, such as the Forest of Enchantment Tarot and the Wizards Tarot. The colors are rich, the images crisp and the cards are thin, flexible, and very glossy. The card quality is rather poor with many of these newer Llewellyn decks and my cards already had chips on them before I even took them out of the plastic shrink wrap. With regular use the cardstock simply won't hold up to much wear and tear, so be careful shuffling.
In contrast, the book and box quality is excellent. The book is 288 color pages with crisp, vivid, full color images of each card. There is also around a page and a half of information for every card in the deck. This includes the Minors, unlike most Tarot books that may only have a list of keywords or a sentence or two for the Minors. There are also five custom Poe themed spreads in the back. The introductory chapters feel a bit rushed but the card meanings are very well written.
The artwork has a good amount of details and symbolism, plenty to dig into without being overwhelming. The colors are very cool toned, with lots of blues and many of the images on the darker side. While the art style is somewhat cartoonish, the theme of the deck in contrast is rather mature. There is mild nudity (Judgment) and some potentially disturbing imagery (Queen of Wands, 5 of Pentacles in particular).
My biggest criticism of the art itself is the loss of details in some of the cards. The way shadows are used in particular, it does make it hard to see some important details within the cards themselves, especially on some of the character faces.
Example: In the 6 of Swords, the character facial features were almost impossible for me to make out on the cards. If you compare the artwork to the book you can see that one of the characters appears apprehensive or weary and is looking back, while the other character appears more confident and is facing forward. These details could be very useful in interpreting the card in a spread, but are so small and dark that it's hard to see unless you look at the full page imagery included in the book.
As a "Rider Waite Smith" style deck, a lot of creative liberty is taken. Some of the cards feel like a bit of a stretch to tie back to the traditional RWS imagery and card meanings. I would not call it as "beginner friendly" as the Tarot in Wonderland and perhaps is better suited to serious Edgar Allan Poe fans who are experienced with Tarot and/or use more intuitive rather than traditional reading styles. Given the tone of the deck, it would also make for a good Halloween themed deck for those into the cartoonish art style with a darker, spookier theme.
As far as the deck itself, the cardstock and print quality is comparable to the Tarot in Wonderland. It can also be compared to the other new "big box" Llewellyn decks, such as the Forest of Enchantment Tarot and the Wizards Tarot. The colors are rich, the images crisp and the cards are thin, flexible, and very glossy. The card quality is rather poor with many of these newer Llewellyn decks and my cards already had chips on them before I even took them out of the plastic shrink wrap. With regular use the cardstock simply won't hold up to much wear and tear, so be careful shuffling.
In contrast, the book and box quality is excellent. The book is 288 color pages with crisp, vivid, full color images of each card. There is also around a page and a half of information for every card in the deck. This includes the Minors, unlike most Tarot books that may only have a list of keywords or a sentence or two for the Minors. There are also five custom Poe themed spreads in the back. The introductory chapters feel a bit rushed but the card meanings are very well written.
The artwork has a good amount of details and symbolism, plenty to dig into without being overwhelming. The colors are very cool toned, with lots of blues and many of the images on the darker side. While the art style is somewhat cartoonish, the theme of the deck in contrast is rather mature. There is mild nudity (Judgment) and some potentially disturbing imagery (Queen of Wands, 5 of Pentacles in particular).
My biggest criticism of the art itself is the loss of details in some of the cards. The way shadows are used in particular, it does make it hard to see some important details within the cards themselves, especially on some of the character faces.
Example: In the 6 of Swords, the character facial features were almost impossible for me to make out on the cards. If you compare the artwork to the book you can see that one of the characters appears apprehensive or weary and is looking back, while the other character appears more confident and is facing forward. These details could be very useful in interpreting the card in a spread, but are so small and dark that it's hard to see unless you look at the full page imagery included in the book.
As a "Rider Waite Smith" style deck, a lot of creative liberty is taken. Some of the cards feel like a bit of a stretch to tie back to the traditional RWS imagery and card meanings. I would not call it as "beginner friendly" as the Tarot in Wonderland and perhaps is better suited to serious Edgar Allan Poe fans who are experienced with Tarot and/or use more intuitive rather than traditional reading styles. Given the tone of the deck, it would also make for a good Halloween themed deck for those into the cartoonish art style with a darker, spookier theme.
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