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A review by chmccann
Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan
3.0
I'm not sure what this book is for, but I enjoyed looking at it. It's definitely more about the art than the text, and that art is very rich and evocative. I rarely just sit down and look at drawings, so this was a nice example of the PopSugar reading challenge leading me to books I normally wouldn't pick up!
So, why am I unsure about this? It's structured like a kids' picture book, but the drawings can be pretty disturbing. For the right kid, it might be perfect, and it seems like it's meant as an impressionable little brother parsing his sibling's admonishments through his own surreal fantasy world. So ultimately not too terrifying.
And yet. The eldritch flora (and fauna?) that spill in through the negligently unlatched door overnight - shiver! And the series of pages showing the little brother locked in a gray cell (or furnace?!) as the surrounding city crumbles to dust and black birds form a growing flock - the images give enough information to set you on a path, but leave enough ambiguity to get under your skin for a while.
Check this out if you want to spend 15 minutes restocking your nightmare fuel, or you have a particularly morbid child to read it to!
So, why am I unsure about this? It's structured like a kids' picture book, but the drawings can be pretty disturbing. For the right kid, it might be perfect, and it seems like it's meant as an impressionable little brother parsing his sibling's admonishments through his own surreal fantasy world. So ultimately not too terrifying.
And yet. The eldritch flora (and fauna?) that spill in through the negligently unlatched door overnight - shiver! And the series of pages showing the little brother locked in a gray cell (or furnace?!) as the surrounding city crumbles to dust and black birds form a growing flock - the images give enough information to set you on a path, but leave enough ambiguity to get under your skin for a while.
Check this out if you want to spend 15 minutes restocking your nightmare fuel, or you have a particularly morbid child to read it to!