A review by gilldaniels
Tim'rous Beastie by Amanda Lafrenais

4.0

After losing site of the digital Kickstarter copy of this book in my inbox, I at last downloaded and read it. It’s amazing. Amanda Lafrenais isn’t just an accomplished artist but a skilled editor. My favorite stories range from sweetly endearing (Better Nature, The Flavor of the Sky, A Long Way, The Long Bridge, Rainmaker, and Pests) and the deeply unsettling (Burrows, Chimera, The Silk Crown, A Pig Being Lowered into Hell in a Bucket, The Feasting Star, and the wonderfully named Myths of the Wild Bassets). Not every story worked for me, but only because talking animals potentially covers such a wide swathe of genres and from tragedy to cutesy comedy. It can be more than a bit of whiplash between stories. But it’s wonderfully done, often beautifully illustrated, and I hope it finds its readership!