The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories - Softcover

Burton, Tim

4.12

39,835 ratings by Goodreads

9780571224449: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories

Softcover

ISBN 10: 057122444X ISBN 13: 9780571224449

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2004

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Twenty-three illustrated gothic tales from the dark corridors of the imagination of Tim Burton. Burton - the creative genius behind Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Nightmare Before Christmas, among others - now gives birth to a cast of gruesomely sympathetic children: misunderstood outcasts who struggle to find love and belonging in their cruel, cruel worlds. His lovingly lurid illustrations evoke both the sweetness and tragedy of these hopeful, yet hapless beings.

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Review:

This unassuming hardcover in black buckram with a dark lavender title plate is the door into a world of twisted pleasures. Filmmaker Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas) tells 23 winsomely macabre stories about boys and girls who don't fit in. Their bodies are misshapen, their habits are odd and their parents are appalled by them. But they do try hard to be human, like poor unwanted Mummy Boy, who's "a bundle of gauze": he goes for a walk in the park with his mummy dog. Some kids who are having "a birthday party for a Mexican girl" mistakenly take Mummy Boy for a pi�ata: "They took a baseball bat and whacked open his head. Mummy Boy fell to the ground; he finally was dead. Inside of his head were no candy or prizes, just a few stray beetles of various sizes." For all its simple humour, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories is a peculiarly disturbing book about the violence that children suffer. It is illustrated in pen and ink, watercolours, and crayon. The themes and imagery are at a young-adult to adult level.

Review:

'Burton's creepy stories conjure up the fantastical, even the slightly demented.' -- Entertainment Weekly

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