Author: Edward Gorey
Genre: Horror / Fantasy
Year Published: 1975
Year Read: 2012
Series: Amphigorey #2
Publisher: Perigee Trade
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 8+ (Death, Violence and Disturbing Imagery)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
EDWARD GOREY’S MOST
DISTURBING STORIES PART TWO!
After reading the first volume of Edward Gorey’s “Amphigorey,” I decided to check out the second volume
“Amphigorey Too” and see if my inner
Edward Gorey fan girl self would
enjoy this volume as much as the first volume.
I will admit that I was amazed at this second volume as it is just as
disturbing and interesting as the first volume!
In this volume, there are a total of twenty stories
collected by Edward Gorey, which
includes:
1) The
Beastly Baby
2) The
Nursery Frieze
3) The
Pious Infant
4) The Evil Garden
5) The
Inanimate Tragedy
6) The
Gilded Bat
7) The
Iron Tonic
8) The
Osbick Bird
9) The
Chinese Obelisks
10) The
Deranged Cousins
11) The
Eleventh Episode
12) The
Untitled Book
13) The
Lavender Leotard
14) The
Disrespectful Summons
15) The
Abandoned Sock
16) The
Lost Lions
17) Story
for Sara
18) The
Salt Herring
19) Leaves
from a Mislaid Album
20) A Limerick
Just like the first volume, Edward Gorey has done a brilliant job with both writing and
illustrating this book! Edward Gorey’s writing has a
sophisticated tone as the stories seem to take place in Old Victorian times and
the writing greatly complements the creepy atmosphere of the stories such as
using words like “atrocious,” “beastly,” and “abandoned” to really bring out
the creepy situations of the stories. Edward Gorey’s illustrations are just
as effective as they were in the first volume as the coloring is in black and
white. Even though the characters look a
bit simplistic, the images of the characters performing horrible deeds such as
an image of a baby ripping off a cat’s head, is brilliantly done as the images
are not too gory. Some of my favorite
stories in this volume were “The Beastly
Baby,” “The Chinese Obelisks,” “Story for Sara,” and “The Disrespectful
Summons.”
~Once again…~
THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR
CHILDREN!
There is a lot of disturbing content in this volume that
would scare small children such as images of characters ripping animals’ heads
off and children being tortured and eaten by various threats. Also, the writing might be too difficult for
smaller children to really understand since it is written in a more
sophisticated manner that contains many large words like “monotonous,”
“innumerable” and “interred.” The reason
why I took off half a point from this book was because some of the stories like
“The Iron Tonic,” and “The Salt Herring” were a bit boring to
read through and sort of slowed down the stories for me.
Overall, “Amphigorey
Too” is a great sequel to “Amphigorey”
as it has enough disturbing content and sophisticated storytelling that will
make Edward Gorey fans drool with
anticipation! I would recommend this
book to older children and teens since there is so much disturbing content
(characters being killed) that would disturb smaller children.
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