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The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories is a poetry book written and illustrated by film director Tim Burton, published in 1997 by William Morrow and Company.
The book has been generally been well received by both critics and readers. It has received 4.7 out of 5 on Amazon and a B+ at Entertainment Weekly.
According to American comics artist and publisher Stephen R. Bissette, the title poem "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" was originally conceived as a project for Bissette's comics anthology, Taboo, and was actually written by horror novelist Michael McDowell, who had previously worked with Burton on the screenplays for Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas. McDowell is thanked at the end of the book, but is not credited for writing the poem.
The poems, which are full of dark humour, tell stories of hybrid kids, spontaneous transformers, and women who have babies to win over men.
"The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories exquisitely conveys the pain of an adolescent outsider. Like Tim Burton's movies the work manages to be both childlike and sophisticated, blending the innocent with macabre." - New York Times
"In the manner of pictorial tales of Shel Silverstein, Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey - but from a slightly more twisted realm of the imagination - Burton's creepy stories conjure up the fantastical, even the slightly demented." - Entertainment Weekly
Tim Burton - the creative genius behind Batman, Edward Scissorhands. Sleepy Hollow and The Nightmare Before Christmas - 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.
I'm a big fan of Tim Burton's and I have to say my favourite movie is The Nightmare Before Christmas, we watch it throughout October - December, especially Christmas Eve, so how could I not read a book full of his poems. It didn't take me long to get through as it's full of short and easy to read poems. As expected they're really well written and easy to follow, but be prepared they do consist of dark humour, but it's not something I find odd, especially from Tim Burton.
If you're a fan of Tim Burton's work, and like dark humour then I really do recommend this little book of poems, I'll happily read it again. Some of the poems left me thinking "what?", but there was a few that I couldn't help giggling as I read them. Something I think can make you question how you think and view certain things.
Have you read The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories?
What were your thoughts on the book?
Let me know in the comments below.
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