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Summary: A "Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" review by Fernando Leal
Review: Tim Burton once again surprises and delights us with his new book, "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories". The book is a subvertion to the children's fairy-tale book genre. If you look at the book and flip through its pages, you'll say it's indeed a children book, and it's supposed to look like one. But the book has several direct sex and drugs references (i.e., the sexual problems of Oyster-Boy's parents, and "the girl who sniffed lots of glue"), and most of the characters of the tales die at the end. Tim Burton, who's given us such wonderful movies as "Edward Scissorhands", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", and "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", has now made a wonderful book, filled with what he's best at, unusual, misunderstood and outcast characters. "The Melancholy Death..." is a collection of tales of little freak kids who live in deep sadness for not being understood or accepted. The stories are told through melancholic verses and the illustrations (by Tim Burton) are simple and extremely elegant. Once you meet characters like Melonhead, Stick-Boy, The Boy With Nails in His Eyes, Junk Girl, The Pin-Cushion Queen, it gets easier to understand how Tim Burton could come up with such an original and bizarre film as "Edward Scissorhands". It's as though he was one of the kids from the book. The references to sex reminded me of "Batman Returns", where Tim Burton subverted the action-movie genre, turning a Batman blockbuster movie into an expressionist tale of sex and horror. The Penguin, by the way, makes an appearance in the book as a child (The Hideous Penguin Boy). "The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy" is a wonderful book and a must for any Tim Burton fan.
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Summary: Melancholy Indeed!
Review: Tim Burton is pure genius. In this little book of melancholy poetry he combines humor, darkness and independent thought into indescribable delight.
This petite book of 23 short poems is the definition of creativity and artistic expression. Burton's poetry is simple, rhythmical and completely unique. His characters are as varied as "James" to "The Boy With Nails in His Eyes," each offering a touch of whimsy beside an outsider existence. Anyone who has ever felt different will somehow relate! Complete with Burton's own drawings of each distinctive character it is a very entertaining experience.
If you enjoy Tim Burton's films and relate to his ability to tell the tale of misshapen outcasts you will enjoy this chance to savor Burton in print. Adults and children alike can chuckle and moan at the inventiveness of a true original.
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Summary: My destiny has been found . . .
Review: One day, as I travelled through my dreary life along with all the other gloom filled robots of the world, whose souls have been sucked out by the mindless antics of television, authority, or perhaps even by themselves unknowingly, I waited anxciously for the fourth period bell to ring. Ah, that ring, it may only be a five second ring sounding as if a cat were being run over repeatedly, but it meant the world to me. It meant . . . freedom . . . freedom from a life of being chained helplessly to the hard, cold, wooden desk of my so-called "education". The bell rang, and I decided I would travel over to my friends house for a quick snack, or perhaps a quick escape from my harsh reality, it didn't matter which one. Anyway, I was in her room, as she frantically searched for her phone through the mountains of clothing that lay on her gray, dead floor, I noticed a book on the dresser, all black with maroon in the center where the words "Melancholy death of the oyster boy" were written. I picked it up, took a glance, was about to toss it aside, when i noticed the strange yet alluring cartoon on the front, assuming it was this so-called "oyster boy". Intrigued, I opened it, page after page of ingenious poetry, with clever characters to go along with this truly amazing writing. It was diturbed, dark, black, dead, cold, souless . . . I loved it. I immediatly went to amazon.com to find this truly glorious book, I ordered it, and a few short days later it arrived on my door step, no it wasn't the book, well, atleast it wasn't just the book. For that book represented my life, and it's meaning, my life was dark, black, disturbed, all the things this book seemed to be. It told me that there were others as dark as I was. I had truly found my life's meaning. I would recommend this book more than any other, I would also recommend the holiday edition of this book! rock on Tim Burton! We were meant for each other Tim! I love you!
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Summary: Totally Burton
Review: This little book is great for Burton fans and lovers of the macabre. The pictures are great, and the stories are, as the title suggest, quite meloncholy. Each story is about an unfortunate misfit just trying to get by in life, while the painful norms of an unforgiving society sent them to death or into the shadows.
It isn't a masterpiece, however. It isn't quite as funny as it could be and I found some of the poetry a bit trite, but this is still vintage Tim Burton for the page. Recomended for die-hard Burton fans, and for lonely misfits the world over.
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Summary: Brilliant and Weird
Review: Is there more to say? It is Tim Burton. It is weird. It requires a sense of humor. And intelligence. If you have neither, or wonder if you do, then pass on this book. If you nodded, then what the heck are you reading reviews for? Buy it.
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Summary: This book ROCKS!!!
Review: This book has to be one of THE BEST books I have ever read. Five stars is not good enough to descripe this, it should have more like 58 stars! It was written by Tim Burton so only the best is expected, seeing how he is one of the best directors in the history of forever. I've spent many hours reading this book, and have done more than 18 schools projects about it. It's that good!!!
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Summary: A touching collection
Review: If you are a fan of Tim Burton's work, then I recommend this to you in the fullest. If you are not, then I recommend you stay away from it.I picked this book up on a whim, without ever having read anything by Tim Burton. I loved the Nightmare Before Christmas and enjoy the work of people like Angus Oblong, Jhonen Vasquez, Roman Dirge, and Gorey-- so I figured, why not? Although it's not the best poetry ever (I'm not a poet, I don't know very much about rhythm or anything like that), I found them to be very touching. The layout is very nice and pleasing, and some of the poems are laugh out loud funny, while others are starkly sad and leave a big impression on the reader. The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy was strikingly sad in my opinion, and I nearly cry when I read the poem "Anchor Baby". The book itself is a beautifully bound hardcover book-- it looks very nice sitting on a shelf, and I think it would be great to have sitting on a living room coffee table (..that is, if I didn't live in a dorm) The ONLY reason I did not give this 5 stars is because it is a little bit pricey, in my opinion. I would consider buying a second hand copy, if possible.
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Summary: Twisted and Delicious
Review: I read this all in one sitting and thought it was a wonderful, twisted blast of sardonic fun. I've always appreciated Burton's odd and dark sense of humor, so I felt perfectly at home within the pages of this little book. It's a bit pricey for the length, but I got over it. However, unless your kids are as weird as I was as a kid, I probably wouldn't make it bed-time fare for the young'uns. If you're a fan of calming hysterical children freaked out by dreams about the boy with nails in his eyes, then by all means...
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