A wonderful and typically bleak and tragic (and darkly comic) affair from Gorey about a child who becomes orphaned, goes blind, and then get killed (accidentally ran over) by her own dad. ( )

I can’t really claim to have ‘read’ this book, as there’s not much to read. Each page contains a simple statement and one of Gorey’s quirky drawings, which is really what makes the book. Warning: if you don’t already know the story and don’t want to know the details, then don’t read the book flap because it gives the facts away. Fortunately, I had some inkling. When finished, which I did in under five minutes, even taking time to study the pictures, the bleakness left part of me harrowed, and part of me wanted to laugh. That could be partly a dark, twisted sense of humour, or a coping mechanism. I’m sure it’s both. One of the dreariest tales, this is perfect to dig out when anyone moans about their lot in life because you can remind them of poor little Charlotte Sophia. The type of book Jack Skellington would mistakenly give out to children for Christmas. This makes me think of the original fairy tales, which are darker than many people who haven’t read them believe. There’s something oddly interesting about this little book. ( )

The most depressing and harrowing "children's book" I've ever read. Father killed in war, mother (presumably) commits suicide because she's so depressed, the uncle dies from a brick falling on his head, the child is bullied, robbed, sold in the white slavery/sex work to a drunk, goes blind, stumbles into the street and gets run over by her actually alive father who doesn't even remember what his child looked like. The art is creepy and beautiful. The story is succinct and powerful. But the audience for this book can't possibly be children? I found it in the children's section of the library, but this is just too much. I wonder if it is creepier than original Grimm tales.

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Sort of like passively snuggling up to a running brush grinder, in a comforting sort of way. ( )

That poor poor little girl. ( )