"Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People" by Douglas Coupland and Gordon Roumieu

These aren't your average children's stories. And if the title doesn't warn you of this, then the fact that they are written by Douglas Coupland and illustrated by Graham Roumieu should clue you in. With titles like "Donald the Incredibly Hostile Juice Box," Brandon the Action Figure with Issues," and "Kevin the Hobo Minivan with Extremely Low Morals" you will be wanting to keep this book far away from your children.


Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People contains seven short stories with weird, crazy, scary, improbable and inappropriate characters, not just for children but for adults as well. Each story has brilliant and vivid drawings to accompany them and add to the inappropriateness.


Marketed as "deliciously wicked" and "completely hilarious" I personally found this book to be anything but. Highly inappropriate, sure, but the laughs were few and far between. Each story definitely pushes boundaries and the characters are definitely beyond expectations. If the only point of the story is to shock the reader, then it achieves that with it's absurdity. But for me, there was nothing else to it.


I just didn't get it. I've read only one of Coupland's other works, nothing of Roumieu's. Perhaps fans of theirs will enjoy this book. If you think this may be of interest to you, check out these favourable reviews:


Book Geeks


The Toronto Star

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 22, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    I do enjoy Coupland's books in general. This sounds fun but maybe it's not your kind of fun (and maybe not mine, either).

    Still, I will look out for it to see for myself. I had not heard of this book, so it's nice to hear about it from you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ShanNovember 22, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    That's exactly it, I think it's just going to be some people's cup of tea, and it won't be others.

    ReplyDelete
  3. John MutfordNovember 22, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    How about witty? I've read many books described as hilarious or laugh-out-loud funny that at best were witty. Could that fit?

    ReplyDelete

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