Illiterarty.com Book reviews and blogs by Bridget

This volume brings together thirteen of Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories and poems and couples them with the visual art of thirteen talented and engaging artists.

If this was an egg, it would be a curate’s egg.

If this was a book cover, it would be its own - flashy, fun, inviting, two-dimensional and with a really wanky subtitle.

Far more satisfying than my last Agatha Christie experience; this collection of short stories, originally published in 1948 (obviously seven years did wonders for her), delves into the supernatural, the mysterious, the psychological, the criminal, and the downright strange.

This eclectic little collection of short stories is very Janwillem Van de Wetering - and I feel qualified to say that even though I've only read a total of two of his books now. His personality permeates every corner of his writing, and he has an intriguing style combined with a taste for the bizarre that combines very happily. Having read his bio, I could sort of tell why he was heading in those directions, but it certainly didn't detract from the reading experience.

If this was a sandwich, it would be some delicious overpriced kosher thing from a snazzy New York deli that goes down like a greased oyster but won’t spoil your appetite.

If this was a night out, it would be an invitation to a party full of people with better clothes and more interesting jobs than yours, who, after your initial awkwardness dissolves, turns out to be great fun and highly accepting, and even if you still can’t really figure out what you’re doing there you have some great fun, get high, and even start to suspect that in a different life you could be even cooler than they are.