Tuesday 7 April 2015

Review - Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

2999495Genre: graphic novel, short stories, fantasy
Pages: 96
Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads

Summary
Breathtakingly illustrated and hauntingly written, Tales from Outer Suburbia is by turns hilarious and poignant, perceptive and goofy. Through a series of captivating and sophisticated illustrated stories, Tan explores the precious strangeness of our existence. He gives us a portrait of modern suburban existence filtered through a wickedly Monty Pythonesque lens. Whether it’s discovering that the world really does stop at the end of the city’s map book, or a family’s lesson in tolerance through an alien cultural exchange student, Tan’s deft, sweet social satire brings us face-to-face with the humor and absurdity of modern life.

My thoughts
After having read The Arrival and absolutely loving it I was really excited to read another book by Shaun Tan.The Arrival is still my favorite book of his, but I also really enjoyed this one. The art was gorgeous again. The book features a mixture of brightly coloured paintings, black and white drawings and collages which add a lot to the stories. You can clearly see that a lot of thought went into designing this book, even the table of content is gorgeous to look at. The stories were very diverse and all very imaginative. Some were definitely better than others, but I enjoyed all of them. Tan has a very distinctive art style and I am a huge fan. I can't wait to read other books by him.
I have a hard time saying what age group this book would be for. Some of the deeper layers of the stories may be lost to children, but they would probably still enjoy it. I think this is a book that people of all ages would enjoy!

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