Ever read A Series of Unfortunate Events & thought "It would be really cool if instead of focusing on a trio of orphans & mysterious events, it'd be cool if Snicket wrote about conjoined twins?" If you've ever thought that, then you're in luck. Dresden Dolls genius Amanda Palmer has you covered in spades. (Oh yeah, and Jason Webley. I'm not too familiar with his stuff.)Fans of Amanda Palmer won't be surprised at how completely twisted & strange this collection is. A story like this can really only be properly told by someone as wickedly unique as her. It's not PC, but that's not the point of this story. The point is to showcase two talents that have been here all along.The storyline of the book is quite frankly very dark. If you saw this & thought "oh how cute, a kid's book" then you'll be incredibly mistaken. There's nothing in this that's appropriate for children. The book starts off with the twins' sad beginning & from there goes through a pretty tragic course of events. I don't want to spoil the book for you but there's stuff in here ranging from child abuse to pedophilia. None of it is especially graphic. You never see it "on screen" or directly called out for what it was by the twins, but it is there. People who prefer not to read books with this sort of material will probably want to steer clear or at least get this for a library read. (Hey, nothing wrong with that. I avoid overly tragic movies for the same reason.)Artwork-wise, it really fits the tone of the story. The artwork is sad and depressing, but intentionally so. After all, it's not like this is a story about two happy-go-lucky girls fighting evil with magical powers given to them by a stray cat. There was a lot of time & care put into the art in this book & I can't help but admire it even as I wince at some of the things inferred in it.Overall this was a pretty great read, but I think it'll really only appeal to a specific group of people. It's definitely worth reading but I recommend this as a library read first for anyone who is on the fence about purchasing this book. There will be people for whom this will be an absolutely buy immediately book, but others will be content to read this once, bask in its glow for a while, then remain content to keep up with the twins via the internet.(By the way, if you haven't checked them out on youtube, do so. It's worth the watch. By the time the video is over the musical stylings of Amanda Palmer & Jason Webly, erm... I mean Evelyn Evelyn will have stolen your heart away.)4/5 stars(ARC provided by Netgalley) I could take a moment to gush my love and praise upon Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley who have both tickled my funny bone as well as made me sob during their live performances, but this is not about their music…or is it?Evelyn Evelyn is a lovingly illustrated graphic novel that appears on the surface to be a charming children’s tale about a pair of conjoined twins. On closer inspection, any parent that would choose to give this to their under-ten child would probably scar them for life…perhaps for the better.The poor conjoined twins are raised in a chicken cage and then are taken to a child porn house…of course all of this happened after their parents were killed – the mother during birth and the father by a slip of a chainsaw.Through all of their troubles, Evelyn Evelyn seem to just float along, loving each other and their music. They become friends with a set of conjoined elephants, but otherwise it’s just the two of them against the world. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys circus stories, twisted children-styled books, the ferociously talented Amanda Palmer or the sweet vagabond Jason Webley.****1/2 = I read it, I enjoyed it, I would read it again…and I wouldn’t mind getting it as a gift.ARC provided by NetGalley
What do You think about Evelyn Evelyn (2011)?
Quite short (only an hour or so to read) but quite a bit more guignol than I expected.
—fiberone
