#1129 in our old book database. Not rated.

Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones round up some friends to write some ghastly, nasty little nursery rhymes and poems loosely inspired by A. A. Milne's Now We Are Six.

Nothing here really does much for me, nor did it work for me when I first read it 29 years ago. Yet, as with all my books, I'm still holding onto it.

FOR REFERENCE

Contents:

• Introduction: Now We Are Sick / Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones

~ Nasty Habits

• A Slice of Life / Diana Wynne Jones
• Auntie Ethel / Richard Hill
• You Always Eat the One You Love / Kim Newman
• Chocolate and Worms / David Garnett
• The Dangers of Colour TV / Simon Ian Childer [pen name of John Brosnan and Leroy Kettle]
• The Children's Hour / Alan Moore
• Radio Nasty / Stephen Gallagher
• Something Came Out of the Toilet / Harry Adam Knight [pen name of John Brosnan and Leroy Kettle]
• The Secret Book of the Dead / Terry Pratchett
• Mummy's Blocked the Lav Again / John Grant [pen name of Paul Barnett]

~ In Loving Memory . . .

• Rice Pudding / Brian Aldiss (after A. A. Milne, "Rice Pudding" from When We Were Very Young)
• Aboard the Good Ship 'Revenger,' Or, What the Crew Don't Know Won't Hurt Me / Galad Elflandsson (inspired by George MacDonald Fraser)
• The Dream of Omar K. Yam / David Sutton
• You're Deceased, Father William / Colin Greenland (after Lewis Carroll, "You Are Old, Father William" from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

~ Less Welcome Tenants

• A Landlady's Lament / Ramsey Campbell
• The Borgia Brats / Garry Kilworth
• Another Cursed House Story, Or, Always Enquire About the Prior Tenants / John M. Ford
• Waiting... / James Herbert
• The Thing at the Top of the Stairs / Sharon Baker
• Things that Go Bump in the Night / Ian Pemble

~ Night Fears

• In the Dark / Storm Constantine
• Lights Out / Alex Stewart
• A Mother's Tender Love / Jo Fletcher
• Catcawls / Samantha Lee
• The Haunted Henhouse, Or, The Irate Ghost of Thomas Hood / Jessica Amanda Salmonson
• When the Music Breaks / R. A. Lafferty

~ Adults Only

• Nasty Snow / Jody Scott
• Why Private War, or, "Why They Pinned This Name on My Progenitor" / Gene Wolfe
• The Answering Machine / S. P. Somtow

~ Epilogue

• Warning: Death May Be Injurious to Your Health / Robert Bloch

(My Pooh Project: I love Winnie the Pooh, and so does my wife. Having a daughter gave us a chance to indoctrinate her into the cult by buying and reading her every Pooh book we came across. How many is that? I’m going to count them this year by reading and reviewing one every day and seeing which month I finally run out. Track my progress here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/23954351-rod-brown?ref=nav_mybooks&she... ) ( )

This is definitely one of the oddest collections of poetry that I've ever read. Its pages are filled with ghosts, ghouls, and all manner of creepy crawlies that are sure to turn the stomache of any reader at some point. Most of the poems I found more comical than actually scary, but some (like the one featuring a coked-up child Snow White) were a touch disturbing. I would recommend this book around Halloween, because it definitely fits the modern sense of the holiday. ( )

They're sick, and so am I!!

Here's a collection of poems that will have you laughing at the same time as it makes you want to look under the bed and in the closet for something that might not belong there. Perhaps you'll even be looking askance at family member that hasn't seemed "quite right" lately.

These poems range from mildly horrifying and suitable to tell a child, to ones that are only fit for adults. Of course, your mileage may vary. Considering I grew up in a household that thrived on watching horror movies, I would've enjoyed these poems as early as age 10.

These poems are by people whose names are well known and some that I'd never heard of before. After finishing them all, I hope that we may see another book of "sick" poems at some time in the future.

Now pardon me. I just heard something go bump and I'm the only one in the house! *G* ( )

This delightfully gross and morbid collection of "sick" verse is a thoroughly enjoyable read! ( )

Morbid, dark, nasty, sick and funny as hell. If you have a sick kind of humour and can laugh till you drop about disgusting and gruesome poems, this book is definitely for you.
When I saw that both Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker were involved in this collection of horror poems, I just had to get it. And I wasn't disappointed. It's just great fun. ( )