It's bleak, it's black, it's morbid: the very image of macabre is this, Gorey's tiny masterpiece. In just 28 short frames (including the iconic title page), "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" chronicles the tragic deaths of 26 children. It's easy to write this work off as appealing to the black-fingernailed set, but this is a wryly funny work which does what the best macabre fiction does: blends despair with laughter (the kind of laughter you can't stop even though you know you should).

My favourite frames are those in which the manner of death is almost unspoken: the child reaching her hand up to open a door, unaware of the bar-room brawl on the other side; the inquisite effete young boy gazing at a package, and so on. If nothing else, this is a work of sublime inventiveness. ( )

I’m a little bit embarrassed that I enjoyed this book so much…. ( )

Macabre humor. Some may disturb. ( )

The Gashllycrumb Tinies is the antithesis to instructive & safe picture books. Gorey tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths in rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author's distinctive black and white illustrations that emphasize the banalness of death. Look, I think instructive works are important for children but I also think life and the world is a scary place. We should shield them from the specter of death. I think Gorey was a mastermind for creating this little, sarcastic but important picture book. ( )

Quirky with wonderful drawings ( )