Arc Review: Killer Fashion

Hi! I haven’t finished yet with all my recap posts (and yes, it’s a threat!) but I thought to let them go for a while and to post a review, so that you’ll be not bored! I’m good that way, I know! So today I would talk to you about one of the last reading of the last year, an easy and fast reading but original, that’s for sure!

Thanks to NetGalley and to the editor. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Title: Killer Fashion
Author: Jennifer Wright
Publication: November 21st 2017
Page count: 156

A beautifully illustrated book about deadly fashion—real historical stories of strangulation by scarves, neckbreaking high heels, and riot-causing top hats—from the author of the popular histories Get Well Soon and It Ended Badly

Isadora Duncan was Red
Put on a scarf; popped off her head
Fashion is silly, thought Stein
It may tear your head from your spine

A darkly comic book about some surprisingly lethal garments. Featuring stories like the untimely demise of dancer Isadora Duncan caused by her signature red scarf and the bloody riot that greeted the appearance of the first top hat, among many others, these bite-size accounts will frighten and delight. Killer Fashion includes over twenty of these short tales along with beautiful full-page illustrations. Both morbid and humorous, this book will appeal to fans of Edward Gorey and dark historical trivia.

Ok, this would be a short review because it’s for a short book. I liked the book and I have some things to say about it, but not so much, sooo… I’ll try to keep it short. And maybe I would also think about writing a post with more than one review when I have to write short ones. What do you think about it?

Anyway… the book! It’s morbid, yes it is, but it’s fun, too, and original, and interesting. The author tells us about a series of clothes and garment that, through the history, marked the fashion and caused the premature demise of the people wearing them. She presents us every garment with his history: who invented it, maybe also the why, when was it worn and so on… and these short descriptions (they aren’t longer than a page) are often intriguing and entertaining… in a morbid way, yes. You have to remember that, because we are speaking of clothes who literally killed their owner. It’s not a happy thing, so if you found it disgusting or morbid or inappropriate, then this book is not for you.

And after the short story/description we have an illustration and a rhyme. And I loved them a lot. I love the arts of this book, they are really the right illustrations for this genre, I think. I found them appropriate and I loved them. They remember me a little of Tim Burton and that’s a big plus (I might be a fan of Nightmare Before Christmas, but that’s a secret, so… shh!!!) and the rhyme made me smile more than once or twice.

I didn’t read it in one sit, even if you easily do so if you want, because the book is short, we have a lot of illustrations and so on… but I liked to just read a couple of pages each time, so to savor better the stories. Some of them were quite predictable, but some of them were completely new to me. And let’s be honest! Who never wondered about all the fancy hairdo/wigs that Frenchwoman wore in the past? How could they go on with those things on the head and navigate halls full of candelabras??? (Or it was just me? Anyway… that’s not important right now!). Well, now we know that they didn’t do it without a cost.

So, if you like books with good illustrations to it, if you like humor (even if it’s dark humor) and like to learn fun facts about things, even if they are obscure and useless, this little book is the reading right for you!

rating4
And you? Have you read it? Did you like this kind of books?