Original language: English
Original title: Neil Gaiman’s Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire
Year of publication: 2017
Translation: Jose Torralba
Valuation: We cannot recommend this book, although, in other circumstances, it would deserve it…
-Neil Gaiman? NEIL GAIMAN? -they snapped at me at the Review Supervisory Board of A Book A Day when I went to request permission for this one-. Are you crazy? We cannot review Neil Gaiman.
– As? By no?
– Haven’t you heard? It’s very cancelled…
– And so? -I asked, completely stupefied.
– Apparently, they accuse him of doing very nasty things to several girls. Even JK Rowling has put it into broth… andAs you will understand, we are not going to be worse off than JK Rowling…
– Well, go with Neil; If he seemed nicer than the pesetas…
– You see… Those are the worst.
I reflected for a moment. I had published several reviews of Neil Gaiman books, and quite complimentary ones at that. I couldn’t take the risk that someone might relate me in some way to a cancelled… But, on the other hand, geez, I had already written the review and I didn’t feel like throwing it in the trash…
– Well, actually it’s not exactly a Neil Gaiman book either. This is a comic drawn by Shane Oakley based on a story by Gaiman.
– Does your name appear on the cover or not?
– Yes, but…
– Well, there’s nothing more to talk about. Unauthorized review. We’re not going to get into trouble for a simple comic.
– But it’s not a simple comic! -I glimpsed a crack in which I could put my nails and enlarge it-. It is an ironically meta-literary story about a writer of gothic novels that include all the topics of the genre. To begin with, there is a beautiful and buxom young woman in trouble…
– Wow, turgid… you can’t put that in if it’s by Neil Gaiman.
– Okay, let’s leave it… It’s about a really very formal girl, an orphan who goes to work as a governess and on a stormy night must take refuge in a sinister mansion…
-We already see that about the topics of the genre.
– The fact is that Gaim… I mean Oakley uses this story to, with a great sense of humor, reflect on literary creation, genres, the representation of reality in fiction… With the help, furthermore, of magnificent and expressive illustrations, full of drama thanks to original framing, a theatrical use of chiaroscuro…
– As if they are the work of Caravaggio himself. We are sorry but no choice…Gaiman is banned from this blog.
I was silent, staring at the committee. I had one last bullet left in the chamber and decided to use it. I approached them and, lowering my voice, as if I were telling a secret, I explained:
-Think about the number of visits that Gaiman’s name will attract, even if only out of curiosity. And more blog visits mean more income for us… which, after all, is what matters, right?
“Okay,” the response didn’t take two seconds to arrive, along with the duly completed and stamped authorization. And publish it as soon as possible; We have to seize the moment…
More book reviews by Neil Gaiman that will be removed from the blog as soon as the Oversight Committee decides: here
Source: https://unlibroaldia.blogspot.com/2025/01/neil-gaiman-shane-oakley-esposas.html
