BJ's Reviews > A Night in the Lonesome October

Gahan Wilson is one of my favorite cartoonists (if you’re not familiar, think something like The Far Side as drawn by Edward Gorey), and the illustrations were a large part of why I picked this one up. They didn’t disappoint, but the whole book is something special. It’s obvious that Zelazny had a blast writing this, and the fun is infectious.

Edit: Still thinking about this one. It's a good thing I didn't know what the book was about going in—I'll say that. Because on the face of it, faux-Victorian horror pastiche as narrated by a dog named Snuff sounds about as appealing as a quarter cup of white sugar for dessert. Fortunately, by the time I figured out what I was reading, it was too late, I was hooked. There's an inventiveness, an almost gleeful playfulness here, that somehow manages to overwhelm the ever-looming twee.