Book Review: Twisted Tales to Rot Your Brain, Vol. 1
Nora Thompson is a lifelong artist who started drawing the characters that make up her current style of work in 2006. “The Rots”, as she calls them, are each a little bit odd. Her characters are “slightly irreverently twisted” beautiful illustrations that are both entirely fictional and somewhat based in reality. She has her own versions of Andy Warhol, the Mona Lisa, Edgar Allan Poe, and a plethora of monsters. In 2011, Thompson published her first volume of flash fiction titled Twisted Tales to Rot Your Brain. Capping at just 95 pages, this small collection is a delightful read full of short stories and illustrations, and would be a lovely addition to any horror-lover’s library. As a fan of her artwork, I grabbed myself a copy in hopes to encourage the spooky season to arrive early this year.
Before picking up Twisted Tales, I was expecting to find something reminiscent of classics like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Thompson’s tales are different from your typical ghost story, while still feeling timeless. Goofy, unpredictable, icky, and creepy, each piece guides the reader through bite-sized glimpses of a character or setting. Some pieces are just one page, others are barely that with just a drawing and a title. With only the essential details, Thompson creates an unsettling atmosphere that keeps us guessing.
Art by Nora Thompson
In addition, Thompson crafts some lovely new takes on classic horror tropes. There are zombies, werewolves, murderers, witches, ghosts, spiders, and other typical characters in this book, but none of them are quite what they seem. Without sacrificing the elements that will truly spook you, Thompson is able to draw out empathetic characterizations on these tropes, asking readers to rethink what scares us, and why. In Shadows, for example, we read about a character who is scared, which in turn, makes us feel scared. And in Mouth Breather, we meet a character who is ostracized by other kids for seemingly no good reason. But by the end of both of these pieces, we learn who these characters are, and where they come from, and suddenly it’s not so clear who or what is monstrous. Many of Thompson’s stories reverse the protagonist and antagonist roles. Suddenly, readers are rooting for the antagonist to succeed, despite the creepiness in tow.
One of my favorite parts about this book is its accessibility. The stories are well crafted but simple and easy to read. If you’ve got a spooky-loving child in your life, Twisted Tales is an excellent introduction to some silly and creepy fiction. Middle-grade readers will probably enjoy this on their own, and little ones with a certain taste for the unique bedtime story would likewise find enjoyment. Twisted Tales would be an excellent choice to share at sleep away camp when you’re telling ghost stories around the fire.
Thompson’s artwork is perfectly creepy. As her career as an illustrator is long standing, the drawings in Twisted Tales bring forth the true essence of the characters in the book. She’s got bizarre square-shaped cats, a little shop of monsters, ravens, skeletons, plague doctors, a sasquatch, grim reapers, and so much more. Her distinctive drawing style is evocative of Tim Burton, Edward Gorey and the likes. The characters that Thompson creates that aren’t featured in Twisted Tales are just as emotive as the ones that are in the book, even without being able to read their full backstories. Often placed in simple settings, the facial expressions and colors of each drawing convey the depth of Thompson’s imagination. The figures seem to each have their own full lives, and they live somewhere in all of our minds (or nightmares).
Although she is more prominently known for her artwork, it is safe to say that Nora Thompson’s fans are looking forward to the release of volume two of Twisted Tales to Rot Your Brain. No news has been shared as to when or if a second volume is in the works, so for now we’ll just have to settle on making up our own stories about her drawings and hoping for more.
You can purchase a copy of Twisted Tales to Rot Your Brain, Vol. 1 and Nora Thompson’s artwork at http://the-rots.com/.
Article written by Theresa Baughman
Theresa totally hates movies but sometimes watches them with her friends. She writes about the intersection of art & anthropology, gendered horror, and she loves demonic possession horror.
