Emily's Secret Book of Strange (Family Comic Friday)

  I've been holding on to this week's selection for just a time as this. It's the last Family Comic Friday before Halloween and I thought now would be the right time to read and review Emily's Secret Book of Strange.
    A little background about Emily. She's an advertising mascot designed in the early 90s. Since her inception, Emily and her kitties have graced skateboards, purses, guitars, stationary- you name it. There's even boutiques devoted to her in Taiwan, Japan, and in 2017, a store will open in her birthplace of San Francisco. In 2001, Emily even made the jump to comics and graphic novels.
    I had seen a couple of Emily the Strange books in the Young Adult section at my local library. But I just wouldn't make time to check it out. Then one day at a discount book sale, I found a copy of one of her books for literal pennies on the dollar. "Huh,' I thought, 'This would make a great Halloween read' and I snagged it up.
    So, was it a great read?
    The neat thing about about Emily's Secret Book of Strange is that some of it is printed in this kind of invisible ink. If you hold the book up to the light in a certain way, secret messages and other spooky images appear. That's actually pretty neat. There's even this secret decoder activity throughout the book that requires you to find a secret rune in order to find even more hidden messages from Emily.
    Stylistically, this book is beautiful. But the book itself borderlines on the disturbing. Emily hates people. Her only friends are her cats. In order to not feel so lonely she creates these hybrid creatures called Zonsters. So far, I'm on board with everything though I'm a bit spooked as well.
    Because of her creation of new beings, she also shes herself as God.
    Huh? say what? Yeah, I'm sure there's some Doctor Frankenstein mixed into this but if I am trying to be objective for parents, I have to point this personality trait out because some adults may find this objectionable for their kids. Going on the Emily the Strange website, it's pointed out that Emily isn't for kids. But this book is aimed at those 10 and up. Honestly, some of the images and cryptic messages might be too scary for youngsters. So, I would have to say that the suggested reading age actually be 12 and up.
    A very artistic book that is at times visually beautiful as it's advertising at it's very best. But it contains images and ideas that parents  and guardians may not feel are appropriate for their child. Personally, this won't be a permanent fixture of my collection but that's my opinion.

   Rating: 6 out of 10.