Customer Reviews

NASTYbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A boy is sent to a doctor to learn to stop picking his nose. A hot teen movie star gets transformed into a gerbil. A boy tickles his girlfriend until she explodes. A pirate captain becomes violently seasick. These are just some of the scenarios in Barry Yourgrau's NASTYbook, a collection of gruesome and grotesque stories intended to disgust and delight young readers.

My first mistake in reading NASTYbook was to be fooled by the cover, which is put on backwards, so readers looks like they are reading the book upside down. My second mistake was thinking that it wouldn't actually be as nasty as the title suggests. Do not underestimate the nastiness of this book. Along with normal gross-out nose-picking and bodily fluids, NASTYbook contains all sorts of bad behavior, including decapitations, animal rampages, and revenge from beyond the grave.

The stories in NASTYbook are short, usually just a few pages long, and extremely effective. One type is a fable with the ironic punch of Kafka, like "Peanut Shells," about an elephant who's caught cheating on a test with notes it cannot in fact read, or "Ugly," a story about a boy with bad skin who becomes the monster he feels himself to be. Other stories have the tone of Hilaire Belloc's CAUTIONARY TALES FOR CHILDREN, about juveniles whose bad behavior is rewarded with bad ends. Still others are just plain grotesque, or unnervingly scary, like "Oof Oof" about the ghost of a teddy bear who comes back to haunt its tormentors. The collection is visceral and disturbing, and exactly the sort of thing many kids would enjoy reading, even as many parents would find it inappropriate or upsetting.

Yourgrau's work, whether for children or adults, is at its best when he writes lean stories ripped with vivid imagery. His work is like a window into other people's nightmares. Even though they are clearly prose, there is something poetic about even the nastiest stories in NASTYbook. Yourgrau's work reminds me of Shel Silverstein's. It has the same awareness that childhood isn't just sweetness and innocence, but also can be filled with fear, superstition and brutality.

NASTYbook is fun to read and truly distressing, a book that will convince many young people that reading is more exciting than they previously thought. It does not seek any kind of moral or artistic redemption, but may find it anyway. NASTYbook is likely to be on the banned books list for many years to come.

--- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

My name is Max Mordini and I just get finished reading Nasty. Well I didn't know what was in store for me until I opened the book and realized that it was backwards and upside down. This right away caught my eye that the author was a funny guy. I also didn't know that the book was filled with 43 little halarious storys; I guess. Well the thing is they were only about 4 to 5 pages long so I don't know what to call them. Well as i said before you know that this book wasn't an actual chapter book with a begining, rising action, climax, etc. It didnt have a problem, but there was a problem in some of the short stories. For example, in the story Pizza a delivery boy has to deliver a pizza to a vampire. His friends gave him garlic, but no crucifix, and no silver bullet therefore........well you probubly know what happend. Another example is the story Monster about a boy who has the most ugly face; with pimples, warts, and acne. He decides that there's no point in life, so he drops out of school and starts scaring people for a living. One day he comes home and finds face cream and it works. Now the problem is solved.
I thought something good came out of the reading although i was expecting a chapter book. I am actually glad that I stumbled on to this book, but it wasn't the best book iv'e read i mean some of the storys made absolutely no sense, so I decided to try to think what the author was thinking and how wacky he is in real life. The book wasn't very exciting as much as it was funny though. The author was very creative I think. I wouln't of come up with the wacko ideas he had. They were absolutely out of the box, I mean way out.
If I had to rate this book I would give it 3.5 stars. You should read this book if you just want to kick back and relax and have a couple good laughs particularly around summer time. I recommend this book for boys and girls 9 and up. All in all The Nasty Book wasn't so nasty, but it was funny.

This book is hysterical! We heard the author being interviewed on NPR Sunday show, the interviewer could barely get out her questions, she was giggling so hard. Can blame her? We gave the book to our favorite niece and she went running around the living room screaming in delight. (She's a big Roald Dahl fan, that must explain some of it.) Neil Gaiman's blurb says it right, "magnifiecently nasty", oh indeedie. This is a book for kids (and us elders) who like to laugh, if you don't count yrself one of that kind, ha ha anyway!

ever since his amazing debut, A Man Jumps Out of an Airplane, Barry Yourgrau has created a funny/off-beat/very imaginative niche for himself in modern lit, creating maximum images in your head via minimum words (& if David Lynch wrote short-shorts they may sound like this). his new one here is a fun, warped time for the weird kid in you--or you could use it to traumatize the dreams of the obnoxious kid kicking the back of your theater seat ;-) check these cool stories out & then grab B.Y.'s other great books as well; every one from him should be celebrated!

This book is as collection of stories. The stories are comical, creepy, gorey, scary, gross, and nasty. Some of them have a mission to scare you, while others just live up to the name nasty. They are all good for a night of sleepless-ness.

Opinion: This book was ok. The author did a good job on making up nasty stories. Many of them were to unbelievable. They weren't that nasty because I know some of the events couldn't happen. However, some of them really sent the hair on my neck rising.

Reviewed by a student reviewer (age 12) for Flamingnet Book Reviews
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The Nasty Book is a collection of really, really short stories (2-3 pages) that are filled with dark humor and tragic endings. For example: A story about an elephant that goes to school, and an oafish guardian angel. The style of the book is present tense, for those interested, and is very quick paced. If you like non-traditional stories, which are exceedingly weird, then this is for you. It's definitely something that you can read while on the toilet. However, I do not recommend this for younger children, despite the simple language. It is for older kids and teenagers. Keeping that in mind, have fun, there are surprises awaiting you.

It is incredulous! How can this even be published? The many stories were disgusting and nonsense. Now, don't get me wrong, I do enjoy nonsense, but it isn't even funny nonsense! What is the matter with this! I think no one should read it! It is a big NO! If you want to read something don't waste your time with this upsidedown madness!