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I just read The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.
It's far too self-consciously arch. The villains are evil for its own sake, and know it--and maybe someone could pull this off, but Snicket doesn't. The central devices appear to be exaggeration, cute names (the main characters are named Baudelaire, and the old family friend is Mr. Poe, and his oldest son is named Edgar), and repeatedly using a not-especially-difficult word and defining it parenthetically.
I believe there are five or six more of these books, but have no particular intention of spending the half hour each it would take to find out if they're better than the first.
It's far too self-consciously arch. The villains are evil for its own sake, and know it--and maybe someone could pull this off, but Snicket doesn't. The central devices appear to be exaggeration, cute names (the main characters are named Baudelaire, and the old family friend is Mr. Poe, and his oldest son is named Edgar), and repeatedly using a not-especially-difficult word and defining it parenthetically.
I believe there are five or six more of these books, but have no particular intention of spending the half hour each it would take to find out if they're better than the first.
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Gaiman's Coraline, on the other hand... gave me the willies for a week.
Does anyone else remember Alvin Steadfast on Vernacular Island, Frank Jacobs (illustrations by Edward Gorey)? The mention of The Phantom Tollbooth is what made me think of it. If you don't know it, it's really quite delightful and the illos, of course, are extra-marvy.