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The Vinegar Works #2

The Insect God

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The sacrifice of poor Millicent Frastley.

15 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1963

1 person is currently reading
640 people want to read

About the author

Edward Gorey

480 books2,037 followers
Born in Chicago, Gorey came from a colourful family; his parents, Helen Dunham Garvey and Edward Lee Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11, then remarried in 1952 when he was 27. One of his step-mothers was Corinna Mura, a cabaret singer who had a brief role in the classic film Casablanca. His father was briefly a journalist. Gorey's maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a popular 19th century greeting card writer/artist, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents. He attended a variety of local grade schools and then the Francis W. Parker School. He spent 1944–1946 in the Army at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and then attended Harvard University from 1946 to 1950, where he studied French and roomed with future poet Frank O'Hara.

Although he would frequently state that his formal art training was "negligible", Gorey studied art for one semester at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1943, eventually becoming a professional illustrator. From 1953 to 1960, he lived in New York City and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating book covers and in some cases adding illustrations to the text. He has illustrated works as diverse as Dracula by Bram Stoker, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. In later years he illustrated many children's books by John Bellairs, as well as books in several series begun by Bellairs and continued by other authors after his death.

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5 stars
199 (37%)
4 stars
177 (33%)
3 stars
117 (22%)
2 stars
28 (5%)
1 star
7 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
Profile Image for Dream.M.
1,040 reviews652 followers
December 4, 2024
عاشق کارای گوری هستم
اونجور که ووس دارم ترسناک، گوتیک ، دارک و لاوکرافتی 😬😬
درس اخلاقی: از دست غریبه ها چیزی نگیرید بچه ها
Profile Image for Calista.
5,432 reviews31.3k followers
April 28, 2018
If you ever thought that making a young person's story about kidnapping and being sacrificed by an insect god, then you would be someone who thinks like Edward Gorey. Amazing art and dark humor make this a good little story of Gorey's. It is such an oddity.

I really wasn't expecting this one and it was surprise and surprise. Thank goodness bugs don't get this big.
Profile Image for Flo.
649 reviews2,250 followers
January 8, 2021
O what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she’s still alive?
Why haven’t they found her? It’s rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five.

As dark as it gets. From cinnamon balls to unspeakable ritualistic practices.

Jan 7, 21
Profile Image for Sara.
1,802 reviews560 followers
July 11, 2024
ای وای توقع نداشتم!
البته نمی‌دونم توقع چی داشتم ، اینکه شاید یکم مدل کتب اطفالش کنه؟

البته لذت بخشه سبک نویسنده. بریم که ببینیم سومی رو پیدا میکنیم یا نه.
Profile Image for Essareh.
284 reviews1 follower
February 2, 2025
حقیقتاً من ترسیده‌ام و مادرم را می‌خواهم.
تصویرگریش شاهکاره. حیف کیفیت خوبی ازش پیدا نکردم.
فعلاً تو شوک پایانم و حرف بیشتری ندارم. :))

پ‌ن: یکی از دوستان که نمی‌دونم اسمشون رو چطوری بنویسم، یه ریویوی فارسی خوبی براش نوشته‌ن.

ممنون که خوندید.💙

۱۴ بهمن ۱۴۰۳
همچنان تخت.
Profile Image for Coos Burton.
915 reviews1,575 followers
February 19, 2016
Por si aún no se lo figuraron, estoy teniendo mi pequeño momento Gorey, necesitaba recurrir a él luego de bastante tiempo sin apreciarlo. "El Dios de los insectos" es una de las historias más bizarras del artista, y lo amé como la primera vez que lo leí. Realmente nada demasiado elaborado o rebuscado en cuanto a su aspecto literario, lo que principalmente vale, a mi humilde ver, es su arte plástico que deja una sensación fascinante de incomodidad y sorpresa.
Profile Image for Jason.
1,321 reviews139 followers
February 6, 2017
If Dr Seuss was a psychopath then this would be the sort of book he would write. It's about a young girl no following the rules and talking to strangers, she gets abducted as you'd expect. The ending of the book is very sudden and quite unexpected. Each page is illustrated, nice a colourful and full of the sort of images Tim Burton would create.

Creepy book that was fun to read.
Profile Image for Drew Canole.
3,179 reviews44 followers
May 30, 2023
A series of B+W artwork with ABAB verse. A young girl Millicent Frastley is missing and we follow some theories and people searching for her. It turns out she was snatched by some preying mantis looking creatures and sacrificed the the insect god.
Profile Image for Windy.
254 reviews34 followers
Want to read
June 22, 2009
I want to be the insect god.
Profile Image for Amanda .
448 reviews86 followers
August 1, 2013
"Oh what has become of Millicent Frastley?
Is there any hope that she's still alive?
Why haven't they found her? It's rather ghastly
To think that the child was not yet five"


We all tell children that they shouldn't take candy from strangers right? The problem is children don't always listen and when your 5, going for a drive with a nice man really doesn't sound that terrifying.

A more effective method would be to have them read this tale.

Poor little Millicent is happily minding her own business and nibbling some grass in the park (as you do). As darkness creeps in a stranger pulls up and offers Millicent a cinnamon ball. As her greedy little fingers move to fish one out she is snatched and taken away to a strange land where she is stripped naked, bundled into a pod and offered as a sacrifice to the Insect God.

So the next time you need to lecture little Billy or Mary on stranger danger forget about strangers. Tell them that they will be taken away and sacrificed to this :



Profile Image for Jennifer.
935 reviews19 followers
April 14, 2010
A great little book. The story is rather dark - the art is rather dark. One of those twisted little stories that you probably wonder if you should give it to your child or not. I think I would have loved this when I was a young lass.
Profile Image for Radwa.
Author 1 book2,309 followers
March 17, 2025
another gorey horrible tale of a horrific fate a child meets with.
a child disappears after being kidnapped by giant insects is the sort of gothic tale i like to read.
Profile Image for Charles Schneider.
Author 20 books37 followers
June 23, 2009
Of the many great Gorey books I seem to gravitate to this one and THE LOATHESOME COUPLE. Perhaps it is because those are the two books he autographed for me when I stumbled into him at Gotham Book Mart in New York in the early 1980's. He radiated eccentricity and Goreyness!
Profile Image for Miranda .
5 reviews
September 29, 2012
This one is my most favorite. I love it so much I have the tattoo on my hand!!
Profile Image for Laura.
Author 4 books17 followers
Read
July 28, 2013
I learned about this book, and read it, at the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts. Deeply disturbing story; the stuff of nightmares, vivid and horrifying.
Profile Image for Wetdryvac.
Author 480 books5 followers
February 6, 2017
Very Lovecrafian in an understated sort of a way.
Profile Image for Sol.
111 reviews34 followers
May 6, 2020
I LOVE Edward Gorey; this has been a recent discovery to me.

I’m not going to say anything about the history because I don’t want to give anything away (it is really short so it’s better to just read it without details). I just want to say that if you like creepy stuff and creepy little histories, E. Gorey is your man.
24 reviews
August 30, 2015
Wherein everything you suspected about insects turns out to be entirely true.
Profile Image for Kwoomac.
969 reviews46 followers
January 11, 2022
Another dark one from Edward Gorey. A child is kidnapped by some giant insects, who then present her to the insect god as a sacrifice. Sadly, there was no explanation regarding where the giant insects came from or where they learned to drive.

I did like this part-
The Frastleys grew sick with apprehension,
Which a heavy tea only served to increase;
Though they felt it was scarcely genteel to mention
The loss of their child, they called in the police.

I love that even though their daughter was missing, they still sat down for tea.
Also, not wanting to share private family business with the wretched masses.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews

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