Cherise the Niece

Edward Gorey meets The Bunny Suicides in a murderously funny tale from the creator of It’s Happy Bunny From the creator of the hugely successful It’s Happy Bunny franchise comes a little piece of work named Cherise, who may be, it turns out, a not-so-nice niece. In the tradition of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Jim Benton’s first adult picture book, with hilarious rhymes and illustrations, is a darkly comic masterpiece of the macabre. “She was orphaned quite young In a mysterious way, Her parents just up and vanished one day.” The bloody footprints leading out of Cherise’s bedroom are the first clue that perhaps the little darling with the bow in her hair is not an angel. As Cherise is shuttled from one aunt’s home to another, her aunts vanish, meeting inventive and hysterical ends. With a killer punch line on its final page, Jim Benton’s Cherise the Niece will leave readers laughing.