Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help

Milrose Munce and the Den of Professional Help is the harrowing tale of Milrose Munce, a sarcastic youth (and our hero); his seraphic and deeply strange girlfriend, Arabella; a school full of mutilated ghouls (which only our hero and his girl can see); and a faculty with an astonishingly evil agenda involving pitchforks and an antique cattle prod. MM is more than anything else, however, truly fine writing. Children might not appreciate this work for the quality of the prose - who realized that Dr. Seuss was a genius when they were six? - but they will find it hilarious and more than a little scary. (It's not overwhelmingly scary - it won't bring on nightmares - but it is very creepy in the manner of the original Charles Addams cartoons.) While it is labeled a young adult novel, it is appropriate for reading out loud to younger children, and like Oscar Wilde's fairytales it will appeal to adults for the loveliness of its prose. Everyone who encounters this book, young and old, will fall for Milrose Munce's snarky and self-deprecating brand of humor and will likely laugh out loud more than a few times. This is very serious high-minded silliness however: it's not common to find this kind of book anymore - the wordplay and grotesque descriptions are what we expect from a Lewis Carroll, or an Edward Lear, or maybe a Laurence Sterne. Milrose Munce is a modern classic.

Douglas Anthony Cooper's book is truly a wonderful book. I downloaded the Kindle edition and found myself wrapped up in the story within minutes. I only wish I hadn't read it so fast! I guess I'll just have to read it again, so I can re-enter the world of Milrose Munce.

4 full disclosure im a 12 year old guy. this book is really awesome. my mom actually MADE me read it which is usually BAD but this book is serious funny. it pretty much has everything, magic, ghosts, girls. its unrealistic because uh there are really torn up ghosts running arounfd a school that a guy and his girlfriend can see but its also mega realistic at the same time because its just u know like any other school. if you have to read something for school or something i would pick this book.

I am a serious devotee of Oscar Wilde, so I'm always excited to see a Wilde quotation at the front of a novel. Even more satisfying is to find that the book lives up to the glorious silliness of Earnest. This is a completely ridiculous novel - the highest praise I can think of.

Pretty odd that this book has become a cult classic in less than a month. I don't know many people who *haven't* read it! It's well deserved, though - I don't think I've ever laughed out loud while reading in public before, snorted coffee through my nose in fact. I got lots of weird looks, then people wanted to know what I was reading. I think I ended up selling a lot of books that day! My guess is that Cooper is going to be the next Lemony Snicket, and I'm a major Snicket-ophile.