Of Course You Know 101 Ways to Use a Unicorn, Right?

Here’s a book that’s a lot funnier and lovelier than you might suspect it would be.

Here’s a book that gracefully transcends its schtick, that’s enjoyable to look at even when you’re not chuckling at its absurd humor.

Although it’s informed by a sharp awareness of modern culture, this 101 Ways to Use a Unicorn by Robb Pearlman and Dave Urban isn’t a particularly arch bit of satire – like Danny Palumbo’s fake foodie website Abbrev’s, say – and probably none of its gags will reduce you to tears of hilarity the way spot-on articles in The Onion sometimes can.

And, maybe a plus, this cryptozoological compilation is certainly less gruesome than the creative duo’s earlier 101 Ways to Kill a Zombie.

(Actually, it’s the opposite of gruesome, as each unicorn is a classically pristine white and accompanied by its very own rainbow … well, okay, the “WARNING” use, #93, is maybe as gruesome as it is allusory … and it’s highly allusory … poor old unicorn.)

But Pearlman’s humor is relentlessly clever and, when they’re not eliciting the odd bark of laughter, the examples of uses to which a unicorn can be put, and Urban‘s delightful illustrations of them, and the cumulative effect of the full-color, page-after-page variations on theme … listen: this book will at least leave you grinning.

And that’s true even if you don’t care one way or the other about unicorns.

But, if you’re totally into unicorns? If they’re, like, your spirit animal or whatever? Or if you just have fond memories of that one Peter S. Beagle story from your childhood?

Your life will be incomplete without this little volume.