YMMV / Alfie's Home

---

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Alfie's narration about his future home life: "I play with both my kids. We share a lot, spend time together, and touch in good ways."
  • Due to the simple illustrations and the awkward placement of the child's legs, the visual representations of "mother's love" and "father's love"◊ look like the parents are humping the kids, something Cracked pointed out in their review of the book. Even worse is that this is the depiction of what healthy love between parents and kids is supposed to be.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: A children's picture book that is pro-conversion therapy^note Dismissed by research as ineffective pseudoscience long before 1993 propaganda with misinformed claims about homosexuality is a tough sell.
• Bile Fascination: Pretty much the only reason anyone would read this would be to see if its homophobic messages are really as bad as everyone says.
• Broken Aesop:
  • On the whole, Alfie's Home's message seems to be that members of dysfunctional families can overcome their problems and go on to lead normal healthy lives. The book breaks this both by glossing over the effort this requires and by presenting homosexuality as a problem to be solved.
  • Not to mention the implication that family dysfunction is bad because it "causes" homosexuality, not because of all the other problems that come with it and from it.
• Narm: The off model drawings make Uncle Pete's face looks hilarious when he's touching Alfie. Or as some people put it: "Oh no, Alfie's been molested by Conan O'Brien!"
• Nightmare Fuel: Not only does this book describe a child being molested on a frequent basis by his Creepy Uncle, but one molestation is accompanied by an illustration of the act. This is a children's picture book.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Though this book already suffers from its premise, it's most infamous for a Nightmare Fuel illustration of a child being molested by his Creepy Uncle.
• Squick: It's about a boy being molested; this is to be expected.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Despite being made for children, it features a graphically described molestation scene and homophobic slurs.
• The Woobie: Alfie gets molested by his uncle, has a terrible home life, and is bullied by the other kids in school. With all the stuff that happens to him, you really want to give him a hug (in a non-creepy way) .

---