Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth ~Chris Priestley

–published 2009
–Bloomsbury Publishing
–259 pages
–illustrated by David Roberts

I discovered Chris Priestley’s Tales of Terror series last year about this time and quickly devoured the first two books, Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror and Tales of Terror from the Black Ship. Having enjoyed both immensely I was excited to see my library recently obtain a copy of the latest book, Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth. Like its predecessors it delighted me with the palpable, nostalgic creepy vibe given off by each story contained therein. The Tales of Terror books reside comfortably in the in-between space in which they are not quite short story collections and not quite full novels. Instead they are books that start and end with a young child (two in the case of Black Ship) who find themselves alone with a suspect adult who entertains them by telling them ghastly tales featuring young people who mostly meet very bitter fates. In between stories the young person becomes increasingly aware that something about their present circumstances is not quite right and their own adventure progresses throughout the series of tales being related.

I had been anticipating that a great deal of pleasure would come from this latest installment and in that I was quite right. Priestley’s latest will leave you with a feeling of satisfaction at having had a good ol’ fashioned scare while revisiting your own memories of childhood tales of things that go bump in the night.

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The Graveyard Book ~Neil Gaiman

–recorded 2008
–HarperCollins Audio
–unabridged, 7.5 hours
–Novel winner of the 2010 Carnegie Medal

Book lovers the world over understand that while there are many authors, living and dead, whose talent with words and grasp of subject matter can keep one enthralled for hours in a world that exists between the front and back cover, there are those authors who rise above that. They enchant us. They have a way with words that sings a melody directly to our hearts and when asked we readily describe them by that overused word: favorite. Neil Gaiman is one such author for me. The Sandman series opened up a world of comic books for discerning readers that I had not previously been aware even existed. And when I read Gaiman’s novel, Neverwhere, I felt as if somehow he had mined the richer parts of my dreams and concocted exactly the kind of story that I always wanted to read. It isn’t that I hadn’t read good, engaging books before that. I had. And I have read many since then. But something about the way Neil Gaiman writes, and the access he provides readers through his blog, endeared him to me in a way that is very powerful.

In other words, I like his stuff. And whether you are a fan of Neil Gaiman, have never read any of his work, or have and just find him a bit, “meh”, I know that if you are a book lover you know exactly what I mean, and merely need to insert your own particular author’s name into the above paragraph.

When Neil’s latest book, The Graveyard Book was released in late September 2008, I wasted no time in picking it up from the store that very day. I began reading it shortly after midnight that night and had finished it by the end of the day. I was deeply engaged in the story, was moved to tears on a couple of occasions, and promptly set out to order the audio book version so that I could share it with my wife on a trip we had coming up.

That was two years ago. It seemed highly fitting to revisit the story now, two years later, as the season slowly makes its way towards cool autumn nights.

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