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.
Throughout this post I include a few examples of the illustration of David Roberts. I have said in previous reviews that Roberts’ work is a spiritual descendant of that of one of my favorite illustrators, Edward Gorey. I am very impressed with David Roberts’ work and they fit these tales perfectly. It is rare in these times that books contain chapter heading art as well as full page illustrations. Thankfully each of these nine stories (plus two chapters making up the bookends of the piece) have both and they are all memorable. Each of the Tales of Terror books also ties in slightly to the other in that there are brief mentions and hints of things from other books. Though each is largely stand alone, because of this I would recommend reading them in order.
In Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth, young Robert Harper is returning to school by train after spending the holidays at home with his stepmother. His estranged relationship with her causes him to blatantly disregard her premonitions that something horrible is going to happen on the train. At various junctions along the journey various men, and one woman, join the train and seat themselves in Harper’s car. After briefly falling asleep Robert Harper awakens to find that, besides himself and the young woman, all of his fellow passengers are asleep. In addition to that, the train had stopped before the mouth of a dark tunnel. In order to while away the time the young woman begins telling Robert Harper a series of dark stories, each of which leaves him with a sense that there is something untoward both in his situation and with his mysterious companion.
As with any collection of short stories, or in this case collection of stories being told by one main character to the other, there are some that are better than others. None were a disappointment, but particular favorites of mine were A New Governess, The Crotach Stone, Gerald, Sister Veronica, and A Crack in the Wall.
Contained within these and other stories are things buried that were better left undisturbed, deadly imaginary friends, mischievous fairies, old world superstitions, abusive nuns, and other terrifying tidbits that are the staple of the kind of stories you might have enjoyed hearing in your youth if you were a child who liked scary stories.
Chris Priestley is careful to avoid setting these stories at a particular date, and has instead placed them in a Victorian/Edwardian era that is at once familiar and at the same time keeps things standardized enough for anyone to be able to pick up these tales and relate to them. Priestley has a background in writing historical fiction and I believe that shows in these tales and gives them a strength and depth that they might not otherwise have. On his blog Preistley writes:
“I have written quite a lot of work that has been fast-paced and has a lot of action and even violence in it. The stories in the Tales of Terror series are very different. They are altogether more quiet. There are sequences of fast action and violence, but they happen in bursts and erupt from a relative stillness.”
It was such a perfect description that I could not help but quote it. These are quiet tales whose suspense and foreboding builds both within each story and between each story with the events happening to the protagonist. When I pick up a Tales of Terror book to read I feel like I am transported back to days that I can recall as a child, sitting on my bed reading ghost story collections checked out from my local library. It is that sense of nostalgia that makes these books stand out to me. At the same time I believe they can find a very contemporary audience both with other adults who want to relive that same sense of nostalgia (or create one now) and for younger adults who appreciate being told a good creepy story that won’t give them nightmares the way modern gore tales would but may make them check the closet good before shutting their eyes. My only regret in reading these three books over the last year is that I don’t have a 9 or 10 year old to read them aloud to. As it is, I’ll fulfill those desires by reading selections of this aloud to my wife and daughter before returning it to the library.
In a recent comment to me on his site, Chris Priestley hints that there may be more Tales of Terror books sometime in the future. For now there are plans to re-release them, at least in the U.K., in March of next year (unfortunately, in my opinion, without David Roberts’ cover or interior illustrations) with new material that tie each book more firmly in with each other. While I will surely want to read the new material when it comes out, I find that I must own copies with the Roberts illustrations, and so I went ahead and ordered books one and two from half.com today and will be on the lookout for this one.
I’m also excited to report that although we must wait indefinitely for another Tales of Terror book, Chris Priestley has another scary novel coming out next month entitled The Dead of Winter.
If you haven’t done so yet, I highly recommend you add the Tales of Terror books to your reading lists.
Feel free to check out my reviews of:
Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror
Tales of Terror from the Black Ship
And if you have read Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror, check out Chris Priestley’s blog. He is currently posting a story by story review of each story in the book. Very entertaining.
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This book is a selection for:
The 2010 Support Your Local Library Challenge.
The 2010 Reading Challenge in the Young Adult category.
None of the libraries in my province have anything by Chris Priestley. I must see if I can talk my library into buying something by him!
I’ve only read Uncle Montague, but I had a fun time reading that and should look his others up.
Amanda: You would probably enjoy Priestley’s last few posts then.
Kailana: Yes you should. I cannot imagine that they wouldn’t be popular choices, especially this time of year.
It has never occured to me before now to recommend John Connolly (one of my favorite authors) to you, but having read this review, it makes sense. I think you’d really enjoy Connolly’s “Nocturnes” and “Book of Lost Things.” Worth checking out if you ever need something to add to the TBR pile 😉
Stuart: Oddly enough I have bought Book of Lost Things as a gift for someone because of good things I’d heard about it but have never gotten around to reading it myself. Thanks for the reminder. Nocturnes is a short story collection, right? Certainly something I need to check out.
I’m so pleased to hear that the ‘Tunnel’s Mouth’ is as good as the previous two books. I haven’t read all of your review but will come back when I’ve read the book and read it properly. I too love the illustrations and am very pleased, in the light of what you say, that I own all three books. A treasure to lend to my grandaughter in a year or two! I also second Stuart’s rec of Nocturnes by John Connolly… the stories are in the same vein as M.R. James and Chris Priestley.
Cath: Well, between Stuart and now you I went ahead and put a hold on Nocturnes at my local library and will pick it up tomorrow. Great to hear that you too are a fan of Priestley. Let me know what you think of this one when you get to it. M.R. James is an author I am woefully ignorant of, having only read one or two of his stories. Well past time I correct that.
This is made of win! How did I not know these wondrous things existed?!?
And how did I not know about David Roberts’s work?
CLEARLY I need more time on teh Interwebz
I just picked up the Uncle Montague one after your fab review from last year.You are becoming hazardous to my book collection.LOL.
I love the illustrations in this book! I’ll definitely be checking Priestley and David Roberts out in the future.
Sarah: I think you’ll enjoy them.
Vivienne: I know the feeling, this challenge is becoming hazardous to mine! It will be fun to hear your thoughts on Uncle Monty when you are done.
Birdie: It is a magical place, isn’t it, the ol’ interweb.
The illustrations sold me. I really want to be able to look at all of them and study them more closely–marvelous!
I’ve got Connolly’s “The Gates” coming from the Paperback Swap site & have now “wished” for ‘The Book of Lost Things’ and ‘Nocturnes’. Thanks for the recommendations guys! They’ll be added to the rapidly expanding pool of books for the R.I.P. challenge, (at this rate it’ll be a lake soon!)
That’s it…resisting is no longer an option. I just went and added all three to my cart. (Now I just need to wait until payday to hit the “place order” button. Wonder if I’ll manage to work up any willpower before then. Yeah, I doubt it–after all, I do have a 9-year-old to read these aloud to!)
Debi: Oh yeah, I think of you guys all the time when I read these because I think at least two of your three would get a nice creepy vibe from these stories if read aloud. 🙂
sgist: I know Connolly writes some adult mysteries that, from what I’ve read, have some violent content that I am not really interested in reading about, but I know for a fact that both Lost Things and Nocturnes sounded great when I first heard about them.
Jenclair: They are consistently good across all three books. I love that art style. Not sure what it is called although i am sure there is a name for it. What I do know is that it gives me the same thrill looking at it that I got when I first saw Edward Gorey illustrations as a child.
I whole heartily agree with you that Robert’s illustrations fit the tales perfectly…at least with the tales that I have read.
I liked the Preistley quote, it really does sum up his Tale books…they are quiet with bursts of action.
Ha…Carl, I do indeed have a 10 year old, well…she actually is 11 now, but all the same. She loves these books, and my 13 year old (as of Sept 11) has enjoyed these books as well. I am pleased that I have these girls to share all sorts of books with because it does make it so much more fun.
I read a few of his posts about the stories within in his Uncle Montague book….fun. It was interesting to read about the man that was the inspiration for the character of Uncle Montague. I certainly am going to read more on his blog.
By the way, I am very, very curious about The Dead of Winter.
Ibeeg: Me too, I think I’ll try to pick it up when it comes out. Hopefully it will come out here in the states this fall and not just in the U.K.
Glad to hear that your daughters enjoy these kind of stories. Not that it is my place to judge anyone’s parenting, but I do hate to hear it when people go out of their way to protect their children from scary stories. When told the right way at the right age I think these kind of stories can help kids build courage and can help them learn to strip the power out of fear.
That and I think they miss out on a lot of fun if they aren’t able to experience a good, appropriate scary story.
I had a huge long-winded comment that rambled on….I deleted it for a shorter version. 😀
I agree with you, good appropriate scary stories can be very good reads for children. I really like Priestley’s stories because they are well written. I was very glad to come across these books, because stuff like Goosebumps makes me cringe (don’t like those books). I would love to find some more well written scary, horror type stories for kids…teenagers. My third child LOVES horror, scary type stories. She would devour them. YA stuff is okay, but a lot of the “scary, grittier” type YA stuff is really kind of flat…not much meat in there but a lot of fluff of the times…vampires and such laced with teenage love interest angst. If you come across any other good horror, scary type reads for kids her age (13 and up), please keep me in mind and let me know.
Ibeeg: Long rambling comments are always welcome. 🙂
And I will certainly do that. I’ll have to put my thinking cap on to see if I can recall anything that fits the bill that I have already read, or heard good things about.
If anyone else has ideas, feel free to pitch in.
Ibeeg, have you read the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper? They are heavily based in Arthurian/British mythology, but have some good scary bits worked in…(personally i would find the idea of the wild hunt or an angry nature spirit stalking me terrifying!) and NO vampires or teenage love interest angst anywhere to be found!
sgist – Nope,never heard of Dark is Rising. I am going to check into them. Thanks.
I discovered Uncle Montague via RIP last year, so I think I’ll be reading it for this year’s challenge. I’m happy to see that the tales continue!
ibeeeg, they captivated me as a kid! actually they still do! I re-read them every couple of years.
the sequence is: Over Sea Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; The Grey King; Greenwitch & Silver on the Tree. Nice and suspenseful.
Sgist: Thanks for the recommendations.
Jenn: I suspect you’ll enjoy it, at least I hope you do, as they are all good, creepy fun.
I will look for these; thanks for the recommendations–they might be just the ticket for some of our kids…Love Roberts’ illustrations. They are like Gorey! Tremendous!
Absolutely love the illustrations and the look of that cover. I need to find these books!
Mari: They are really great, glad you enjoy them too.
ds: Hopefully your kids find them perfect for the season.
I enjoyed your review a lot. The drawings are great. I wish I could draw like that. I might order one or the other of those collections.The shorter the nights get the nicer it is to read something like this.
I will aslo have a look at those Susan Cooper books sgist recommends.
Carl, these sound fantastic! And the illustrations are beautiful. They are going on my wishlist immediately.
GeraniumCat: I found all three to be just about perfect for establishing the mood that originally inspired me to host this challenge in the first place.
Caroline: I wish I could draw like that as well. There is something about what I call the “Edward Gorey style” that sends a thrill through me whenever I see it. And you are right, there is something about the season changing and it getting darker earlier that makes one want to curl up with a book.