Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth by Chris Priestley
Rate and review Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth! | What does everyone else think?
Synopsis
Robert Harper is going back to school, and it is the first railway journey he has ever made alone. And it is not a very usual sort of railway journey. The train stops at the mouth of a tunnel and in order to help while away the time a strange woman dressed in white tells Robert stories. But these are not the kind of stories normally told to a child. Soon Robert is both entranced and terrified by the strange woman and her macabre stories.
Review
The age-old idiom states that you should never judge a book by its cover. Although this advice is in principal sound, it is not one that I can honestly say that I completely agree with anymore. In my experience, if the book looks awful and the synopsis of the back cover is badly written, then the content on the inside pages will frequently back-up this first impression.
When I picked up Chris Priestley’s Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth the first thing I noticed was the quality of the book cover itself and the beautiful illustrations. A quick glance inside the cover presented me with a compelling synopsis that resulted in me wanting to start reading the book immediately. Bloomsbury have spent money on making this book look fantastic and that in turn shows that they hold Chris Priestley’s work in very high esteem.
So, I did judge a book by its cover, and was right to do so for the story itself is as excellent as the presentation. Consisting of nine short stories, all the tales are told by a strange woman in white to a young Robert Harper as he makes his way back to school. The stories are of a very high standard but there are two that really stood for me: A New Governess is a superb tale of a mean-spirited Governess who gets her deserved comeuppance and The Whispering Boy is a truly spine-tingling tale of a boy called Roland who is too clever for his own good. The only thing that tops these two stories is the ending itself, which is just right.
Parents may well remember Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, produced by The Hammer House of Horror team. This is possibly where Chris Priestley’s inspiration lies as the film is also set in a train car, where five passengers have their fortunes told by the all-seeing Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing). The recently knighted Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland were also in the cast.
Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth will chill and thrill in equal measure and is the perfect kind of scary for children in that it will make the hairs on the back of their necks rise and send shivers down their spine but will not give them nightmares. Delectably dark, and with a beautiful gothic style (perfectly captured by David Robert’s illustrations), this is a book that will appeal to all ages.
About the author and illustrator
Chris Priestley is the author of Uncle Montague’s Tales of Terror and Tales of Terror from the Black Ship, both published by Bloomsbury. Chris lives with his family in Cambridge and is currently writing a long ghost story.
David Roberts is an award-winning illustrator who has worked with a huge variety of authors, including Georgia Byng. He is the creator of the Dirty Bertie series. David has illustrated two other books by Chris Priestly for Bloomsbury and he lives in London.
Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth (Amazon.co.uk)
Author: Chris Priestley
Binding: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
Publication date: 2009-10-05
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
RRP: £10.99
Lowest new price: £5.79
Lowest used price: £15.89
Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth (Amazon.com)
Author: Chris Priestley
Binding: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
Publication date: 2010-05-25
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
RRP: $17.99
Lowest new price: $12.23
Lowest used price:
A boy is put on a train by his stepmother to make his first journey on his own. But soon that journey turns out to be more of a challenge than anyone could have imagined as the train stalls at the mouth of a tunnel and a mysterious woman in white helps the boy while away the hours by telling him stories - stories with a difference.
Product Description
Submit your own mini-review
Let people know what you think about Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth. You can write your own mini-review and give the book the rating that you think it deserves. Your reviews will go towards giving Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth its overall rating that will decide where Tales of Terror from the Tunnel’s Mouth finishes in the top 100 fantasy books of all time.
Books you may also enjoy...
Also in this sub-genre...
Book of the Month
Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.
Latest interviews
Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.
Must-reads
The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.
Competition: Win a signed copy of Graham Hancock's Entangled
Graham Hancock is the author of The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis, Heaven's Mirror, Supernatural and other bestselling investigations of historical mysteries. His books have been translated into twenty-seven languages and have sold over five million copies worldwide. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular, Entangled is his first work of fiction. We have five signed copies of Entangled to give away as prizes. Email us the answer to the following question and the lucky winner, chosen at random, will receive a copy of the book, signed by the author.
Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe
Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.
Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.
