“It was the first railway journey I had ever made alone.
My stepmother had come to the station to see me off and proceeded to embarrass
me with unwanted hugs and kisses and the nursery voice she always adopted for
such displays of affection”
Robert is waiting at the station when his stepmother has
a terrible premonition. She foresees a tunnels mouth and a kiss, an awful kiss.
Robert thinks she is being ridiculous and gets on the train without a second
thought. Then on the train he falls asleep, when he awakes the train is at a
standstill just at the mouth of a tunnel and Roberts fellow passengers are all
asleep too, except for a woman in white who starts telling Robert some stories
to bide their time until the train starts moving again.
***
I love the first two Tales of Terror series and The
Tunnels Mouth was just as brilliant as the previous two!
Robert is much like our main characters in the two
previous books but there was something different about him. He was too sure of
himself and he could tell there was something wrong from the very beginning even
if he didn’t admit that to himself. I really liked him and I was hoping that he
didn’t turn out like the two children in the second book!
As usual, I loved the stories woven into the book. I
loved that I could envisage the characters and the creatures so well. Priestley’s
writing really is amazingly descriptive and visual and I could honestly read it
over and over. It’s the type of writing that I think I would love to hear a
live reading of and I think if I ever try an audiobook I must see if these
books are available! I can picture myself in front of the fire on a winter’s
night reading these books!
The Tunnels Mouth comes with great stories and powerful
reminders that not all is what it seems. I love the revelation of the story and
that we get a little extra on top of the main story with this book. Roberts’s
stepmother is an interesting character and I am glad that in my edition we got
to see a little extra!
My favourite story of all had to be Gerald. It’s the
story of a girl, a puppet show and a boy who suddenly seemed to lose himself.
Gerald is the boy and he can no longer talk, he walks around with his mother
slavering and not really doing much else, he is pretty much no longer a person,
no soul and no speech. He scares Emma no end when he tries to grab at her in
the street and she’s terrified he’s coming to get her. This is made worse when
she has a nightmare about him coming from her and something is in her room when
she wakes. I won’t go further into the story but it was fascinating and
terrifying and I will never look at puppets or little kids who love puppet
shows the same way again!
The only issue I had with this book was that it wasn’t the
same edition as the previous two in the series and because of this is didn’t have
the awesome illustrations that you see in those. If you want to check these out
I really recommend the illustrated versions because they really add to the
story. I thought this version was just a different cover, which by the way I do really like, but it would appear
not... both versions are published by Bloomsbury but I believe there was a
change in the covers for all three as a part of the re-release of the series
this year.
Now that I’m at the end of this series I can’t wait to
see what Chris Priestley has in store for me next! I honestly think I am
addicted to his terrifying tales and I’m totally keeping them to scare my kids
with in the future! I really recommend this for anyone who has kids around 8-11 who love to be scared! especially boys as many of the stories are focussed around boys.
Tales of Terror from the Tunnels Mouth is the third and
final full length instalment of the Tales of Terror series. My copy was
published by Bloomsbury in March 2011 and was received in exchange of an honest
review.
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