Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

I don't know why I chose to read this book. The cover looks spooky, the title has 'terror' in it and I've never managed to watch I know what you did last summer the whole way through, despite people telling me it really isn't that scary. In other words, I'm a big chicken! In the end, I'm glad I summoned the courage to read it. It's a collection of ten short and grisly tales, told by the eccentric Uncle Montague to his inquisitive nephew Edgar. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror are stories inspired by various artefacts Edgar notices in the shadows of his uncle's strangely dark house - a gold watch, a gilt frame, a church pew gargoyle. Each story has a chilling end - but Edgar dismisses them as fiction, although his uncle would have him believe otherwise. Witches, ghosts, demons and jinns wreak havoc on the characters - all children - in each story all told in a disturbingly familiar way, as if Uncle Montague was himself the child, which is why Edgar is almost certain they are just stories... well, almost certain... Reading it reminded me of a pyjama party where everyone sits in a circle with torches lighting up and distorting their faces, telling scary stories, until someone freaks out and the lights have to go on and an adult has to come in and calm everyone down.

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