Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley

Edgar's Great Uncle (or is it Great Great? Or Great Great Great?) Montague lives in a cold, lonely house in the woods. It's a scary and desolate place, but there's a reason why Edgar visits him regularly: he's hooked on Uncle Montague's spooky stories. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror takes place during one of these visits: Edgar and the elderly man sit by the fire and talk in between the telling of stories. And the more Edgar hears, the more alarming his suspicions about Uncle Montague become. Could he have lost his mind? Or is there a sinister reality that his stories hint at?

Amanda at The Zen Leaf was kind enough to send me this deliciously creepy collection-of-spooky-stories-slash-novel. Because she read it herself shortly before that, we thought we'd have a chat about it and show you the results:

Ana: One of the things I enjoyed the most about Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror was its slightly old-fashioned feel. This is true of both the stories and the illustrations by David Roberts, which reminded me a little of Edward Gorey (as I suspect they're meant to). If someone had told me these were Edwardian creepy tales, I'd have easily believed them. Did the book feel older than it is to you too? And if so, did you like the fact that it did?

Amanda: Yes, for the most part, they did feel old-fashioned to me. There were a couple tip-offs that they were newer tales - some of the deaths were a bit more descriptively gruesome than they would have been 200 years ago, for instance - but mostly I thought Priestley kept with the traditional fairytale vibe.

In all honesty, you picked up on the only thing that I felt detracted from the book, which was the few deviations from that old-fashioned feel. For example, while most of the tales seemed to have a traditional built-in moral lesson (don't steal, don't lie, etc), the ones that didn't fell a bit flat for me. Were there tales that you liked better than others? Worse?

Ana: It's funny that you brought up the traditional "moral", because I was planning to mention that soon! I normally really dislike stories with a specific "moral" or "message", but I think the reason why that didn't bother me at all in this case were because they felt so...traditional. Like you said, they had a feel a little similar to that of fairy tales, or of old-fashioned ghost stories like M.R. James' (the atmosphere reminded me quite a bit of James, actually). There's also the fact that there was a bit of dark humour, Gashlycrumb Tinies style. So while most of them were cautionary tales, they were more self-consciously than moralistically so.

I did have a few favourites, though - "The Un-Door" (the story of two women who pretend to be mediums until one day, at one of their seances, are forced to face what they have been using to exploit others) and "Winter Pruning" (about an old woman, said to be a witch, who lives in a cottage with some very interesting apple trees in the garden, and about a boy who attempts to steal from her) were perhaps the top two. My least favourite was actually "Uncle Montague", the story that ties them all together - it just felt a bit forced to me. What about you?

Amanda: Actually, I didn't mind "Uncle Montague" - I thought it tied everything up nicely, if predictably. I expect a certain amount of predictability from my fairy tales, though, so that didn't bother me. "Winter Pruning" and "The Un-Door" were two of my favorites, too, as well as "The Gilt Frame" (girl gets possessed by a new portrait in her home, only to find out the portrait is not what it seems). Usually, books or stories with a heavy-handed moral or message, like you said, are sort of irksome to me as well, but I like a straightforward, fable-like feel in fairy tales (even if the morality or message isn't traditional).

"Winter Pruning" was just about perfect in message and in tale, and the last line was so frightening it made me cringe. On the other hand, there were stories that seemed kind of pointless. For instance, I didn't understand "The Path" (a boy sets out on a journey only be find himself chased by a very grisly creature) at all. I mean, it was creepy, sure, but I didn't see the point. Am I reading too much into this? Or did I just miss something?


Ana: I don't think you did! Or maybe we *both* did. "The Path" was one of my least favourites too. At first I was really enjoying it, as the landscape and atmosphere were VERY creepy, but then... well, I don't want to give away the ending, but I was left feeling like I had missed something too. I'm a bit relieved I'm not alone, to be honest :P

I agree that the ending of "Winter Pruning" was brilliant - that story reminded me a little of Daphne du Maurier's short fiction, and that's high praise indeed. Returning to the final story, "Uncle Montague", did you like the fact that there was an overall plot to the book, rather than it just being a typical collection of short stories?

Please head over to Amanda's blog to read the second half of our chat!