Now I have to confess that I’m a bit of a wussy, when it comes to scary book, so it took a lot of courage to just get past the front cover. And once you’ve read the book the cover is just that little bit scarier because you know!

Despite all this terror, the beginning of the book is actually quite funny.

“Good Lord,” said my father. “Stories eh? I heard a story once.”

In a few lines, Priestley has painted an image of the parents, so that the reader can fully understand Edgar’s life view. Edgar then innocently goes off to his Uncle’s house and I felt my spine go a little cold, that could have been a draft as I was reading it on the metro or it could have been the creepy wood and house he’s just described. Once Priestley has set the tone the stories begin. Edgar finds an object in the drawing-room and Uncle Montague tells a story. Throughout the afternoon Uncle Montague does a good job of convincing Edgar the stories are true and Edgar tries to convince himself they aren’t. I loved the way I found myself so engrossed in the book that I swung back and forth with Edgar. Priestley does a fantastic job of putting the heebie jeebies up you by tapping into things that children really are terrified of. Edgar’s trip to the toilet is priceless. There’s also this kind of old world feel to the book. It could be 1950′s it could be earlier, I was never quite sure of when the book was set, but this just added to the feeling of terror.

The final chapter is the climax of creepiness and I won’t tell you too much about it because I hate giving away endings, but really it was so satisfying.

Basically, I’ve come to the conclusion that kids love scaring the bejesus out of themselves and this book can definitely do the trick. And what I really liked about it, is that there’s no blood and gore, it’s just plain, good old, terrifying. Priestley builds up suspense, let’s us off the hook for a bit and then WHAM! And he does it well.

So for those of you who have been singing Priestley’s praises, it was well-merited. Thank you for introducing me to a great author and I look forward to reading more.

Supposedly for children, both the artwork and the stories will appeal to Edward Gorey. As an adult, I can't say that I found the stories truly horrifying, but it was an enjoyable read nonetheless. Of more interst than the stories was the question of Uncle Montague himself.

An impressive hommage to the ghost stories of M.R. James, chillingly illustrated by David Roberts. Younger readers should take the warning on the back cover seriously as this isn't a book to be read alone in an old, dark house on a stormy night. Or perhaps it is, but don't forget to look under the bed.

According to my local library system, this is intended for Grades 5-8, which seems about right to me, although individual kids will have individual responses, of course. The stories are eerie, mostly not gory, but could be frightening to some kids. As an adult, I enjoyed the creepy vibe, and recognized some similarities to other famous stories I've read. For me, it was an enjoyable quick read - if you have or know a child who is into ghost stories and Halloween, this could be a good choice for them.

There were a few interesting stories in here but a lot of them didn't really keep my attention, and many of them ended very abruptly kind of left me wondering what the 'point' was. Things do come together a bit at the end when we learn about Uncle Montague's backstory, but I still found myself bored by a lot of the stories. The stories might be more entertaining for younger readers, but I don't think they translate well to an adult audience. Also there's a lot of pretty messed up stuff including animal death so I'm not sure how appropriate it would be for VERY young children either. Although I read all those Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books when I was kid and I turned out ...more or less okay ;)

Yesterday and today, I noticed I'm still thinking about this book. There were stories Uncle Montague told for which I did not really care at the time, allowing me to set it aside after some strong opening chapters. I knew by the end I will probably be reading the rest of the series. A short while later, I casually convinced myself this would not be the case. This was clearly a 4-star book, and they say series often decline in quality, but I should probably wait to write a review while I think about it and maybe forget about it and maybe not even write a review at all. A month or so later and it still has me thinking like a lot of my other favorites. Right now, I'd give the story here a 4.5 if I could. If asked in a year or a few more, I'll probably still be thinking about it and recommending it.

This is a cute book. The plot revolves around a young man going to visit his eccentric uncle who lives in a creepy house deep in the woods. His uncle entertains his nephew by telling scary stories seemingly inspired by the objects in his house. By the end of the book we find out the real origin of these stories, the house and uncle montague.

Most childrens horror anthologies are retellings of the same stories (the call came from inside the house, they never found the girl in the trunk during hide and seek and such). Not in this novel though! The stories, while similar to things most adults have heard before are original and interesting or if they are not terribly original they are at least are written well and framed in a unique setting.

If you have a little horror fan please pick this book up for them they will love it. I don't think the stories are that scary but of course you have to know your child when it comes to something like that, but there are a fair amount of moral lessons to be learned in these tales and no descriptions of gore and violence. Just a very entertaining read.

This is a delightfully frightening children's book. Little Edgar visits his uncle Montague during the school holiday and gets his share of little horror stories. Objects from the stories seems to be all around the uncle's study.