Unnatural Creatures is a showcase of terrifying stories about extraordinary, wonderful, exotic and terrifying creatures. Weird werewolves, ghastly griffins and even scrumptious sunbirds are all featured in this frighteningly good book.

Yet it's not classic blood-dripping horror - all the stories have a completely unexpected twist, whether that's on the creature itself, or in the last few pages of the plot.
To give you a taster of what I mean, take the story of the Sunbird. The five members of the Epicurean Club were bored. Their mission had been to eat everything on Earth, from giant panda steak to dung beetles, but now there's nothing left that they haven't eaten. Except the elusive Sunbird. The Sunbird is supposed to taste amazing, of fire and love and heaven. So of course they decide hunt it and try it for themselves. But there's something not quite right. The charred pages in the Epicurean Club journals, the disappearance of the former club members nearly forty years ago, the fact it would take the Sunbird 38 years to reach the earth from the sun. And something odd about Zebediah Crawcustle, the oldest member who seems to have been there forever... I expect you can guess what happens next!

Other favourites were: the story of the mysterious spot, that grows whenever you look away; the tale of the Couckatoucan, who's laugh has the power to turn the kingdom upside down; the party to which Death is invited... The list could go on forever!

The book includes stories by names like Diana Wynne Jones, E. Nesbit and Neil Gaiman, as well as less well known authors like Lily Yu and Frank Stockton. I liked the idea presented in the introduction, of the book being a museum of unnatural history. It's a cool concept - I just wish there was a real place called that! Or maybe not!

I highly recommend this book if you want something really scary, yet refreshingly different from the crowd of other teen horror books. Definitely one I'm going to keep and read again and again!

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