Easily a 5 star read. Like the previous novel in the series, this one is a bunch of stories within a story, that all weave together at the end with a sinister twist. It wasn't until the end that was I able to put those pieces together, and a few pages later, my thoughts were confirmed. That made it no less eerie. Especially for a middle grade novel. These tales of terror are indeed disturbing. One in particular that involved flesh-eating snails stands out as most disturbing, but also, therefore, as my favorite. I really liked how everything came together at the end. I will say, I was not expecting this story to follow NEW characters, rather than Uncle Montague and Edgar. But I think that worked, and I liked how the author still found a way to connect this book to the last one through Uncle Montague. The fact that all the stories took place largely at sea, on ships, made for an interesting setting. I rather like books like that, so I was pretty pleased. My copy had a bonus story at the end, and I feel it alluded to the final novel in the trilogy, which makes me excited to read that as well. All in all, a lovely, albeit disturbing, book.