Spooks Apprentice Paperback – January 1, 2014

This book would actually merit a 2 star for effort, but I needed to write a 1 star to balance all the hype. I like Fantasy and Dark Fantasy, and believe that YA books and series' should be of a better quality. All these genres get a bad rap, and low quality writing really overpopulates them. I would like to steer people away from a low quality series like this one.It's a first person narrative that gets old fairly quick. The world in which it takes place (at the point that this book was written) has a few things fleshed out, but isn't really encompassing, there is no past, no context; just a vague nebulousness. It isn't very scary. Lost interest very easily. Please go elsewhere for something better. Pick up Neal Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joe Abencrombe, anything else.

This book is told from Thomas Ward’s point of view. He has just begun his apprenticeship with the Spook and it has yet to be decided if the Spook will allow him to stay on as his apprentice. First, he has to go through a one month trial to see if the Spook thinks Thomas has what it takes to become a spook himself.The book is geared toward middle-school aged readers, but as an adult I enjoyed this story very much and felt the book had a nice pace to it. There was enough suspense and action to keep me reading without getting bored. I will continue reading this series. It will be interesting to following Young Thomas’ journey and see how he grows up and learns to deal with the challenges that come his way.

With the release of the movie, "Seventh Son" (Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore) I decided to look back at the book that inspired this movie, "The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch."I came across this series while looking for an audio book for a road trip. Didn't have much time, read the back matter quickly and went for a ride. And what a ride. From the first chapter on the reader is dropped in the "County" a place where the most important man is a man who folks don't like to look at. Folks don't want to talk to him, either. That man is the keeper of the peace. He's a "Spook." He takes care of ghoulies, and ghosties, long-legged beasties, and things that go crunch in the night. "When the Spook arrived, the light was already beginning to fail. It had been a long, hard day, and I was ready for my supper." With that line, and with the stunning line drawings of Patrick Arrasmith, the reader learns that the main character, 12 year old Thomas Ward, is the seventh son of a seventh son and he has a destiny. He is to be trained as a Spook. All begins quietly enough, that is, until Alice comes along. Alice, a young gal herself, manages to "trick" Thomas into freeing Mother Malkin, a witch so vile that she could eat Cruella DeVille as a snack before chowing down all 101 Dalmatians, fur, bones, and all. This book is suggested for 10-14 year olds, however, make sure that any ten year old who receives it has a stomach for horror, because that's what this is, an adventure (extraordinary) with a walloping dose of scare. In fact, I'd drop off the 14 year old age limit because I know plenty of adults who'd enjoy this series. The trailer for the movie shows a young Tom with a beard. Not the twelve year old in the book. It also shows a dragon and some other monsters that I'm not so sure about. Julianne Moore looks absolutely outrageous as Mother Malkin and Jeff Bridges as the Spook, well, be still my heart. So if you have an adventurous kid who enjoys books that push the boundaries, and this kid is pretty well grounded (doesn't scare easily) I'd definitely recommend this series.

I have seen the book marketed as something you shouldn't read after dark. I thought it might be something to attract the attention of kids. Obviously it was but I do have to say it was very spooky. I was actually a bit surprised at how "intense" it was at points. I thought it was going to be one of those kids' books that tries to be scary but doesn't do it well. This book walked that "scariness line" perfectly. It wasn't too scary so younger readers can still enjoy it but it's still scary enough for those who want it. Basically it was perfect for a weenie like yours truly.The story itself was fun. [Can you call a scary story fun?] It definitely kept you on the edge of your seat. Lots and lots of action. I enjoyed getting to know more about folklore creatures in a different way and how to deal with them. The book used creatures that the reader is familiar with to an extent and simply expanded on what the reader knows.There were good characters. Tom is a good YA character. He's doing the whole `finding himself' thing but he has a lot different pressures than most kids do. I'm still on the fence about Alice. I want to like her but I think there's more of her that we're not seeing yet. The Spook is a bit cold but he's enjoyable enough. The end of the book makes me more intrigued to know more about him. I really liked Tom's mom but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a big secret she's hiding.This was the first audio book that I've listened to since elementary school. It was a lot of fun! This was an amazing story to listen to. It was spooky. I really think having someone read the book to me added to the spookiness. It was almost like the scary stories we told as kids. At first I was worried about the narrator. I didn't like his voice but I grew to enjoy it as the story went on. I enjoyed the different voices. [Hearing the witches' voices was SO much scarier than reading them]The one things I didn't really like about the story was it sometimes got bogged down with lots of details (things I would likely skim over if reading) but it worked really well as an audio book. I can't tell you how good this worked as an audio book. If you ever have the chance of listening to this series on audio book, DO IT.

My 9 year old daughter started reading Spooks, and she raved about it so now I have been reading them too.The strength of these books lies in the fantastic storytelling of teh author who spins a tail that really will achieve that suspenful state of tension that will delight younger readers. For adults too, the story is well written and never becomes tedious. Good interesting stuff.The stories are quite original, and well constructed, but not of great depth, and some of the themes feel like they are aimed at an older age group than 9, although the stories are perhaps not sufficiently complex to be branded young adult. Nevertheless I have a hard time recommending them to 9 year olds because while this first one is just fine, there are theems in some of the later books that are downright disturbing. Without wishing to write spoilers it is hard to go into details, but there is one particular theme, several books into the series, that led me to speak to teh school about placing these in an older section of the school library. The only time I have ever behaved like such an interfering parent! So please don't hold that against me.My recommendation is that children and young adults 11 and up would love this series.

READ READ READ!!!! Ok I started reading these books when I was 12 and I'm now 18...I hope that tells you how awesome a read this is. They tell you its for kids but that's like saying harry potter is for kids, ANYONE CAN READ THESE BOOKS! I will warn you though that there quite dark "children's books" but very entertaining! Full of witches that eat and kill children, boggarts that will tare of your limbs, creepy ghosts, awesome dark gods and one boy who must work up the courage to fight against them all. These books are kinda like if lord of the rings met harry potter met Tim Burton. You have the basic "one boy to fight against the dark plot", the lord of the rings quest and general vibe (old world) and some monsters that are very Tim Burton/lord of the rings esqu. Seriously a must read..

I've entitled my review 'Adventures for boys!!' as I initially bought this book to encourage my 11 year old son to read. However I am sure that girls with a sense of adventure would love this book too - I certainly would have.The story follows a Spook ( a person who works to remove evil from an area). His job might involve ridding an area of a malevolent witch or boggart or simply calming restless spirits. In this book the Spook is taking on his last apprentice, a seventh son of a seventh son and it is his adventures that we follow in the book.My son likes history and although this book does not specify a date, it feels like pre-Victorian possibly early industrialisation. Mention is made of ghosts from a civil war but whether this is the Wars of the Roses or the later Civil War of Roundheads and Cavaliers I was not sure.We are reading the book together and both enjoy the sense of suspense built by the author and are pulled from chapter to chapter.

I hadn't come across Joseph Delaney's writing before, and ordered this item when I heard that there is an upcoming film. My first impressions weren't good - the fact that there was a character list at the start didn't endear the book to me, as it seemed like this might just be a lazy way to bypass character and story development. However, the story soon started to carry me along. Among the strong points for me were:1. An original story - the 'apprentice to a magical master' trope may have been used often before, but the particular way it was used and developed in this book was pleasingly different;2. Good characterisation - the main characters were well-fleshed out, but with space left and questions unanswered for later books (I hope!)3. Well-orchestrated sense of menaceI have been sufficiently impressed to purchase the next couple of books in the series, and I am looking forward to seeing how this series develops.

I bought the kindle version of this book having read the free sample first which hooked me immediately. I enjoyed the style of the storytelling and having only read a few pages I was intrigued and was convinced that the rest of the book would be enjoyable. Enjoyable is only part of it, the book was genuinely scary and this is a grown man speaking here! The suspense, tension and depth of characterisation was such that I had to read just a few more pages and actually cared about the main characters and what happened to them. An excellent idea for a book where the setting is accessible but is essentially an alternate reality where people require Spooks to rid them of ghosts, witches, boggarts and even nastier entities. A thoroughly good read and highly recommended but not for young children!