Author: Joseph Delaney
# of Pages: 294 (paperback)
Genre: YA, Horror, Paranormal
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: For years, Old Gregory has been the Spook for the county, ridding the local villages of evil. Now his time is coming to an end. But who will take over for him? Twenty-nine apprentices have tried—some floundered, some fled, some failed to stay alive.
Only Thomas Ward is left. He's the last hope, the last apprentice.
Review: I usually avoid horror books at all costs.
My scare tolerance is extremely low. Both the book and Disney movie for A Christmas Carol gave me nightmares (I only got two pages into the book before I threw it out of my room. I later gave the book to a friend; I didn't even want it in my house. As a general rule, I avoid any book in the "horror" or "thriller" genre.
When I first saw this book in the department store, I didn't know it was considered to be a horror book. I had heard that it was made into a movie and that the Last Apprentice series was suppose to be pretty good. I read the first half of the first chapter and loved it (the description of the food may have had something to do with it, but that's unimportant. As I usually do before buying a new book, I looked up the book on Goodreads.
When I saw the genre, I was disappointed. After reading a few reviews, I came under the impression that it was going to be scarier than Stephen King books (who's books I've avoided even looking at). I didn't buy the book that day.
Weeks later, I was still thinking about the book. I went to the book store again and read the beginning of the second chapter. Then, against all better judgement, I bought it. But I set a few ground rules; I would only read it during the day when I wasn't alone, and I would definitely not read it once it got dark.
Apparently, these rules worked pretty well because I didn't find it very scary at all. Sure, the "scary" parts would have undoubtably been scary if I read it in the dark at 3 am, but I didnt, so it wasn't. Delaney's writing flowed well and was an easy and quick read.
However, Delaney would unnecessarily explain the definition of words; if he thinks the reader won't understand them, then he shouldn't use them. Even if he did it to show how young and naive Tom is, it doesn't make it any less annoying to the reader.
EX: "'Malevolent means evil,' he explained. 'Benign means good.'" (84-85).
"The Spook had told me that the main topic in an apprentice's first year was boggarts, together with such subjects as botany, which meant learning all about plants.." (99).
"'Mr. Gregory called it the definitive work,' I said, "which means it's the best book ever written on the subject.' [Alice] looked up from the book then, and to my surprise her eyes were filled with anger. 'I know what definitive means,' she said. 'Think I'm stupid or something?'" (228).
Took the words right out of my mouth, Alice.
Otherwise, I loved this book! I'll be reading the second book. Recommended!
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