Another thing I liked was that this story was not predictable. You don't know how it's going to end. You don't know the way in which the witch will manifest herself. She could have possessed any one of the people in the house during the climax moments of this story.

The youngish hero is quite likable The disgustingly underage MC is neither totally unlikable nor exasperatingly immature. Recommended to children who are not easily frightened. For those who love horror but aren't quite ready for their parents and older siblings favorites but ready for something a little scarier than Goosebumps. The first series, titled The Wardstone Chronicles, concluded in 2013, and was followed by The Starblade Chronicles in 2014, a trilogy following the continued adventures of Tom Ward, who has finished his apprenticeship and is now a Spook in his own right dedicated to fighting an unparalleled evil threatening the County, and the world. He travelled widely to promote his books, spending lots of the winter in New Zealand and Singapore, as he hated the cold, but most of his time was spent in his home county Lancashire – a place embedded in all of his writing. This is a fantastic first book for The Wardstone Chronicles fantasy series. It introduces some of our main characters as well as a few mysteries we want to discover more about. This introduction to the world offers us a glimpse at just how epic in scope the story can be further down the line.Now now, no need to be slightly horrified, my Little Barnacles, or fear for the future of the planet. The fact that I did not convulse while reading the book doesn't mean I loved it. Which means doom and destruction will have to wait for a bit [ insert sighs of utter, total and complete relief here]. Okay, to be honestly honest, I didn't, you know, NOT love the book and stuff. I might even have enjoyed it a little. ← I never wrote this and you didn't read it. Go home, you're drunk. But I didn't, you know, lurve it and stuff, either. Which means, you know, that I'm still me and stuff. Feel better now? Good. You're welcome. The author really did a great job of setting a sinister tone. It wasn't over the top, but very subtle and building. His use of words drew a very vivid image, where I felt as though I was standing there and the witch was crawling out of the grave to get me. We would like to thank Penguin Random House as well as all the wonderful people who helped him on his adventure and especially everyone who has read his books. Content Note: The horror aspects, though relatively brief, may be too intense for a younger MG audience. While not gory or gratuitous in any way, there ARE references to horrific violence committed against women and the brutal murder of small children. I’d advise a 12+ rating.

The answer of who had been taken over by the witch just seemed a little too easy and safe for me. And that everyone came out of the encounter alive. Shrug. All relevant information about the books is here. There are currently four published series; Brother Wulf, Spooks Apprentice, Arena 13 and Aberrations. The latest in the Brother Wulf series, The Last Spook is out now. The fourth book in the series, Wulf’s War, which was the last book Joe wrote, will be published in August 2023 on the anniversary of his death. Joe was writing right up until the end of his life and was about to embark on the next round of edits for the fourth in his Brother Wulf sequence.

Retailers:

Abstract: 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. Joe worked as an apprentice engineer and fitter before getting his A-Levels at night school and then becoming an English teacher. He would write in the early mornings before school until his first children’s book, The Spook’s Apprentice about Tom Ward the seventh son of a seventh son who trained to fight ghosts and creatures from the Dark, was published by Random House Children’s Books in 2004. He then left teaching and went on to write 12 more titles in his globally bestselling dark fantasy series, The Wardstone Chronicles, plus 17 other titles, predominantly set in the same world. The books have now been translated into thirty languages and won many awards including the Lancashire Book Award. In 2014, The Spook’s Apprentice was made into a movie called The Seventh Son starring Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges. Joe got to go to Canada to watch the filming, which he absolutely loved. Drawing on this and other stories from Lancashire folklore, Delaney created a world in which everyday life is convincingly infused with the paranormal. The young hero, Tom Ward, a seventh son of a seventh son, and thus gifted with special powers, is destined to become apprenticed to the bad-tempered spook, and learns to wrangle with the troublesome boggart and other creatures from the Dark. Arena 13 follows the adventures of sixteen-year-old Leif, who seeks to become the champion of the notorious Arena 13 fighting pit and destroy Hob, the evil creature who rules and terrorises the city zone of Midgard and who destroyed Leif's family.