I really enjoyed this one! Learning more about the Dark and that there are different sections where different beings preside was super interesting. Honestly, the last book felt dialed in and I'm glad that it was just that one that didn't click with me. I was worried that the whole series was going downhill. ( )

Alice, the Spook, and Tom Ward reach Ireland, where they subdue jibbers in Dublin. Then, they are asked to help battle the Goat Mages, which are trying to raise Pan from the world in between dark and light. Alice is taken by the Fiend, and Tom is grabbed by the sister of a witch vindictively killed by spook, Bill Arkwright. Tom has to battle the Morrigan and eventually Grimalkin shows up to help the Spook and apprentice Tom try to bind the Fiend. ( )

Maybe I'm getting too old for this series. While there are some major plot twists, this story seemed somehow again to be lacking. Perhaps my expectations were too high. I was definitely looking forward to Grimalkin working with the Spook and the sparks that would inevitably fly, but there weren't really any sparks. There were some mildly creepy moments, though. If you don't like bad things happening to goats this is not a book for you. I love goats, grew up in a family that raises them, and I found it a bit disturbing at one point. Not enough to stop reading, but still. Delaney often uses mythological names and words in different ways than I have ever heard before, seemingly changing their meaning to fit whatever he wants to say, and this book had the strangest definition of sidhe I have ever encountered. It could just be that I have yet to come across an older definition or something though. The jibber was an interesting new foe. Boys will love that there are multiple chapters with names like "Blood Everywhere." lol


SPOILERS
Tom meets both Pan and the hero Cuchulain and of course both take a shine to him. Cuchulain even fights alongside him and gives him his sword of destiny. Both the Morrigan and the Fiend are surprisingly easy to defeat (for now at least), taking some of the punch out of the story. Alice isn't in this book much and in a lot of ways the Spook isn't either. This one is mostly about Tom and his adventures, with a lot of emphasis on his nightmares.



So on the whole, yes I read it quickly (it's an easy book to read) but I am a little disappointed. I had hoped it would be better than the previous volume but it's really not much better. There were a few things that just felt contrived and absurd. But the ending has left a lot of doubt as to how certain characters will fare in the future, so I will have to read the next, the library having all of the books in the series. Mostly, I will keep reading because I want to know what happens to Alice. ( )

Apprentice Tom and the Spook for whom he works flee to Ireland, where a powerful witch has joined forces with the dark mages trying to call forth ancient powers to destroy Tom.

I think this could have been the best of Joseph Delaney's "Last Apprentice" (Wardstone Chronicles) books so far. The action was just right, and it had my daughter and I loathe to put it down because we simply *had* to know what happened next--for the whole book. I really cannot wait until his next book comes out because this one left us with another cliffhanger. : ) Joseph Delaney is probably one of the best descriptive writers I've ever read. He never over describes a scene or location, but always, very succinctly gives you exactly the information you need to visualize where the characters are and what they are facing. I've read many books that I end up skipping paragraphs of descriptive prose and I've never found Delaney to have a spare word. Excellent writer. ( )