BRW: The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch
Author: Joseph Delaney
Length: 384 pages
(My) Rating: G

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This book was recommended to me by my little brother. 

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son. In Delaney's universe, this makes him capable of becoming a spook. Spooks are people who protect normal people from the dead and magical. 

Thomas Ward is apprenticed to the Spook and leaves his parents and oldest brother and his brother's expecting wife. He has no desire to go, but his mother is insistent and tells him that the main reason she married his father, a seventh son, and gave birth to the six brothers before him, was so that he could be born. 

Thomas can see the dead and he is frightened of them. The Spook challenges him to counter his fear and gives him very specific instructions. When Thom obeys, he is protected. 

However, he is young and bound to make mistakes. He really should have told his Master about talking to the girl with the pointed shoes....

Thomas faces many different challenges and accidentally puts his family in very real danger. He really begins to learn why Spooks live alone.

I really enjoyed this book. Though it was written for a younger audience, the plot was unique, and their classifications of different kind of ghosts and other supernatural things was interesting. I could tell that there was something different about his mother, but the author hasn't chosen to reveal what that is yet. 

The beginning was a bit slow to start, but after he joined the Spook it really picked up. 

My dad and brother told me that they'd made the book into a movie (kind of) called Seventh Son, but it was so different that there really wasn't much of a comparison. However, if they HAD made an accurate movie, it would have been pretty creepy, Some of the scenes could be downright frightening if I had read it at night. 

I didn't have many complaints. It was an enjoyable, quick read. I would recommend it for any age. 

Parental Guide

There was really nothing to be worried about in this book. I don't remember any swearing, and there was very little actual violence. The creep factor is fairly high, and dead things are discussed frequently. There is a final scene with some pigs that is somewhat disturbing, but very non-descriptive.