Book Review
Title: The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch
Author: Joseph Delaney
Genre: YA/Paranormal/Fantasy
Rating: *****
Review: I remember reading this series years ago when I was in comprehensive school and absolutely loving it and this is the year I plan to re-read some of my favourite childhood including the Spook’s Apprentice Series, Skullduggery Pleasant, Cirque Du Freak and Locke & Co. to name a few. The opening to Revenge of the Witch was as fun as I remember, we are introduced to Tom who is the seventh son of a seventh son this makes him very special, he is even more special because he shares his mother’s gift as they can both sense and see things that others can’t. In this world there are all sorts of paranormal beings that are controlled by the Spooks and Tom has just become a Spook’s apprentice starting the very next day. Tom is not even 13 but he needs to work as soon there won’t be any room for him in the family home and he needs to provide for himself but he is scared about what being a Spook’s apprentice means for him since they live very lonely lives. The Spook’s job is a dangerous on and Tom learns some valuable lessons early on like the difference between a ghost and a ghast. A ghast is just a fragment of a soul left behind after death and it fades with time while a ghost is the completely soul of a person often lost or confused after death. The Spook also decides to test Tom by making him spend the night alone in a haunted house when they reach the village of Horshaw, this seems quite cruel since Tom can see things that others can’t and has no knowledge or experience in dealing with them like the Spook has, but this is a test to see is Tom has what it takes to become a Spook. When the Spook leaves him at 13 Watery Lane, he gives Tom three rules, don’t open the door, don’t be late going into the basement at midnight and don’t let the candle go out.
If he can manage this then he is on his way to being permanently taking on as the Spook’s apprentice but almost immediately Tom can sense and hear things in the house that have no business being there. After passing the Spook’s test he tells Tom that his mother sent him a letter written in Greek the day he was born prophesying that Tom would be both his best and last apprentice but the Spook doesn’t believe in the powers of prophecy. However, Tom also realises that there is more to it than that as his mother isn’t a seventh son so she can’t have the same powers as Tom but she silenced the ghasts on Hangman’s Hill when he was a child and he knows as he is her son there is something about him that makes him special compared to all the Spook’s other apprentices. Tom is also introduced to the grading system they will use which marks how dangerous the paranormal being is Omega X is a grade 10 being, anything above 6 is a ghast, so mostly harmless.
When the Spook takes him to his summer home he begins teaching Tom about some of the more dangerous beings that he keeps bound in his garden. In one there are 3 witches, one is alive and bound by iron, another is dead and also bound in the same way to keep her from returning and the third is alive and very dangerous. She is known as Mother Malkin and the Spook warns Tom to stay well away from her, which he agrees to. In another garden there is a bound boggart which is ranked at grade one, the grade used for the most dangerous of being and he also mentions one of his other apprentices had some trouble trying to bind a boggart in the past but doesn’t go into detail. We also learn here that Tom is writing this book about his life as he says that in his time as an apprentice he made to mistake, the first was not telling the Spook the whole truth and the second was making a promise to a girl in pointy shoes named Alice, the niece of Bony Lizzie, who we later learn is a witch and Alice is one too, but Tom has bound himself to her with this promise although he isn’t aware of it yet.
After passing the month long trial Tom is allowed to return home for a few days to see his family and think about whether or not he wants to continue his training which will last for the next five years. Tom has a brief discussion with his mother and decides to return feeling that it is his duty to do it if no one else will. When he returns to the Spook’s home he has been called away to deal with some witch trouble when he meets Alice again who calls upon his promise. She asks him to gives some cakes to Mother Malkin prepared by her family and he isn’t remembers the Spook’s warning and tries to refuse but Alice won’t listen. She tells him to feed her one cake each night at midnight for the next three nights and we know Tom is going to do it despite the warnings he was given about this witch. After giving one of the cakes to Malkin he sees the next days the iron bars of her prison are bent and by the time he realises what this means he has already given her the second cake but the Spook is nowhere to be found. Tom tracks down Alice who insists they aren’t doing anything wrong and that Mother Malkin has paid her debt. When Tom refuses to give her anymore Alice lets slip that Bony Lizzy is planning to kill the Spook and unless he helps her they will come after him too. When he returns to the cottage he asks the boggart in the kitchen for help and it leads him to the Spook’s diary and he learns exactly what Mother Malkin is capable of and that she gets her power from human blood.
Tom connections the cakes, Mother Malkin’s growing strength and the missing children together and decides that if she is going to try and escape he is going to be the one that tries and stops her despite his lack of experience but I have a feeling this exact promise he made to Alice is going to bite him on the ass when he least expects it. He was right about Mother Malkin escaping and he quickly gives chase, she is still very weak and the he manages with great effort to kill, however, he forgot what the Spook said about a witch that powerful being more dangerous dead and Tom knows sooner or later she will come for her revenge. Knowing children were killed to make the cakes he heads to Bony Lizzie’s home to rescue the final child he knows that she has. While he manages to rescue Tommy the witch chases after him but the boggart at the cottage protects him and he returns the boy to his mother. That night the Spook returns and Tom comes clean and he learns some vital lessons here, that he shouldn’t have killed Mother Malkin and that the deal he offered the boggart was far to generous but it seems he has made of friend of the boggart know. The Spook knows they will have to go after Lizzie before she can cause more trouble and Tom is going with him know he has faced a real challenge. Knowing that Mother Malkin will come for her revenge spurs Tom on to learn as much as he can, as quickly as he can because she could come back at any time using any means.
Tom quickly gets kidnapped by Lizzie who used Alice to do it, hoping to kill him for killing Mother Malkin and he uses Billy the Spook’s previous apprentice who died to do it but Tom overcomes this easily but he can’t get out of the pit they put him in. He manages to convince Alice to free him because she doesn’t want to be like her family and together they run for it. It isn’t long until they run into the Spook who deals with Tusk and Lizzie and decides to give Alice a chance because she isn’t evil like the others. She has another aunt she can stay with and the Spook sends Tom with her but he also orders Tom to take Alice to his home and have her mother speak with her and return in a fortnight. When he returns home he explains his situation to his mother who takes Alice in but something evil has followed Tom back and he manages to stop Alice getting possessed by Mother Malkin but he suspects that she has possessed Ellie instead. With his mother away assisting with a birth and no one else he can ask for help in the home he knows it is up to him to save his brother’s wife and his niece’s mother before it’s too late, but he knows Mother Malkin isn’t going to give up the body without a fight. Tom also knows if he hurts Ellie’s body he hurts her too so killing her isn’t an option.
In the final section of the novel, Tom and Alice face off with Mother Malkin and they believe her to be gone for good but I have the sinking feeling that she is going to pop up again sooner or later. However, the Spook arrives after all is said and done and wants to throw Alice in a pit alongside Lizzie but he ultimately leaves the decision up to Tom because she isn’t a witch yet but she will be. Tom at first is going to take her back to the Spook to be bound but then decides that Alice’s fate isn’t decided yet and that she might be a good witch, even his mother said that she might be the bane of his existence or the best friend he will ever had and ends up taking her to her aunt’s on the coast. In the end, Tom isn’t sure about the choices he has made so far but he now knows how hard the Spook’s job is and wants to learn as fast as he can so he’s prepared next time and so he can protect the people he cares about. Overall, I really enjoyed re-reading this first book which I read in under 3 hours and I will definitely be jumping into book 2 very soon.
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