The Spook's Secret ~ Joseph Delaney
I think that one of the main problems with reading the books in a series one after the other, is that they can get a bit samey and you get bored with them after a while. This is the third book in The Wardstone Chronicles series and I've read them all back to back which may not be such a good idea. As well as them getting a bit samey, it's hard to think of new things to say about them!
Spoiler Warning! If you've not read this book, then there are spoilers ahead!
This books takes the Spook and his apprentice to their winter house at Anglezarke where a hard winter is threatened. At the winter house, Tom meets Meg, one of the Spook's previous loves and her surprising secret is revealed. Except that it's not really, because it's made blatantly obvious in the previous book that she's a lamia witch. What is surprising is that she can't tell that Tom also has that in his background. Although it's not specifically said, I have no doubt that Mam is also a lamia witch and as such has passed some of her qualities on to Tom. Surely Meg should be able to recognise that?
There's also the introduction of Morgan, one of the Spook's previous apprentices who didn't make the grade. Morgan is labouring under the delusion that the Spook is his father, although why he thinks this is not made clear. He's supposed to be intelligent and also has the power to speak to the dead, so why he doesn't just ask his now deceased mother the truth of his father's identity is beyond me. Maybe logic doesn't make for interesting reading! Morgan wants to raise Golgoth, an old god of winter, in order to become very powerful. I'm not sure if Golgoth is based on an actual local legend, it doesn't sound at all familiar to me in that respect; however, the idea of having someone who creates an eternal winter is very familiar to anyone who has read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
I think I would have to say that this book is not as good as the previous one in my opinion. The characters haven't grown much and the plot is rather thin and drawn out for far too long. The fourth book is set in Pendle and deals with the witches up there, so that might be interesting reading.
This is the second book in the Wardstone Chronicles series which started with The Spook's Apprentice. The book continues the story of Thomas J. Ward's apprenticeship under the Spook and what experiences he has. In this book, the Spook and Tom travel to Priesttown to attend a funeral and end up fighting an evil force there called the Bane with the help of Alice.
As before, the locations in the book are based on actual locations from Lancashire. Here, Priesttown is based on Preston and uses its previous name. There are several locations from the town which are mentioned, such as streets and some of the pubs which I found quite amusing as I know Preston reasonably well. Again, it's obvious that the author knows the area and is able to drop in street names and describe them in such a way as to make them recognisable. It's almost like being privy to an inside joke or secret which is quite nice. There are other places such as Heysham which are mentioned without having their names changed and I'm not sure why this is, unless it's because some places names have changed and so the author is using the name appropriate for the time period.
I found this book much more enjoyable than the previous one and read it in a matter of hours. It's nowhere near as gruesome as the previous book which may have been one reason why I enjoyed it so much. The characters are pretty similar to the first book, the Spook is as crotchety as ever and Alice as annoying though Tom maybe getting a little better as he doesn't seem to be quite as stupid as before which is a nice improvement. Tom's mother becomes more of an important character in this book and there is some mystery surrounding her and her abilities. I'm pretty sure that there are also lots of clues as to her origins which aren't that difficult to work out but I get the feeling that this will be revealed at a later date when it is more pertinent to the plot. I think she is the one sympathetic character and possibly one of the more intriguing ones so I hope that the plot does her justice. There are also several mentions of the increasing dark which I'm guessing means that the series will climax in a final big showdown between Tom and whatever form the dark takes.
All in all, a good book which is possibly unusual in being better than the first. Hopefully the series will continue in this manner!
I heard about this series quite some time ago but I never got around to reading them till recently. I was in the library looking for some other books and noticed that they had the first four books of this series so I thought I should take advantage of that and took the lot. I was quite looking forward to reading them because they're set in Lancashire - although it's just called the County in the books - and it can be really nice to read something that's set in the place where you live.
The main plot of this first book is that a young lad by the name of Thomas J. Ward is being apprenticed to the local Spook. This is a job which involves ridding the County of all manner of dark beings such as ghosts, ghasts, boggarts and witches. This being Lancashire, there are plenty of them to deal with. Especially witches. There does seem to be much use made of local folklore and legends such as boggarts and the Pendle witches who are referred to several times. Old Mother Malkin is presumably named for Malkin Tower where the main Pendle witches lived.
The book is quite well written and it's obvious that the author not only knows Lancashire very well but loves it too. The descriptions of the scenery and natural features of the county are very well done and this helps to not only set the scene but also adds to the story itself. The landscape - and weather - are almost a character in its own right. The towns and villages mentioned are certainly renamed versions of actual places. Chipenden where the Spook has his summer house is probably Chipping and Caster is almost certainly Lancaster. Some other places are referred to by their normal names such as Anglezarke but then again, that's such an usual name that it almost sounds made up anyway!
The actual characters in the book are fairly numerous but there are 3 or 4 main ones. Tom as the apprentice is the story teller, the book is written from his point of view and so we learn what's going on as he does. He can be really really stupid and seems to spend the first half of the book doing all the things he's been explicitly told not to do and making really daft decisions which made me want to shake him. The Spook is a very mysterious character who doesn't give a lot away and expects that Tom will do exactly what he's told without question. There's more to him than meets the eye certainly, but I presume that his past is going to be spread over the course of the series. The third main character is Alice, a young girl who is caught in between being good and being bad. It's hard to tell what is going on in her head and she's constantly taking Tom - and therefore the reader - by surprise by doing something contrary to what he expected. The characterisation is quite good although there were times that they annoyed me by doing something that was blatantly stupid. I also found Alice's dialect to be rather confusing. I'm not sure where she was supposed to be from but she seemed to talk more like a Cockney than a Lancashire lass. There is some use of dialect in the book, such as referring to willow trees as withy trees, but it would have been nice to have a bit more indication of that in their speech.
Although the book is written for older children, I found it to be a little spinechilling and certainly gruesome. The tale of the previous apprentice who had his fingers eaten by a boggart and died from shock and loss of blood is certainly not something I wanted to read before bed, neither is the incident earlier on of the haunted house where Tom is forced to spend the night. People who are particularly sensitive or imaginative may find that some aspects of this book are a little intense for them, I know that it made me feel a little uneasy even though I made sure to read it during the day.
My only real complaint is with regards to the Spook's attitude to women and girls. Several times throughout the book, he tells Tom that they are not to be trusted because they are flighty and will trick him in an attempt to get him to do their bidding. The comment about not trusting girls in pointy shoes because they are witches is just ridiculous. I know that the book is probably set in an unenlightened period in history, but even so, these are not the kind of opinions that should be given to young people. Despite this, it is a good book and one that I would recommend, especially to other Lancashire people.
I was away on holiday at the end of January so I wasn't able to post a monthly update. I've had to combine the two months into this one update instead. Not a bad start to the challenge though, let's hope it continues!
Total Completed: 10 down, 40 to go
Books Completed
Angels And Demons ~ Dan Brown
A Curate For All Seasons ~ Fred Secombe
Doctor On Trial ~ Harry Denker
Fatherland ~ Robert Harris
The Boy Who Invented The Bubble Gun ~ Paul Gallico
The Memoirs Of An Invisible Man ~ H. F. Saint
The Scofield Diagnosis ~ Henry Denker
The Tower ~ Richard Martin Stern
The Book of General Ignorance ~ John Lloyd & John Mitchinson
The Doctor Trap ~ Simon Messingham
Books ongoing
Traditional Tales From Long Long Ago ~ Philip Wilson
Boston City Guide ~ Mara Vorhees and John Spelman
Deviant
Strain ~ Justin Richards (eBook)
Hello
Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Teen Suicide ~ Kate
Bornstein
