The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joeseph Delaney

Revenge of the Witch

For someone who is not really a fan of YA I sure have read a lot of it lately.  In my defense I had no idea that this was teen fiction, and it was the only book I had on my to-read list that I could get from the library right when I needed a book. However, I really liked this book, and I am so glad I found another series to read. My interest in this book began when I had seen a teaser for the movie Seventh Son. I’m a fan of Jeff Bridges, and the little bit I saw looked like this is going to be a great movie.

Shortly after the mention of this book being made into a movie Goodreads had it as a giveaway. The summary seemed like it would be interesting, and free is free right? So I threw my name in for it, and didn’t win. I finally got around to reading this, and I couldn’t stop. I was so glad to have 7 hours at work to listen to this book without stopping.

The book starts a little slow because of setting the scene and characters. I have read books that have handled this in a more interesting manner, but the buildup doesn’t last too long. We get to learn what the significance of each son is in a family. The first son takes over the farm, and then each subsequent son will be found a job by the father, but the Seventh Son is special. We learn that there will be things that set Tomas Ward apart from his brothers, but don’t expect an answer in this book at least. We don’t get to see what exactly makes a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son so special. There are little things throughout the book that seem to foreshadow what is yet to come, but I won’t get into that here.

The story was very well put together and held my attention to the very end. Once I got past the opening few chapters that is. I really liked Joseph Delaney’s writing style mainly because this didn’t read like a YA book. Sometimes writers of YA can dumb down the writing or over dramatize every little thing because they think that is what teens want. Maybe it is. I don’t know. It has been a long time since I was a teen, but I hate when an author tries too hard to write for a younger audience. Delaney didn’t do that at all. He wrote the book as if it was for adults but with a younger character. If it wasn’t for my wife telling me this is teen fiction I would have never known. Getting back to the story, I liked reading how different monsters and ghouls were handled in this book. The first time I read about a Bogart was in Harry Potter, so I was curious to see just how different these were. The Ley Lines are mentioned in this book as well, and I just got finished reading the first two books in the Raven Boys series that dealt heavily with the Ley Lines. It seemed like perfect timing to have these supernatural items in this book.

I was really impressed with how the plot was put together once I finished. A little over half way through this book it seems like everything has been wrapped up, and I kept wondering how on earth Delaney was going to keep this interesting for the second half. If I had to sit through half a book of Tom just studying I was going to go nuts. Delany surprised me with how he kept this plot going after I felt it was done. I couldn’t wait to see just what was coming next. I will say it again that I really liked this book and it easily deserves 4 out of 5 stars. I can’t wait to keep going with this series.