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A New Darkness
By Carrie R. Wheadon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Spooky spin-off series introduces a gifted girl apprentice.
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What's the Story?
After losing his master in the end of the Last Apprentice series, Tom Ward, only 17, becomes the County's Spook, putting troubled ghosts to rest and fighting forces of the dark. Going it alone isn't terribly easy -- especially when he learns of three girls dead from blood loss, all with terrified looks on their faces. While he tries to get to the bottom of it, he meets Jenny, a 13-year-old seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, who begs to be his apprentice. Tom's very reluctant to talk with her -- Spooks are always male, for starters -- but she convinces him that she knows where the blood-drinking creature lives and can take him to it. What they discover is something the witch assassin Grimalkin warned him about: a Kobalos. And Grimalkin fears he's the first of many to come and try to enslave the whole County. Grimalkin decides to head north to see what else she can find out about the enemy and wants Tom to come along. Tom is reluctant to leave his post, not only out of duty to the County but because he knows that Grimalkin isn't telling him all the danger that awaits.
Is It Any Good?
There are many reasons Joseph Delaney's Last Apprentice series was incredibly popular, and the good news for fans is that there's more of the same here. The world full of ghosts, witches, and other dark scary stuff is easy to get lost in, and Tom is a great character -- earnest, brave, talented, smart, and very humble. Tom the Spook is still hard at work in A NEW DARKNESS. The darkness in question is quite outside the realm of the usual witches and boggarts, but it's captivating all the same. The better news for girl fans: the addition of a female character who isn't a child-eating witch or suspicious witch assassin. And Jenny brings her own talents to the table. Not much is developed yet, but her power of empathy seems impressive.
Overall, little seems fully developed yet. It's one of those series books all too visibly trying hard to save some mystery and excitement for the other books. Readers will get quite a cliff-hanger out of it but will be wishing for more.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the scary stuff. What scares you? Who gets scared the easiest in the family? What do you do when you decide a book or movie is too scary for you?
Will you read more in this series? If you haven't read The Last Apprentice series, are you curious about it now? Why, or why not?
As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, Jenny has the added gift of strong empathy to the point where she can read others' feelings almost perfectly. How does this help her as a Spook's apprentice? How does it make her job harder?
Book Details
- Author: Joseph Delaney
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publication date: September 2, 2014
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 13 - 17
- Number of pages: 352
- Available on: Nook, Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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