Agnes Grey - 3 stars (guest review)

Guest post by jayden robyn


     Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte's first of two novels, is a quick, easy read. I liked it, but I found the overall plot to be somewhat lacking, which is why I settled on three stars for my rating.

     Agnes Grey focuses on the story of a young woman who becomes a governess in an attempt to earn her own living. The book opens with a brief overview of her childhood and relations with her parents and older sister, before moving on to Agnes taking up a position as governess at Wellwood House. Agnes struggles to handle her pupils, who are cruel and unmanageable. She is relieved of her position after a year, and after returning home, Agnes then takes up another post as governess to the Murray girls, who are older than her previous charges. She has a much better time with them, even if they are still troublesome, and she also meets the curate Edward Weston, with whom she falls in love.

     Anne Bronte is a very good writer, with prose that is clear and easy to read. She is my favorite of the Bronte sisters. However, I found Agnes Grey to "get going" almost immediately without much introduction to the characters, so I wasn't fully drawn into the story for several chapters. It is a very quiet story without much, if any, action; basically it is a snapshot of the story of a young woman making her place in the world in 19th century England.

     Agnes does not really grow much throughout the story, but Bronte does a good job of portraying the people surrounding her main character (who narrates in the first-person), from the cruel Bloomfield children and their parents to the somewhat shallow Murray girls and their mother, as well as the kind Edward Weston. The romance between Agnes and Weston is very understated and (again) quiet, but I liked that Bronte wrote it that way. Bronte honestly portrays the governess' lot of the times, and she ends the novel well, giving us a glimpse into her characters' futures without stifling the sense of completion.

     Overall, I liked Agnes Grey, but the fact that it took me several chapters to get into the story, as well as the overall tameness of the plot, lowered my rating. I prefer Anne's other work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but Agnes Grey was still worth a read.

*SPOILERS!!* The Spook's Apprentice breakdown - What went wrong? by Noodle

     First things first: If you've not read up to book 13 of The Spook's Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney, don't read any further until you've gotten that far in the series.

Book 3

     Now, if you're still reading, you'd better have read book 13. If you still haven't, it's not my fault when I spill all the big surprises and ruin the story for you. You brought this on yourself.

     The purpose for this post is for me to explain some of the that bothered me about the way Joseph Delaney extended The Spook's Apprentice to thirteen books. On the whole, he did a pretty good job. Books 1-3 were actually almost stand-alone. They all built on the events of the previous, but more than that they introduced the County and the job of a Spook. They are my favorites out of the series because the whole Fiend episode has influenced my opinion of the rest of the story. Books 4 and 5, though, were also good. The Fiend was in them, but the series hadn't gotten all weird like many series do after they go on longer than was good for them. Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan was a series that had this problem toward the end.

Book 4

     From book 6 onward, however, Delaney ranges beyond the County to find enemies to throw at Tom, Gregory, and Alice. And although that's not the principle reason I was unhappy with the last seven books, the enemies from foreign places did contribute to making the series less enjoyable. All these people from other countries are coming to the County, and logically there are far, far too many enemies for Tom's allies to have a prayer of winning. And it's not a good story if the good guys haven't got a chance – but still somehow manage to win.

     But my main problem with the later books was that in his attempts to string his series out a few books longer, Delaney wrote books that were purely filler. Book 9, Grimalkin the Witch Assassin, is an example of that. In the beginning of the book Grimalkin has the Fiend's head and is trying to keep the Fiend's servants from returning it to the rest of his body. She has a series of narrow escapes and makes several 'last' stands, and even gets severely injured once. But at the end of the book Alice heals Grimalkin so she's back to full strength. Nothing was achieved. Grimalkin is as strong as ever, and still has the head. That's filler.

Book 5

     And book 11, Slither, was written purely to explain the new enemy that Delaney suddenly throws into the story. Basically, in Slither we find the story of a Kobalos called Slither. He narrates a story that's completely unrelated to what's happening to Tom and Alice, and the only connection between Slither and the rest of the series is formed when Grimalkin shows up with the Fiend's head. In my opinion, the sole purpose of Slither was to make it possible for Grimalkin to tell Tom what will happen if the Fiend is destroyed. And since I can give as many spoilers as I like in this post, I'm going straight for it.

What's going to happen is that the dark Kobalos god, Talkos, will be born when the Fiend is destroyed, and the Kobalos will have the power to take over the world. And in my opinion, even if Delaney had to keep the entire Kobalos extension to the story, there might have been a better way to introduce the threat they'll present once the Fiend is gone. After all, the threat the Kobalos will present isn't mentioned much, and isn't the focus of the book itself. In my opinion, Slither is mostly filler. The only important parts of it were the five or six sentences where Slither and Grimalkin talk about Talkos. A book written for half a page of dialogue. That's filler to me.

Book 7

     The other thing that really disappointed me was that he had some really interesting stories for some of his characters, and I don't think he handled them well in the 13^th book. For instance, for a long time – since book 1! – Alice has been Tom's best friend. In the later books they are in love, and the only reason things haven't gone very far between them is that Alice is a witch – a very powerful witch. For 12 books she walks the line between light and dark because although she was taught dark magic and often uses it to save Tom's life, she doesn't want to become a malevolent witch. The struggle against succumbing to the dark is a very important part of Alice's story, and so I was crushed when she ends up becoming a malevolent witch in book 13. All that effort turned out to be for nothing. To make things worse, somehow becoming a malevolent witch makes Alice beautiful and she stops loving Tom. Instead, she is in love with a dark mage called Lukrasta. And I have to say I hated the fact that becoming a dark witch should change Alice so deeply, since technically Grimalkin is a malevolant witch and she's not like that. Why should it happen to just Alice?

Book 9

     In fact, Grimalkin is the other character who disappointed me. She's a very tough, strong, fearless, and sometimes brutal character, but there's always a reason for what she does. She's very deliberate. And she's worked very hard to become the best witch assassin ever and an incredibly skilled warrior. But to have a character who's that strong and never have that person make a mistake or get hurt is terrible, and Delaney was smart enough not to do that. But it seemed to me that every time he hurt her he would find a way to get her back to her old self. When she's poisoned, Alice heals her. When she breaks her leg, she puts a silver pin through the shattered bone so that it will heal straight and strong. Then the agony of the silver, which is deadly to witches, isn't too much for Grimalkin's iron will to overcome. She's in danger of becoming a serious munchkin.

     All right, one last thing and I'll stop complaining. The final thing that I don't like about The Spook's Apprentice series is something that happens in the 13^th book, and which I mentioned earlier. The dark Kabalos god Talkos will be born after the Fiend is killed, and when he comes the Kabalos will take over the world. My thought is: Why?? Why even make up the Kabalos? Why not leave it at the Fiend and be finished with it?

Book 11

     All books or series could go on and on forever if you just come up with another problem and another problem and so on. But there's a point when the story should end. You've given the characters enough problems, and now they need to solve them all and reach a conclusion. Then the story is over. But in my opinion, Delaney reached that point – and then he kept going. Was he trying to string the story out a few more books so he could make more money, or did he really think that this plot twist would make the story even better? I don't have any idea. But in my opinion, dragging a story out just for more books and more money is one of the worst sins an author can commit, and Delaney is guilty. I was very disappointed, because in most other aspects, he's a really good writer. If he hadn't chosen to extend the series past what was healthy, I think I would have rated it much higher and enjoyed it much more.

Book 12

     Anyway, those are the things that annoyed me most about The Spook's Apprentice series. I'd like to point out that they all occurred in the last five or six books, though. The first five at least deserve a 4 star rating, and the next two or three were all worthy of 3.5 stars. But after that things went downhill, which is why I'm only giving this series 3 stars. It could have been much better, but because of a variety of big mistakes and poor choices, it turned out to be very disappointing. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the last book or books in this series aren't out yet. I know there's more to come because I haven't figured out what Tom's going to do about Talkos. Maybe Delaney will surprise me with a really great ending to his story. So I'll hang in there for the end, but I don't think it will be enough to redeem the series.

And if you read this post and haven't read up to book 13 yet, all I can say is that you've just ruined half the surprises in the story for yourself! But at the same time, you've already read about most of the disappointments in store for you, so they shouldn't shock and outrage you as much as they did me. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. You'll have to decide.

The Spook's Apprentice ~ 3 stars

Book 1

     I don't like lots of horror and gore in books. The Spook's Apprentice series by Joseph Delany has both, so I actually didn't expect to find them at all appealing, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them. I would classify this series as being a thorough blend of some of the most frightening, bloody writing I've found in non-adult literature and some great characters and themes.

     The Spook's Apprentice books center around Thomas Ward, the apprentice of the local Spook, Old Gregory. As an apprentice Spook, it's Tom's job to deal with the things that go bump in the dark: ghasts, ghosts, boggarts, witches, and other denizens of the dark. They're a terrifying bunch of villanious creatures, and it takes a special kind of person to be brave enough to face them. Tom is a seventh son of a seventh son, and this makes him specially suited to fighting the dark, but even so its not an easy job. He regularly depends on the experience and skill of his master, Gregory, to help him, as well as the abilities of his friend Alice, the daughter of a witch.

Book 2

     Without spoiling the story too much, since there are many unexpected twists and turns in the plot, here's a summary of the series. Throughout the books, the dark is gradually growing strong, and it's almost more than a Spook and his apprentice can keep at bay. To make things worse, the Fiend, who is said to be 'the dark made flesh', has been summoned to the world. The only thing that is keeping him from destroying the world utterly is the fact that Tom's mother has hobbled him, binding him to several conditions. If he kills Tom, he will only be able to remain in the world for a hundred years – a mere blink to a powerful being like the Fiend. But if he can convert Tom to the dark or get one of his children to kill him, his reign can go on forever, unbroken and unhindered. To banish the Fiend back to the dark forever, Tom, Gregory, Alice, and other allies they make along the way are going to have to find a way to kill him. And a being like the Fiend isn't going to be easy to kill.

Book 6

     Hopefully that little summary doesn't give away too much of the story, but did tell you enough to possibly interest you in giving this series a try. Beyond just hinting at the plot, however, I have several things to say about the books themselves.

     Like I said, this story has a lot of elements in it which I would classify as horror. Delaney never lets you forget how close many of the characters are to a really horrible death for extended periods of time. He also describes things in vivid detail, and combining that with plenty of heart-pounding moments for the characters can give readers a shock if they don't have nerves of steel. This is not a comfy story where the heroes eventually win – it's a story where the heroes are going to win in the long run, but lots of them are going to die along the way. And that's not always appealing to every reader.

Book 8

     Also, the gore level of the Last Apprentice is very, very high. I'm not joking when I say that blood, bones, and death is mentioned on every three pages, at least. In particular, the witches of Delaney's story are quite gory and disturbing. It takes a reader who isn't easily disgusted to hang on during the first few descriptions of dead witches and blood-drinking boggarts. You'll have to be the judge of the blood and guts aspect of The Spook's Apprentice yourself. My advice is to at least read the first book and give it a try. You might find it extremely disturbing, or it could be appealing to you. Or you might be like me and enjoy the extra layer it adds to the story while not trying to imagine how incredibly disturbing the story would be in real life.

Book 10

     But just because The Spook's Apprentice can be horrific and bloody in places didn't turn me off. I actually found that although it was a gory story with creatures that wouldn't be out of place in a horror film, it was still a good story. Delaney handles horror and gore without becoming repulsive and revolting. Also, his characters have heart and substance – Tom in particular. Really bad things happen to them, and they get more of a fright than I do, but they're still great, three-dimmensional, extremely unique characters. The books wouldn't be the same without them. Also, Delaney has a wonderful narrative voice. The flow of the story is very natural, even in the most disturbing passages.

Book 13

     In the end I find myself two minds about The Spook's Apprentice. On the one hand, it's got great characters and Delaney is a very good writer. But on the other hand, the series currently contains thirteen books, and Delaney hasn't finished his story yet. And in my opinion, he's sacrificed some of the aspects of his story that I liked along the way to getting to thirteen books. I'll finish the series, but I was not pleased with the turn the series took. So in a few days, I'll follow this review with a breakdown of what I thought of Delaney's continuation of The Spook's Apprentice story. It's going to be full of spoilers, so don't read it until you've gotten to book thirteen. Please don't. It'll ruin half the surprises in store for you.

Link to author website: http://www.spooksbooks.com/