My biggest qualm regarding the plot centers around Tom’s mother. While not gory or gratuitous in any way, there ARE references to horrific violence committed against women and the brutal murder of small children. Themes of friendship, honesty, courage, resourcefulness, and the extending of grace, all feature prominently.Ĭontent Note:The horror aspects, though relatively brief, may be too intense for a younger MG audience. Delany has constructed a dreary, dangerous world and a sympathetically innocent character with which readers must navigate.
The prose is simple yet strong, and the telling is engaging. And he has an awful lot of growing to do if he’s to survive his apprenticeship…Ī gothic, paranormal sort of work that should appeal well enough to the entire range of a YA audience-despite the MC’s technical age. The story is told exclusively in the first-person past tense perspective of Tom Ward, the latest (and allegedly last) apprentice to the local “Spook.” Tom’s heritage and precise birth order (7th son of a 7th son) have qualified him as a banisher of things that go bump in the night. A mature middle-grade fantasy-sporting a medieval feel and steeped in an eerie English folklore ambiance which, at times, drifts over the line into horror.
0 kommentar(er)
