A gloriously spooky horror-fantasy story from Joseph Delaney, the internationally multi-million bestselling author of The Spook's Apprentice
Crafty halted, his heart lurching with fear, his mouth dry. There were bare footprints in the white snow, and each one was smeared with red, as if the owner of those clawed feet had stepped in a puddle of blood . . .
Crafty and his friends have already faced dozens of horrifying aberrations during their time as Castle Gate Grubs - assistants to the mysterious guild of Gatemancers, who fight against the terrifying Shole. But the real battle is only just beginning. New and more dangerous aberrations are appearing all the time, and worse yet, it seems someone from within the Castle is helping them attack. And when an old enemy returns to give Crafty a disturbing warning, it seems time might be running out for all of them . . .
Joseph Delaney was a full time writer living in Lancashire, in the heart of Boggart territory.
He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.
He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.
He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.
In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.
Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.
Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination. Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.
In some ways I felt this was even better than the first in the series as we see the world and characters develop. It did, however, seem to end very abruptly which spoilt it a bit for me. I will be reading the third as I want to find out what happens!
A solid installment to the series, the reason I'm giving it 3* is because it reads a little younger than the Tom Ward books from the same author and just doesn't appeal to me as much as an adult.
sadly it is only three stars for me , though I LOVE Delaney's work, but this one felt like merely a filler, it wasn't as grasping as the Spook's when I could barely leave the book. every time the cliffhanger turns out okay, they are rescued all over the time, and the dark is not dark enough. I think my favorite part is the "'flappers" the idea in itself if new and unique, the Crafty ,Lick and Lucky trio felt soooo much like Harry ,Hermione and Ron, I know thise three are always in the back of all readers minds when it comes to two boys and girl kind of protagonists. but to be specfic it gave be a flash back of the end of PRisoner of Azkban when Ron was the attacked "shrug" the novel is interesting and all, but nothing vital Happened.as i said full of cliffhnagers that turn out okay in a way.
Bonjour, aujourd'hui , je reviens sur la lecture de la suite de la saga : Aberration de Joseph Delaney Le roman en trois points : ➡️ un univers qui se complexifie toujours plus ! ➡️On va de surprise en surprise et d’action en action. ➡️Une histoire qui ma tenue en haleine et qui à fait que j’ai eu du mal à lâcher le livre ! 📖Résumé 📖:
Il est temps d'affronter ses cauchemars. Le combat de Crafty et de ses amis ne fait que commencer. Le Shole avance inéluctablement, et le château de Lancaster dans lequel ils se sont réfugiés peut être englouti d'un moment à l'autre. Des aberrations terrifiantes se montrent de plus en plus souvent, et certaines semblent même pouvoir s'aventurer dans le monde diurne. Pire, les créatures paraissent toujours savoir où frapper... Alors, quand une vieille ennemie apparaît dans les cauchemars de Crafty pour l'avertir des dangers à venir, le garçon ne sait plus à qui se fier. Troublé, il doit se préparer au pire, car le temps presse, et les monstres approchent...
"En résumé, un second tome encore meilleur que le premier. Si ce n'est cette non fin qui pousse à avoir un tome 3 (qui ne semble pas être prévu...), j'ai passé un excellent moment de lecture. J'étais ravie de retrouver Crafty et ses amis et toute cette ambiance assez glauque et creepy. Maintenant, croisons les doigts pour qu'un tome 3 arrive et que cette annonce que c'est un diptyque soit une blague de l'auteur..."
Welp, it's safe to say this was just as good -if not better- than the first. Delaney truly has a way of drawing you in and makes you hang off the edge of your seat until, you fall into the floor with a loud thud. I came into this series knowing that it'd most likely be good, maybe it's just me, but honestly I didn't know it'd be this good. Delaney said something once about a third installment (which is what it needs and makes sense to have) but his publishers wanted another spooks book. (Which I'm still thankful for, otherwise we wouldn't have brother wulf) I highly recommend this to all no matter what genre you like, well, maybe besides romance. But still, there definitely needs to be a third and this has lived fully up to my expectations, if not exceeded them. I'm hoping and looking forward to the third book, to see what becomes of crafty and his friends.
Forewarning, this ending is no ending at all. It leaves several cliffhangers. If you enjoyed the Spook’s series adventure flow, this is quite a departure because it’s stagnant in a yo-yo way. A lot of between hope and hopelessness in a way that was tedious. For a book that was only 302 pages it felt like more. However, I love how Joseph Delaney writes strong female characters, leaders/heroines.
This is a fun read, as I've found all of Delaney's works to be, but unfortunately, you will be left on a cliffhanger that will probably never be resolved because Delaney passed away before writing any more in this series. If anyone has the rights to it and can incorporate any plot details Delaney had in mind, I'd be interested in seeing what happens next, but I don't expect that to happen.
Oh i can't wait to find out more about the shole, the characters and how will they fight this. I really hope more books for this series will come out. Very captivating writing. I enjoyed all the books from the spook's series, but these books were much more intense.
A very good sequel, can’t wait for the third book! It’s very fun to get to learn about the Shole bits by bits, its enigma makes the reading as interesting as the adventure itself.