Joseph Delaney (1) (1945–2022)

When I cracked open this book and saw a screaming woman with bloodied knives in each of her hands, and a face covered in swirling Maori-like tattoos staring up at me, I knew I would once again be frightened out of my wits for the entire time it would take me to read Clash of the Demons. Flanagan returns with a more powerful than ever, frightful tale of the latest adventure of the Spook and young Tom Ward.

Tom’s mother has returned from Greece and wishes him and the Spook to accompany her show more back to her homeland to fight off the greatest of evil beings, that if not slayed, will destroy the country and soon the world. So desperate for assistance in her plight she gathers up all the local witches, including Gramalkin whom we have fought before, and pulls together all of Tom’s past foes to fight evil with evil as she believes it is her only chance to rid the world of the abomination called the Ordeen. The Spook doesn’t like the sound of this plan one bit, and at first refuses to go as it is against his principle to fight the demons of the world with darkness itself, but he is finally convinced after fellow spook Arkwright, and Mam herself, that it will be THE only way to win this war. Alice too, Tom’s friendly witch-amore that we saw banished from Chipenden by the Spook in the last episode, is also called upon to help and make the journey.

It is a sorrowful, weary and terrified band of both light and dark that board the ship Celeste, all silently praying they will come back alive. With a few shocking surprises regarding who Tom’s mother is, and a couple of visits from Tom’s old arch enemy the Fiend, the motley group of bloodthirsty witches and ghost-busting spooks arrive in the land of Meteora to battle the dark in a gory bloodbath like we’ve never seen before in this series of books. Alice redeems herself, the Spook resigns himself, two party members sacrifice themselves for the cause, and Mam, finally after seven books, reveals all to Tom, what she was, what she is, and what she shall become.

Tom is given hard choices with few options in the Clash of Demons, but the reader will enjoy his growing strengths and power as he learns to recall and put to use all that the Spook has taught him over the years, proving to be a force to be reckoned with as the forces of good and evil challenge his wits and test his skills.

Scarier than the previous books, I couldn’t put this book down and loved every drop of blood that fell upon my quickly turned pages. Once again the illustrator also deserves high praise, I thought this batch of drawings heart-stopping and fabulous to behold. I thought that this being book seven for the seventh son of the seventh son, would finish off the series, but as it appears by the ending, there is thankfully more to come. I never tire of these Last Apprentice stories and do hope they never end. They scare me to death but I smile as I devour them hungry for more!!! show less

This takes place almost entirely on an island. I think because of that it feels claustrophobic in a way. The Spook, Tom, and Alice are heading to Ireland at the end of this book and it kind of feels like this was just a way point for them getting there. I did enjoy it and these are always fast reads, but I'm wondering if I'm getting a little burned out on them. Or maybe I just miss Tom's mam. The Spook is getting a bit tiring and I've noticed that I enjoy the parts without him more. I really show more want Tom and Alice to just ditch him and go live their lives. show less

Well well well. I knew certain people were full of it, and this book shows us who they are. At this point all is revealed to Tom and he is left with a terrible choice. He either lets the Fiend bring the dark (and honestly who cares at this point) or he has to kill someone he loves to stop him forever.

This whole book was just the Spook being shown he is not up to the task of being the Spook and things more firmly being handed over to Tom. But also I got to wonder about that prophecy that was show more being shrieked at us for four solid books that I assume is not going to come true? Who knows. I guess we see in the last three books of the series.

All in all, I didn't feel that Tom is the hero that the County and everyone needs, instead you have Grimalkin and Alice still kicking ass and taking names. It seems to me, the witches (who are part of the dark) have more sense than the men and lamia's running around. I now wonder if we had followed the witches side of things if I would have enjoyed this series more, but I will never know.

We get more insight into Tom's terrible mother, and he is once again left with a terrible decision tree and since Tom never chooses right, I am just going to guess the last book in this series is going to really tick me off. Also sadly, this book dispatches someone we have gotten to know off scene to speak and it just has Tom going, I won't tell what I know because I don't need more people to hate me. But yes, Tom is definitely strong enough to be the Spook. show less

I finished Slither around 2 am today and honestly this was just not good. You know all the ways that made "I Am Grimalkin" so fantastic? Totally missing here. It doesn't help that even though she shows up, we don't get her POV which maybe would have helped. Instead we stay in the head of Slither (a terrible character) and Nessa (an oldest daughter forced to have to deal with the fact her father sold her into slavery and certain death). Also there is way too many plot holes and nonsensical show more world building in this one and the ending was not satisfying. I don't know if Slither will show up in the next two books or not, but honestly if he does not, the series is missing nothing. This was a filler book and honestly I think Delaney could have said, hey we don't need 13 stories, let's end with 12, but what do I know.

Fair warning, this one is a lot more gory than the other books in the series.

"Slither" follows a creature named Slither who is a Kobolos Mage (and no I have no idea in the real world what this corresponds to, it was so unclear and I just gave up trying to piece it together via other myths) and lives somewhere far north of the County and in a land that does not know about spooks, the Fiend, and even really witches. It's a land where the Kobolos rule and take blood from animals and humans. Slither has an agreement with a farmer that if he dies, that he takes his three daughters to his family, and the youngest are not harmed, but his oldest, his daughter Nessa, can be sold to him. Nessa of course is dismayed at the agreement her father made, but has no choice and does what she can to protect her youngest sisters Bryony and Susan.

The story shifts between Slither and Nessa's point of views. And if you think this is a girl falls in love with a monster story and vice versa, think again. It's harsh reading about what happens to the girls as they focus on getting to the family that they hope will take them in. At one point I even gave up following what was happening because the world building was all over the place. In one chapter we are told that the things that happened when Slither sought sanctuary shouldn't have happened, but then it does and they are forced to flee and then in trouble for the very things that should not have happened. The whole flow was disjointed and got worse when Grimalkin showed up. And it didn't even make sense what happened to her and how she even got there. I think that Delaney needed her to be the big deus ex machina because otherwise the ending would not work.

The ending you think may be going another way until you read that poem/song at the end and you go, whelp that was a dark way to end this. Lovely. show less