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A review by duffypratt
The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors by Joseph Delaney
2.0
The largest portion of this book is a short story written from John Gregory's point of view, detailing his first encounter with witches and boggarts several years before he became a spook's apprentice. It was a decent story, but contained nothing that I found surprising or revelatory. The writing style was solid and comfortable, and it was good to be back in Delaney's misbegotten county.
The second story I enjoyed a bit more, largely because I love Alice's manner of speech. It tells of the time when Mab and the Mouldheels captured and tortured Alice to get information so they could then capture Tom Ward. It's an episode that was left more or less to the imagination in Attack of the Fiend. I haven't yet read up to I Am Alice, but I enjoy her voice so much that I may raise these books on my list of priorities. (I haven't found the later books in any used bookstore, nor do they show up at our local Barnes & Noble. I would rather not get them on Kindle, but I've been reluctant to order them online. So I have come to more or less of a halt with this series.)
After the second story the book takes a radical turn downhill. When it was published, the Grimalkin tale was probably pretty exciting and it featured a new voice. Unfortunately, the same material in this tale is covered in I Am Grimalkin. And it may even be lifted word for word. That redundancy, for me, severely cheapened what was already a slim volume. And then, there is a "gallery of villains" which consists of nothing but very short excerpts from the books that had already seen publication. So the entire last third of the book was basically a waste.
The second story I enjoyed a bit more, largely because I love Alice's manner of speech. It tells of the time when Mab and the Mouldheels captured and tortured Alice to get information so they could then capture Tom Ward. It's an episode that was left more or less to the imagination in Attack of the Fiend. I haven't yet read up to I Am Alice, but I enjoy her voice so much that I may raise these books on my list of priorities. (I haven't found the later books in any used bookstore, nor do they show up at our local Barnes & Noble. I would rather not get them on Kindle, but I've been reluctant to order them online. So I have come to more or less of a halt with this series.)
After the second story the book takes a radical turn downhill. When it was published, the Grimalkin tale was probably pretty exciting and it featured a new voice. Unfortunately, the same material in this tale is covered in I Am Grimalkin. And it may even be lifted word for word. That redundancy, for me, severely cheapened what was already a slim volume. And then, there is a "gallery of villains" which consists of nothing but very short excerpts from the books that had already seen publication. So the entire last third of the book was basically a waste.