Curse of the Bane (The Last Apprentice #2) by Joseph Delaney

Curse of the Bane (The Last Apprentice #2) by Joseph Delaney

Goodreads Synopsis
Now it's the dark's turn to be afraid. The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, deal with the dark. Together they rid the county of witches, ghosts, and boggarts. But now there's some unfinished business to attend to in Priestown. Deep in the catacombs of the cathedral lurks a creature the Spook has never been able to defeat; a force so evil that the whole county is in danger of being corrupted by its powers. The Bane! As Thomas and the Spook prepare for the battle of their lives, it becomes clear that the Bane isn't their only enemy. The Quisitor has arrived, searching for those who meddle with the dark so he can imprison them--or worse. Can Thomas defeat the Bane on his own? Is his friend Alice guilty of witchcraft? And will the Spook be able to escape the Quisitor's clutches?

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This novel was a lot of traveling from place to place, which I suppose was to add to world building. It didn't add too much to the character development of Tom or Alice though, they were pretty static in this book. 
However, we learned more about the Spook's past and are told that we will learn more in the next book. It'll be interesting to see how Tom will develop as he learns more about his master. 

Hopefully the next novel isn't strictly the Spook telling Tom not to do something and then Tom doing it anyway because that is getting old pretty fast. Especially since this has been happening for two straight books. Eventually Tom has to realize that the Spook does know best in some circumstances and to trust the Spook's word. I also hope that Alice really doesn't tag along in the next novel -- I'd like to see Tom develop as his own character without input from Alice. That doesn't mean I don't want to still see Alice though. I would like her to become more fleshed out as a character on her own as well, so maybe some Alice point of view could help with that. Like two separate stories that will eventually merge back into one.

The plot itself wasn't particularly good or bad, probably because it didn't really further along the overarching plot of the series, at least not in my opinion. I understand that there are still themes of what is happening overall in the world in this novel, but it wasn't enough to really catch my interest.


Overall: 3/5 stars for a solid sequel.