Book Review: I Am Alice by Joseph Delaney

Publisher: Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins

Publication Date: September 3, 2013

Series: The Last Apprentice/Wardstone Chronicles #12

Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult Fantasy & Horror

Acquired From: Public Library

SYNOPSIS

I must be brave. I must do what has to be done. I am Alice.

Alice is the most powerful witch the county has ever seen. She may one day be the most evil. But Alice is also the best friend--and true love--of Tom Ward. Together they work to defeat the Fiend--the world's greatest evil--once and for all.

They have nearly everything they need, all except a blade hidden in the Dark, the Fiend's domain. So Alice ventures there to find it. She faces the most terrifying creatures in existence. And she once again battles old enemies who bear grudges: Bony Lizzie, Bloodeye, and more.

And there's something Tom didn't tell her. To vanquish the Fiend, Tom must sacrifice the person he loves most. Alice is hunting for the very blade that will eventually kill her. 

-From Goodreads

REVIEW

This one was incredibly easy to rate. I Am Alice is perhaps the best of the novels of The Last Apprentice series. It's because of this that I give it a solid 5 out of 5 stars.

I think the best thing about this novel was the fact that there was a new person's point of view. This novel is told from the point of view of Alice Deane, Tom's friend and a witch in training. Being told from her point of view, it gives a lot of new insight on Alice and builds her backstory in a wonderful way. There are many flashbacks that tell what Alice's life was like before she met Tom and how she came to realize the kind of power that she had. It was brilliantly done. 

The descriptions for the story were fantastic as well. Just as in all the other novels, there are great creatures that are wonderfully described and interestingly gross. And as the story progressed, Alice faced continuing challenges that made it difficult for her to complete her task. 

The only thing about the novel that I didn't really like was that there were some inaccuracies with other books when it comes to Alice's behavior. Although Delaney tries to explain these inaccuracies away, they still exist and it makes it a little difficult to put things together with how Alice behaved in earlier books.