Imagine being a twelve year old boy fighting for your life in a world full of darkness, with nothing but a steel chain, a staff and a bag of salt and iron. That’s exactly what young character Thomas Ward has to face in a novel you shouldn’t read past dark.

The Wardstone Chronicles is a series written by John Flannigan. As the series starts to play out in the first couple books, you are with the main character that you will soon learn to love for a whole 13 book series – Thomas Ward. Besides seeming to have a normal rural life on the farm, you learn that Tom has a very interesting gift about him which is that he is a seventh son of a seventh son. I know you’re probably thinking, what does that even mean? Well, it means that Tom has the ability to see and sense the dark. From ghosts to ghouls, from witches to boggarts, Tom isn’t any ordinary kid. In the time that he lives in, it is appropriate to find your child a lifelong career around age 13 and to do that you must first be an apprentice to your craft.

The craft that Tom’s mother wishes him to pursue is one that the rest of county feels nervous about … a Spook (an enemy to the dark). As the series starts to unravel, you get to encounter enemies such as witches, witch assassins, and even the fiend himself – the devil. You would think an author like John Flannigan, a native Australian, would have a different style of writing, focusing more on the glamor of life instead of the darkness seeing that is home country is such a beautiful place, yet he is precise with bringing parts of the dark as symbols to everyday life experiences. Using the devil in almost half the series is a comparison to how we, ourselves, struggle with evil and how most of us give in. The witches used in all the books are an expression of how there is an easy way (magic) and a hard way (non magic), and to use the easy way there is a price, often in blood.

The first book was released in 2005, and since then, has made a12-book extension to its repertoire due to high demand. Through the rest of the chronicles your idea of life will change and you might just think twice about walking down the street at night. It is a constant heart-pounding novel from the minute you pick it up.