Enjoyed it! Will look forward to more! ( )

Alice gets sent on a mission to capture/kill another apprentice who is accused of murdering his master. Unfortunately, the mission ends up being more dangerous than even their masters anticipated because the library they're sent to is still an active labyrinth. Not only that, the books have been leaking, and dangerous creatures are spilling out. Alice has to work with five other apprentices to find the accused apprentice, survive battles with dangerous creatures, and not get lost in an ever-changing labyrinth.

This volume of the Forbidden Library series was exponentially better than the first. It was an action-packed, emotional roller coaster ride! I found myself holding my breath or clenching my teeth through much of it! Alice struggles with whether or not she can trust the other apprentices, discovers new powers, has to decide if she should fend for herself, or try to save her peers and fight Torment (the labyrinthine controlling the library). It tugs at the heart strings when Alice learns the true nature of a Reader and what it means to be an apprentice. And the climax of the story sends you through a whirlwind of emotions as she's trapped in a one-on-one battle with Torment, pushes her magical abilities to the ABSOLUTE limit, and finally learns what happened to her father. ( )

Wow! This book was even better than the first. Even though it didn't really progress the plot much, the action was relentless and once again Alice proved how intelligent, resourceful and compassionate she could be. I enjoyed meeting new fantastical creatures, the evil Torment and the other Reader apprentices. It was good to see Alice develop strong bonds between them as they combined their unique, and varied, powers to overcome the monsters they had to face.

"The Forbidden Library" is proving to be an exciting series and there is definitely a showdown coming between the Reader masters and their apprentices. Can't wait to get my hands on the next book. ( )

Considerably darker than the first volume of the series, The Mad Apprentice takes us a bit farther into the world of Readers and their magical libraries. Granted, the adults in the story are uniformly unpleasant if not outright evil (excepting the protagonist's own father, but apparently that's why he's dead), so I'm not sure what lesson we are to take from that. ( )

Lots of fun and solid narration. We meet new apprentices and lots of new powers. I'm really excited about what we find out about the world of Readers and there looks like there's going to be a really cool series plot line! ( )