If what hooked you in The Spook’s Apprentice was Tom learning the trade under the exacting eye of John Gregory—salt, iron, and strict rules you break at your peril—you’ll love watching Ged learn from Ogion, the patient mage who insists on discipline before power. Like Tom’s disastrous run-in with Mother Malkin after ignoring the Spook’s warnings, Ged’s early arrogance unleashes a shadow that only rigorous training and humility can rebind. It’s that same tense, rule-bound apprenticeship where every lesson could be the difference between saving a village and unleashing something worse.

You enjoyed Tom chaining a witch in a pit, the Spook’s silver and salt rituals, and the sense that dark forces must be precisely handled—or else. In Sabriel, the magic is just as hazardous and exacting: bells with names and purposes, wards that must be drawn correctly, and necromancy that bites back. As Sabriel crosses into the Old Kingdom to face a rising Dead enemy, the stakes feel like Tom’s fight with Mother Malkin—only bigger, colder, and steeped in ritual craft that rewards care and punishes mistakes.

If the bleak moors, night burials, and the Spook’s unflinching methods gripped you, The Monstrumologist matches that mood beat for beat. Where Tom and the Spook stalk boggarts and witches under strict protocols, Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop dissect Anthropophagi by lantern light, cataloging horrors with clinical precision. It’s that same cold dread you felt when Tom realized what freeing Mother Malkin meant—only here the gore is sharper, the mentor harsher, and the darkness even less forgiving.

Tom’s journey from farm boy to capable apprentice—tempted by Alice, chastened by the Spook, and forced to own his choices—echoes in Bod’s path through the graveyard. Raised by Silas and the Owens, Bod learns uncanny skills and moral judgment the way Tom learns bindings and taboos. And like Tom facing the fallout from the pit and Mother Malkin, Bod must confront the man Jack and decide what kind of person he’ll be. It’s a tender, eerie coming-of-age with teeth.

Loved how Tom and the Spook prep with iron, salt, and rules before entering a haunted cellar—and how breaking protocol nearly kills them? Lockwood & Co. operates the same way: Lucy Carlyle, Lockwood, and George research cases, arm up with iron rapiers and salt bombs, and then test their nerve in places like the Combe Carey Hall staircase. The procedural rhythm—gather intel, set protections, confront the Visitor—scratches the same itch as Tom’s methodical hunts, with clever twists and consequences when instincts overrule training.