The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken

"I would say it's a pleasure to meet thee, Prosperity Oceanus Redding, but truly, I only anticipate the delights of destroying thy happiness."

Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his old and storied family history - that is, until he discovers the demon living inside him. Turns out Prosper's great-great-great-great-great- something grandgather made - and then broke - a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. And, weirdly enough, four-thousand-year-old Alastor isn't exactly the forgiving type. 

The fiend has reawakened with one purpose - to destroy the family whose success he ensured and who then betrayed him. With only days to break the curse and bandish Alastor back to the demon realm, Prosper is playing unwilling host to the fiend, who delights in tormenting him with nasty insults and constant attempts to trick him into a contract. Yeah, Prosper will take his future without a side of eternal servitude, thanks. 

Little does Prosper know, the malefactor's control over his body grows stronger with each passing night, and there's a lot Alastor isn't telling his dim-witted (but admittedly strong willed) human host.

From #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Bracken comes a tale of betrayal and revenge, of old hurts passed down from generation to generation. Can you ever fully right a wrong, ever truly escape your history? Or will Prosper and Alastor be doomed to repeat it?

Review

This book was AWESOME! I loved it!

I love the author's sense of humor in this book! This book had me literally LOL-ing! I don't want to give away spoilers, but I thought one of the funniest scenes in the book involves Halloween decorations and a traffic cone... ☺

This quote also had me cracking up!

"To say that it's disturbing to no longer be in control of your limbs is like saying it's only a little weird to see someone dressed as a dinosaur, eating frozen hotdogs on a bench made of pigeons."

I kept hearing about this book and knew that I had to read it. However, I (mistakenly) thought that I was getting into a story that would start and end this story. From reading The Darkest Minds series, I should have known that Alexandra Bracken wouldn't want to wrap such an amazing story up in just one book. While I am glad that there is more to the story, I am super sad that I have to wait who knows how long to see what happens next!

The Darkest Minds series was AH-MAY-ZING, BTW! I've also been wanting to read Passenger since it was released. I've heard it's great, too! So, I had pretty high expectations when I started reading this book, and Alexandra Bracken definitely exceeded them!

This was an awesome book and a nice change from the books I've been reading lately, which have been mainly dystopian or YA Fantasy. This was definitely one of the best Middle Grade books I've ever read! It was surprisingly dark for a Middle Grade book, but definitely in a good way. ☺

The only issue I had was the ending, but my only problem with it is that I have to wait to see what happens next! Other than that, I don't have anything at all negative to say about this book!

I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun read that's unique and funny, with lots of plot twists! This is definitely a good book to read with Halloween coming up, especially if you don't like horror stories.

Other books by Alexandra Bracken:

The Darkest Minds Series

        

Passenger Series