Book Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding (The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding #1)

Release Date: September 5, 2017
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 272 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

"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 grandfather 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 banish 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 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:

Protagonist(s): Prosper is the black sheep of the Redding family. For some reason, he doesn't seem to have the same luck and "charming" personality that the rest of his family does. His extended family treats him poorly, there's even a scene where Prosper goes over his cousins' names and after each one gives an example of how that particular cousin has been cruel to him, let's just say that there probably wasn't two sides to those stories. I wasn't even two full chapters into this book when I started tearing up with how sad Prosper's loneliness and isolation is. He literally has zero friends at the beginning of this book. However, that's all before Prosper learns that a demon, properly called a fiend, even more specifically a malefactor, is inside his body, waiting to get to full power and escape on Prosper's 13th birthday. There were so many times throughout this story that I wanted to hug Prosper and tell him he's worth something, which probably would have been weird for a nearly twenty-four-year-old man to do to a nearly thirteen-year-old boy he's not related to, but still, I empathize with Prosper so much and his journey and development over the course of this book is fantastic! Everything felt very natural and realistic, you know, minus the magical shenanigans. Alastor was also such a great bit of comic relief! His insults were astounding and I really liked him as a character, and since he's sort of part of Prosper I feel like I can talk a bit about him here. Alastor definitely has flaws, but his development is just as phenomenal, if not more, than Prosper's own.

World Building: This world is phenomenal. We learn so much about how the various worlds inside this universe work and how malefactors come into play and work within it. There's an interesting demonic (fiendish?) hierarchy within this story that serves as a bit of a subplot, or Alastor's plot, that begins to come more and more into play. The way the magic system works in this world is so captivating. I love how the author seems to be setting up a much larger story within this one. I know that's rather typical for series, but the way it's done here is particularly ambitious and exciting. There are elements brought in toward the end that I can't wait to see more of, things that sound grand and imperious. The whole tone of this story is perfect for the Fall season. Every moment I read this tale I wanted a nice hot cup of cider, maybe some candy corn until I realized it's 100° F and practically the middle of summer. It's a great Halloween read, while it's not scary there is definitely some nice spine chilling moments and moments of spectacular tension that make it perfect for an October read, plus the character Toad practically screams Halloween!

Predictability: I went into this book knowing what it's about, but I have to give the people over at Disney-Hyperion a round of applause for explaining the story without giving too much away. I mean, there were so many times in this story that I didn't know what would happen next. The author does a great job at leaving the breadcrumbs of foreshadowing throughout this novel. Sometimes I was able to pick the little things up and put the puzzle together, but other times I was completely floored only to look back and see all the signs I'd missed. There's one particularly, well actually two particularly, game changing twists towards the end, one that I had sort of guessed, but wasn't completely sure on, and another that I was sure of but still somehow rocked me to my core when proven right.

Ending: The ending of this story is magnificent! As things start to escalate things become more and more clear, which all leads into this amazing scene full of revelations and twists and I physically couldn't stop reading the story. Everything rises into this amazing crescendo that seems to set up the wider story of this world, and just when I'm waiting for the cooldown period to start, the book is over. This ending is amazing, I loved every second of it, but I need the next book. I've felt a need this strong before and I'm afraid I'll wake up tomorrow with the biggest book hangover I've ever known and you know what, it'd be worth it.

Rating:

I loved this book, no scratch that I LOVE THIS BOOK! Everything just sucked me in and didn't let go. I can't wait to see what happens next and I can't wait for more of this world, and the series over arching plot to be uncovered as our hero(es) make their next move.

Audio Book Review: A New Hope: The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy (Star Wars Illustrated Novels #1)

Release Date: September 22, 2015
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Disney Lucasfilm Press
Narrators: Marc Thompson and Rebecca Soler
Length: 336 pages
Source: Audio book from Library

Acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Bracken delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope like you've never experienced before, infusing the iconic, classic tale of good versus evil with a unique perspective and narrative style that will speak directly to today's young readers while enhancing the Star Wars experience for core fans of the saga.

This illustrated novel is the first in the highly-anticipated series and features richly detailed art by celebrated Star Wars concept artist Iain McCaig. Fans old and new will be delighted by this beautifully crafted book and the unexpected twists in this retelling of a beloved story.

    

Reviewer's Note: Since Star Wars is so iconic, and this is an adaptation of the fourth episode in the series, I've decided to forgo my usual spoiler-free review in an effort to better review this book, so if you haven't seen the original Star Wars Trilogy (Ep. IV-VI) I will most likely bring up spoilers from time to time. Also, since this is an adaptation and not a re-imagining I've gotten rid of the world-building and predictability sections I normally use to instead comment on how I enjoyed the adaptation and to comment on the aspects of the audio book I listened to.

Review:

Protagonists: This book is told from the third person perspectives of Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Luke Skywalker, in that order. With each new section comes insights into the minds of these three characters during the events of A New Hope, I felt that Alexandra Bracken kept these characters very true to themselves, making new pieces of information that weren't a part of the movie fit right in with ease without seeming like something was off. Since we get more insight into the minds of the characters they definitely come off more developed than just watching the movie would.

Romance: So this section isn't really to talk about the romance in this book, but more to point out the glorious lack of it. After reading William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope nearly teo years ago, I was nervous to read any more Star Wars novelizations or adaptations because, while Luke's attraction to Leia, who is, unknown to both of them, his sister, is seen in the movie it's very light and Ian Doescher's work made it too heavy handed. This adaptation though captures it perfectly. the feelings that Luke has seem innocent and harmless, more of a hope of love than the intense feelings Doescher portrayed.

Adaptation Notes: So, much like when I read Verily, A New Hope, I decided to watch the movie afterwords to better compare how this book stacks up. After just finishing the book I was a bit hesitant on how it was formatted. Since it's told in three chunks, each one focusing on a different main character, there were quite a few things that were taken out of it, such as everything with Luke in it from when we first meet him in the film to when he enters the Mos Eisley Cantina, in addition there were quite a few things added in as well. A lot of the stuff that was taken out is seen via flashback later in the book, or added in someway that doesn't really affect the current part of the story. After I finished the book I felt like the author had taken out too much story for this gimmick to really pay off, however after watching the movie again I have to say that nothing taken out was vitally important and in the end it kept very true to the movie.

Audio Book Notes: Since I listened to the audio book and it wasn't a typical audio book I thought it only wise to comment on how it may impact your experience should you chose to listen to the book instead of reading a copy. This audio book is fantastic, first off, there are two narrators Marc, whom I've heard of before but have never listened to before, and Rebecca, who reads the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. Both narrators were fantastic but Marc's got his impressions down pat, when he reads Darth Vader or Han Solo's lines he sounds nearly identical to James Earl Jones and Harrison Ford, so much so that I had to try and find if they were somehow a part of this book but unaccredited for some reason. That's not all, all throughout this book are sound effects, music, and other things to really bring it to life. It all felt so immersive that it's got ot be one of the best audio books I've ever read, the only thing that would make it better would have been if it had a full cast to read it.

Rating:

After just finishing the book I would have given this book 4 stars, thinking that the author took too much out of the story and I would have been wrong, luckily I rewatched the movie and found that the author found the perfect way to keep the Princess/Scoundrel/Farm Boy gimmick and still keep the necessary parts of the story. The audio book was also beautifully produced and the story and writing itself were fantastic, given how great this series has started off I'm a bit hesitant to continue as the rest of this series is written by other authors.