“I would say it’s a pleasure to meet thee, Prosperity Oceanus Redding, but truly, I only anticipate the delights of destroying thy happiness.” – The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding

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? (via Goodreads)

I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, Disney-Hyperion, in exchange for an honest review. 

I was predisposed to love this book. It has a fox on the cover, which as you know, is my favorite animal. I have to say that Alexandra Bracken lived up to my expectations, and produced a book worthy of this beautiful fox. It was delightfully spooky.

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding had me hooked from the beginning, even when it had been several chapters and I had no idea what was going on. It kept me guessing throughout the book – who could I trust? Was the fiend softening toward humanity? How would it end?

On a cliffhanger, that’s how it ended!

And I loved it!

The prose was funny and lyrical. I was literally laughing out loud reading it – which isn’t great when you’re trying to read sneakily at work, but is great literally every other time. I loved the silly songs that the fiend came up with. I also really loved how different each person defined family. I loved how absolutely awful Prosper’s actual family was, and the twist at the end had me gasping in shock and glee. It also left me with a desire to try fried pumpkin leaves.

I highly recommend The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding to middle grade mystery lovers, and I can’t wait to see it continue! You can pick up a copy for yourself off of Amazon or Indiebound!

Disclaimer: All links to Indiebound and Amazon are affiliate links, which means that if you buy through those links, I will make a small amount of money off of it.