Blogtour “The Beast and the Bethany – Revenge of the Beast”

Hello, hello, my dear friends!

It’s time for another blogtour, this time organized by the wonderful Dave of TheWriteReads. I was already a part of the blogtour for the first Beast & the Bethany and so it was a nobrainer that I would take part in this one too. Come to think of it, The Beast and the Bethany was my very first blogtour, ever. Here is my review, if you are interested.

Once upon a very badly behaved time, 511-year-old Ebenezer kept a beast in his attic. He would feed the beast all manner of objects and creatures and in return the beast would vomit him up expensive presents. But then the Bethany arrived. Now notorious prankster Bethany, along with her new feathery friend Claudette, is determined that she and Ebenezer are going to de-beast their lives and Do Good. But Bethany finds that being a former prankster makes it hard to get taken on for voluntary work. And Ebenezer secretly misses the beast’s vomity gifts. And neither of them are all that sure what “good people” do anyway. Then there’s Claudette, who’s not been feeling herself recently. Has she eaten something that has disagreed with her?

Revenge of the Beast is the sequel to The Beast and the Bethany, a story about a 511-year-old man, an orphan and a beast. Which you should definitely go read, if you haven’t already. I was a bit worried that Revenge of the Beast might suffer from sequel syndrom but all those worries were for naught – This sequel is a hilarious and brilliant book.

Bethany and Ebeneezer have decided to turn a new leaf – they want to be good people and help others. First of all, Bethany decides, all the things that Ebeneezer got from the beast have to go. De-beasted, in a yard sale. Problem is, something weird is going on with the stuff they have sold and their bird-friend Claudette who had a big part in getting rid of the Beast in the first place, is not feeling well and acting rather strange as well…

It’s hard to say what my favourite bits were but if you would threaten me with being thrown to the Beast I think I’d actually say that I enjoyed the parts where we get to know the relationship between Ebeneezer and the Beast a bit better. The whole book is a funny and fast adventure, though. It’s full of twists and turns, hilarious scenes, but under all that fun stuff there are still some things that made me think.

Bethany and Ebeneezer might want – in Ebeneezer’s case, rather reluctantly – do good from now on but it’s easier said than done. Is it really possible for Ebeneezer to become selfless? Can Bethany really leave her prankster days behind her? What do they mean to each other? How will they approach other people now?

It was quite interesting to watch them figure out all those questions while also dealing with Beast shenanigans. I don’t want to give away too much.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I like it even a bit better than the first one and think that the small problems I had with the first book have been ironed out. I loved the ending because it makes you wish the next book in the series would already be there and since I quite liked the curious epilogue and the new setting Bethany and Ebeneezer found themself in the epilogue, I am really really looking forward to the next book.

My Rating: