I’ve mentioned it quite a few times lately, but middle grade books are something I’ve been loving lately. So when I saw the signups for The Beast and The Bethany I knew I had to be a part of that! This book doesn’t release until October, but believe me it’s worth the wait!! Keep on reading for all of my thoughts about this book.
A big thank you to Dave from The Write Reads and Egmont UK for providing me with an e-ARC to read and review.
Lemony Snicket meets Roald Dahl in this riotously funny, deliciously macabre, and highly illustrated tale of a hungry beast, a vain immortal man, and a not-so-charming little girl who doesn’t know she’s about to be eaten.
Beauty comes at a price. And no one knows that better than Ebenezer Tweezer, who has stayed beautiful for 511 years. How, you may wonder? Ebenezer simply has to feed the beast in the attic of his mansion. In return for meals of performing monkeys, statues of Winston Churchill, and the occasional cactus, Ebenezer gets potions that keep him young and beautiful, as well as other presents.
But the beast grows ever greedier with each meal, and one day he announces that he’d like to eat a nice, juicy child next. Ebenezer has never done anything quite this terrible to hold onto his wonderful life. Still, he finds the absolutely snottiest, naughtiest, and most frankly unpleasant child he can and prepares to feed her to the beast.
The child, Bethany, may just be more than Ebenezer bargained for. She’s certainly a really rather rude houseguest, but Ebenezer still finds himself wishing she didn’t have to be gobbled up after all. Could it be Bethany is less meal-worthy and more…friend-worthy?
Review
When I started The Beast and the Bethany I knew that I was going to enjoy this book, but I loved it even more than I expected. I finished this book in one sitting and it left a smile on my face. This story is a bit darker than I’ve read in middle grade before, but it’s also filled with fun jokes and amazing illustrations. On top of that, what I love about middle grade books, this book is filled with many lessons but they’re taught in a fun way!
One of our main characters is Ebeneezer and he’s almost 512 years old (I know, how is that possible?!?). For as long as he can remember he’s been helping the Beast. He’s not the nicest creature and Ebeneezer has to steal and do a lot of bad things to fill his appetite and keep him happy, so that he can continue to get the serum that keeps him alive. Except this year Beast wants a child to eat. That’s definitely not what Ebeneezer was expecting.
That’s when our adventure begins and we meet Bethany. Bethany lives in the orphanage and isn’t the best behaved child. We learn she lost her parents and that’s just awful and definitely makes it understandable that she’s having some problems. While Bethany lives with Ebeneezer before being fed to Beast, there is quite an adventure.
I love the setting of this book. The house Ebeneezer lives in is amazing and I would love to live in it. So many floors and all different types of artifacts. Learning more about Ebeneezer and Bethany was really interesting and it’s clear both of them have had some hard times. There are so many lessons hidden in this book loss of a parent, grief, cruelty, bad behavior and found family. Ebeneezer and Bethany end up making a great team and I was sad when this was over!
I couldn’t recommend this book more and loved it so much it’s even hard to put into words. All I can say is you really need to read this book. Even though the Beast eats some odd things, I definitely got hungry while reading. I don’t know if I’d eat everything that’s mentioned, but Bethany definitely has some yummy treats. The Beast and the Bethany gets all of the stars. I loved the characters, setting, lessons learned and the humor. I couldn’t put this down and I definitely see myself reading this again in the future.
All in all, I loved every minute of The Beast and the Bethany! I definitely recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun read. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out on this author, because this book was amazing. I highly recommend picking this up when it releases in October.
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