Review: The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken
Hello and welcome back.
I’m Arden Hall. A writer, blogger, bookstagrammer and all that jazz. This year, I’m working towards a goal of finishing 45 books. I’ve already read 6 so far and we’re only 14 days into 2019.
And because I’ve read so many but haven’t written anything on my blog since my last review of A Journal of the Plague Year, I figured I need to do another review.
This time, it’s The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding by Alexandra Bracken.
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First I need to say that this book is the very first work of Alexandra Bracken that I have read. Despite the fact that I’ve had The Darkest Minds and Passenger collect dust on my bookshelf for years, the story of Prosper Redding is one I’ve encountered by mere chance.
Without any more delay, let’s get into a spoiler-free review:
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Review:
The story starts with an introduction to the world of Prosperity Oceanus Redding, our main character. He makes it clear from the start that his family is definitely not ordinary – yet he is. He is below average and appears to be a nuisance to his grandmother and his family.
The beginning is slow and it took me a while to really get into it. I was not used to reading books from a male character’s point of view and sometimes struggled to understand the author’s storytelling when it came to setting the background and describing this strange world of theirs.
Yet apart from all that, once I got into the story itself and knew all the characters there were to know, I found the events and the author’s writing enjoyable and fairy-like.
The story itself is unlike anything I’ve read before. It involves fiends and magic, curses and demons – all the good shiz. I don’t want to spoil too much about it so all I’m going to say is that the main character finds out he’s possessed by a demon his family tried to get rid of long ago. His ancestor once made a deal with the demon (Alastor) to bring his family riches and luck in exchange for eternal servitude in the afterlife. But once Alastor came to claim what was his, the Redding family found a way to destroy him – but only temporarily.
I’ve enjoyed this book so much and can’t wait to see what happens next. Its abrupt ending made me wish the book was longer. I’ll surely read the next book as soon as it comes out – February 5th 2019.
