REVIEW: Revenge of the Beast by Jack Meggitt-Phillips
Lemony Snicket meets Roald Dahl in this riotously funny, deliciously macabre, and highly illustrated sequel to The Beast and the Bethany in which Bethany and Ebenezer try to turn over a new leaf, only to have someone—or something—thwart them at every turn.
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?
Dear Mr. Meggitt-Phillips,
When I saw that a sequel was going to be available for “The Beast and Bethany,” well of course I wanted to read it. The first book was so sly and dark and funny and different – I loved it. But this one didn’t quite hit all the high notes. I can see that it’s an effort to give readers “the same book but different” but it’s got a very slow start that must be powered through.
A lot – okay, most – of the fun of “The Beast and Bethany” was due to how awful both Ebenezer and Bethany were to each other combined with the sheer ghastliness of the Beast. As they were all being horrible to each other, it was alright. In the end though, lessons were learned by Ebenezer and Bethany who changed their behavior and the book ended in a good place. The series could have stopped there and I would have been fine.
But now this book opens with Ebenezer and Bethany determined to continue being better people. It makes sure that the reader sees a lot of this. This was actually fairly dull. Yes, after finishing the book, I can see the need for this setup but it was nowhere near as deliciously fun as what I was expecting and hoping for. It’s not until things start kicking in during the second half of the story that the lesson to be learned
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“Revenge of the Beast” is (frankly) a sophomore slump compared to “The Beast and Bethany” but still the end got me in the feels. More lessons are learned and it’s funny how the final scene of the Beast’s carefully plotted revenge plays out. The almost shouted famous Panto line had me in stitches. I know there is a book three coming and I do want to see how everything will reach the final end. B-
~Jayne
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