The Beast and the Bethany – Ultimate Blog Tour

I am so excited that it is my turn on The Beast and the Bethany Ultimate Blog Tour! I devoured this book faster than the beast devours his dinner. Thank you to Egmont and @WriteReadsTours for letting me be a part of the tour!

*Please note I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Title: The Beast and the Bethany

Author: Jack Meggitt-Phillips

Publisher: Egmont

Published: 1st October 2020

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

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My Review

The Beast and the Bethany is a brilliantly fun and darkly humorous debut novel from Jack Meggitt-Phillips. The story centres around Ebenezer Tweezer, a selfish 511 year old, who feeds the beast in his attic whatever it desires in exchange for magical gifts. When only a juicy child will do Ebenezer adopts an child from the local orphanage… but Bethany is not your average orphan!

Characters

Ebenezer Tweezer is greedy, selfish and stubborn. He cannot think past his next magical potion from the beast, which keeps him youthful despite his old age. I am sure that it is not a coincidence that he shares his first name with Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. As the story progresses we learn why he has become the man that he is and, like with his namesake, whether he can learn the error of his ways.

Bethany is a fantastic character! She bold, brave, decisive and rather rude. Kids will love her. She is certainly not the mild mannered orphan that you would expect Ebenezer to adopt. Bethany is hated by the lady who runs the orphanage and, let’s be honest, the kids are not particular fond of her either. Bethany can be very naughty but does she deserve to be fed to the beast? You’ll have to give the book a read to find out.

Writing and Themes

The writing style of The Beast and the Bethany reminds me of both Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket, which signifies this is a classic in the making! Indeed, many advanced readers have made the same comparison. It is easy to read and the illustrations are wonderful too.

The humour in the book is definitely macabre. I would recommend parents read the book in advance if they plan to read it to small children as it is a middle grade novel. As an adult I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Beast and the Bethany and would definitely recommend it to adults who enjoy Middle Grade books too!

My Thoughts

I love this book and I am sure that kids will love it too. Indeed, I will be buying and gifting a fair few copies for Christmas this year! The Beast and the Bethany has everything a good children’s book should have; A fun cast of characters, a straight-forward but interesting plot and enough reference points to keep adults giggling along too. I can’t wait for book two to find out what happens next!


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