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? 

What a delight to be back in Bethany’s world again, if you enjoyed the Beast and the Bethany then you will most certainly love Revenge of the Beast! 

As Bethany and Ebeneezer take the initiative to de beast their lives, the beast has other ideas. The beast created items are not happy and have no qualms around showing their new owners just unhappy they are with laugh out loud consequences.

I also loved that the concept of do-gooding for each of them, was so alien that they honestly had no clue where to start and to even begin to appreciate what it meant. I felt a little sad at Bethany’s consistently thwarted attempts at doing the right thing, it’s almost as if something was working against her…? 

We had the return of some old favourites, but also some new faces in the guise of Gloria, who has taken on the role of terroriser at the orphanage now that Bethany is off the scene, she is fantastically like Carmelita Spats and I loved reading her.

The plot is as fantastical as ever, I especially enjoyed the Ebeneezer origin story, and the illustrations capture the best moments wonderfully. There is so much going on in this story and it all pulls together in the best beastly way.

Thank you to Farshore books and The Write Reads Tours for the review copy