“The Last Life of Prince Alastor” is the sequel to the spooky middle-grade book, The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding that conquers the ideas of what makes a family through fun halloweeny setting.
Alexandra Bracken, author of the New York Times Best Selling series “The Darkest Minds”, creates a fun little story with a Salem like setting with a twist of Halloweentown.
The sequel picks up immediately where the first book left off. Prosper Redding finally makes a pact with the fiend Alastor and goes through the portal to Below to rescue his twin sister Prue. Upon entering the world of Below, Prosper must be smart in order to rescue Prue from Alastor’s younger sister Pyra. However, Alastor learns that there is a dark force in his homeland that is eating up all the magic and destroying the world — not only that, but Alastor finds out the fiendish society has changed in the last couple of hundred years and what he felt was the right way to behave is no longer smiled upon.
Prosper meets old and new friends along the way and together they go to face Alastor’s sister while learning new mysterious secrets about the world, themselves and their families.
The most important take away of “The Last Life of Prince Alastor” is the importance of family, and how sometimes cruel things are done in the name of protecting the family. Throughout the novel, we see the action through the eyes of snarky and witty Alastor as well as the courageous Prosper.
While this novel is targeted at a middle-grade audience, Ms. Bracken’s brilliant prose can attract readers of all ages. It’s is beautiful, simple and has the right amount of Nightmare Before Christmas-like spooky.
The characters we met in book one went through some really beautiful character development arcs. And as you guys may know my favorite stories feature character development where the person we met at the beginning has grown emotionally as they struggle towards their goal.
I am not entirely sure if “The Last Life of Prince Alastor” is the end of the story because the ending left me with a feeling that there was more to come. I sure hope so!
The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken
Release Date: February 5, 2019
ISBN: 9781368002332
Published by Disney-Hyperion
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