You create your own demons.

Book: The Devil’s Apprentice
Author: Jan Siegel
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

“He who once said: ‘Evil be thou my Good’ realizes at last the endless banality to which he has doomed himself. He who once said: ‘Après moi, le déluge’ vows only that when sleep takes him forever, another will sit in the empty seat, and look out over the numberless city lights, and remake Evil in his own image. Or hers.”

Brilliant, imaginative, and story like, the devil’s apprentice will definitely pull you in, waking up the now dormant childlike wonders within ourselves. Filled with mythology, fantasy, wise characters, and a new take on historical fiction, one really shouldn’t pass up a chance to read this book. Seriously. I loved it. It was like a mix of a children’s storybook, only with a little bit darker tone. But really, above all else, what stood up in this book, other than the original, and well crafted plotline, are the characters. They’re different, smarter, and I guess I could admit that they’re a lot more fun to read about than the other YA novel groups that I’ve read about.

Seriously, let me tell you all about them. There’s Ghost. --- “Some people attract good luck, or bad. But Ghost attracted death. It accompanied him like a touch of darkness that followed where no shadows could be seen, seeping into his aura, slowly becoming a part of him. Every time he drew his knife, death entered a little deeper into his spirit.”

He’s actually a modern runaway teenager who got stuck in the seventeenth century—right in time with the plague—when he snuck onto the bygone house, and is now taking care of what he calls the lost boys, a set of boys stealing to live, and a mercurial throat slitter when needed. He’s also one of the candidates for the devil’s apprentice. (His name is a pseudonym too, if you haven’t noticed. His real name was really, really random though. Like, really random. The irony, ha. Ha.)

I loved ghost. If anything else, he has the plot and point of view that I looked most forward to. He’s smart, dangerous, cruel, yet caring—just the type of hero/ines that I love to read about in a book. Then there’s Pen. She’s smart and witty, more so than anyone her age, which is the thing that I loved the most about her. She’s not afraid to stand up for herself or her friends when needed. She is just the ideal child heroine. Who can not love her?

There’s also Gavin. Our very own aspiring teenager chef. But don’t tell him that he’ll end up like Jamie Oliver, okay. Seriously, don’t. Anyways, he’s funny, caring, and just just. Lastly, there’s Jinx, our little witch. She’s the least that I liked in all four of them, but I liked her, nonetheless. There are actually a lot more characters, and it even doesn’t matter if they’re enemy or not, you’ll eventually like them. That’s just how good this book is.

Anyways, this book is somehow now a favorite of mine, and I’d love it if there’d ever be a next book. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves a good dose of history, fantasy, and funny, brilliant characters. We may all have different taste, but I’d guarantee you’d like it, even if the constant change of point of view might annoy you. It didn’t bother me though. P.S: Thanks to netgalley & rebellion publishing for giving me a copy of this book.