Philip is a good boy, a really good boy, who accidentally gets sent to Hell to become the Devil’s heir. The Devil, Lucifer, is dying and desperately in need of a successor, but there’s been a mistake and Philip is the wrong boy. Philip is terrible at being bad, but Lucifer has no other choice than to begin the difficult task of training him in the ways of evil. Philip gets both friends and enemies in this odd, gloomy underworld—but who can he trust, when he discovers an evil-minded plot against the dark throne?

This book was provided for review by the author and The Write Reads. Thank you!

In recent years YA fantasy has apparently found a larger audience and books in the category have come out by the score. And while this is certainly a good thing, sadly many of the books sound and read the same.

The Devil’s Apprentice by Kenneth Andersen however is not one of them.

Set in a universe that could easily be ours, the story follows what happens when a very good boy mistakenly ends up in a very bad place. Philip is the poster boy for being good; I’m fairly sure other parents point to him and ask their children ‘Why can’t you be more like Philip?’ He is something of an oddity both in the living world and in Hell. It is that good nature though that ends up helping him and the Devil as well.

Andersen’s version of Hell is a combination of familiar and new. There are tortured souls and demons aplenty but there are also demon families, a demon school that young demons attend. There is a town with shops and homes and other familiar things albeit with a slightly sinister twist. It is a unique version of the realm.

The characters in the book are also an interesting bunch. Not just the humans like Phillip, but the numerous demons that make up the denizens of Hell. Andersen obviously references Dante’s inferno with the demons yet also adds his own ideas in to the mix.

I really enjoyed reading The Devil’s Apprentice. I found it to be more than just a simple story of a misunderstanding gone wrong. It is nuanced and layered in a way that few YA books are. And while it might be marketed at younger readers, I could easily see older readers enjoying it as well. Major kudos to Mr. Andersen, I look forward to reading the rest of the series!