BE is awesome but I should warn that the story deals with a lot of dark subject matter--death, abuse, enslavement, mob violence, genocide, discrimination--and has significant intra-family violence as a major plot point, too. It opens in the aftermath of a parent murdering their child. They're not easy books to read, so you should take that into consideration too.

You made the right choice not seeing PRU. It's not by del Toro but a guy named DeKnight. IMO it's better not to see PRU and imagine a much better story between Jake and Mako :/