A review by labunnywtf
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

3.0

Added to my TBR on April 15, 2009

I think I added it because my friend Darla gave it a high rating. Maybe. It's hard to tell what motivated me almost 10 years ago. I've let this TBR go for way too long. It's feral now.

What an exceptionally strange book. It's the younger side of YA, but I must admit, I don't know if the age range works for the way this is written. Maybe I can't understand because I'm so old now. I wouldn't mind giving this to my godson and seeing what he thinks of it.

The characters are TERRIBLY fun. Even the "bad guys", who seemingly have no redeeming qualities, are exciting and interesting. I would've liked more back story on them. We got a decent amount of backstory on all the kids except for Constance. Which, once we got the big reveal at the end (didn't see that coming, terribly amused), kind of makes sense.

The plot itself is incredibly thin, which was disappointing. The book starts with so many puzzles and twisty questions that I got excited this was what we were going to be dealing with. Once they got to the school, though, it devolved quickly into spying that told us nothing and rules that weren't rules and some form of brain washing that was never quite explained properly.

I'm not really interested in continuing on with the series, but this one was pleasant enough. I still don't think it's one that the middle school YA set would appreciate.