Four Reasons to Read or Not Read The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

1. It’s a page-turner.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey is book two in the Mysterious Benedict Society series and details a global scavenger hunt set up for four intelligent kids. However, the mastermind and mentor behind the scavenger hunt, Mr. Benedict, vanishes, leaving the children to track him down with evil pursuers on their tails. Most of all, the villain behind the mysterious disappearance, Mr. Curtain, has grand plans for a world “takeover” using knowledge only Mr. Benedict possesses. Despite the story having a stereotypical protagonist-antagonist “duel,” the story seems to build around the kids’ constantly evolving ideas, and the plot and clues provided by Mr. Benedit are never clear enough to predict the ending of the story.
2. The main characters are relatable - they’re kids!
Throughout the book, they face constant scrutiny because they are kids. Despite their efforts, nothing seems to go their way (sometimes I feel that way too). For example, one of the chaperones on the trip, Milligan, refuses to allow the kids into any sort of danger. Instead, they are forced to make a pact with him to avoid losing leverage in a risky situation. However, Milligan uses the pact’s subjectiveness against them, rendering them helpless without him. The kids, not to be outsmarted, use their youth to surprise people like librarians into giving them potentially confidential database information about Mr. Benedict’s whereabouts.
3. It’s much worse than its prequel.
The brilliance of the first Mysterious Benedict Society book was the character development, but the sequel (this book) seems to have lost most of the character development and given the kids set roles in the story. However, I didn’t particularly like this change because I liked reading the separate stories and how the kids were able to use their ingenuity to join the mysterious society. I was much more surprised in the first book than in the second regarding their smartness, especially Reynie’s brilliance (the pseudo-main character). However, each of the kids seem to have lost their overall ingenuity and mostly rely on a particular person in the group for a particular type of difficult task.
4. The plot is unrealistic.
The book series falls under realistic/remi-realistic fiction. However, some of the occurences in the book just seem to make no sense whatsoever, like a magical plant that will put you to sleep. In addition, the kids seem to avoid danger no matter what, and things always seem to go their way, even when all odds are stacked against them. Going back to reason number 2 (they’re kids!), they get to do some ridiculous things that no adult or stranger would ever permit them to do.