My 4 star review of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #2), by Trenton Lee Stewart :-
Spoiler:
This book was not uniformly good, and its sluggish start was quite gloomy. I thought of putting down the book and looking for alternatives while my expectations levels adjusted themselves to the lacklustre beginnings.
The one new word that I definitely learned in this middle grade book - peopled as it was with a bunch of gifted children - was pulchritude. You'll thank me for underlying this point after you've checked its meaning.
The clues in the book are concrete clues. They are hints left by the grown up de facto chief of the gifted (gifted seems a bit unspecific here so I'll use the French word surdoués) clan. Where was I? Yes, the clues left by the ringleader were sometimes unfairly difficult, but more often than not, they were within the reach of the children.
I am very glad to have concluded that unlike Enid Blyton's books, where the latter author just had to elect a leader of the various groups, here among the 4 children, power is distributed democratically. Everyone gets their time to shine, and though the boy Reynie was the most resourceful one, the others had real talent different from him, to offer.
I think the author bided his time to use a joke that he must have been itching to use. You see, one of the children's surname was Contraire, and when the chief of the baddies prattled on : 'Au contraire...', well you can guess what misunderstanding happens. It was a pity that 'No ****, Sherlock,' wasn't in canon Sherlock lore. Too ahead of its time I guess.
This was a good book. I do recommend it to all people who love to read. The author, Trenton Lee Stewart, kind of got writer's block at the end and didn't know how to finish his book and as a result the book ended abruptly. It's an interesting ending, but its setting was just as rambunctious as the ending in all Asterix books, at least all that I've read.