by Trenton Lee Stewart
Date Read: 3/25/16
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
A colleague of mine recommended this series to me when I mentioned I'd been listening to the Series of Unfortunate Events during my commute to and from work. I decided to pick it up.
The reader of this audiobook was hard to get used to at first. It was a low voice that almost sounded like it had an echo. At first I thought it sounded like he recorded it in his home…but I think it’s just his voice. So if you’re listening to the audiobook, just ride it out. You’ll get used to it after a while.
The reader of this audiobook was hard to get used to at first. It was a low voice that almost sounded like it had an echo. At first I thought it sounded like he recorded it in his home…but I think it’s just his voice. So if you’re listening to the audiobook, just ride it out. You’ll get used to it after a while.
The story itself was way longer than I expected. Being that it’s a children’s book, I expected
it to be more along the lines of the The Lemony Snicket books or How to Train
Your Dragon books. I ended up having to listen to this while I was at work in
order to finish it in the 2 weeks the library provided me the audiobook (which
took me 3 months to get!).
It was a very interesting story about super intelligent
children and a man who brings them together in order to complete a mission. I
enjoyed it for the most part. There were a few times that I got bored while
they were trying to figure out a clue (specifically the one about a gemini…and
it took these super intelligent children 10 minutes to discover it meant twin).
Otherwise I liked that all the children were “intelligent” and important based
on the different skills and abilities they brought to the table. It didn’t mean that they were all book smart.
One thought out of the box, one was book smart, one was great at reading
people, and another always challenged them. It was a great way to show kids
that everyone is different but everyone possesses valuable skills – and just
being book smart isn’t everything. While I do think understanding the basic
book smarts is important, there are a lot of other things involved in being
successful in the world. This book shows us this.
Like I said, I ended up having to listen to this while I was
working, as well as in the car like I normally do, so I know I missed a few
things. The subliminal messages the guy was sending out still didn’t make 100%
sense to me. I didn’t fully understand how it worked. I’m guessing it’s because
I missed something at the beginning…or perhaps it wasn’t fully explained.
I felt like it was a little longer than it needed to be. I
think this is made for much older children who aren’t really in to the whole “young
adult” yet or just want to read about younger children – but the length of this
is like a young adult book.
I enjoyed the characters. Most of them were likeable. I
still didn’t particularly like Constance by the end – though she was tolerable
by then. At the very end there’s a bit of a twist and it made me like her a
little bit more. I like Kate, Renny and
Sticky a lot though. It was fun to watch how these intelligent and different
kids were able to form a friendship and complete this mission.
I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store next for the
Mysterious Benedict Society!
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