The Mysterious Benedict Society - Book Review

The Mysterious Benedict Society

Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society was an interesting read. I hate to use vague terms like ‘interesting,’ but I wouldn't say it was exactly ‘immediately captivating,’ nor would I say that it was only ‘mildly entertaining.’ It kept my focus pretty well, but it took me until the latter end of the book to really get into it. That’s probably my only real problem with the story—I found it to be rather slow-paced. If you have more patience than I do in that area, though, I would highly recommend The Mysterious Benedict Society.

The story is about four children who pass some strange tests, whereby they are selected to perform a dangerous mission to save the world from being brainwashed. The characters themselves were the main reason I enjoyed the book: you have your main character, Reynie Muldoon, an even-tempered but above-average boy that most readers will find themselves drawn to; then there’s “Sticky” Washington, the mental storehouse of the group—a nervous brainiac; next is Kate Wetherall, the spunky, motor-mouth girl foil to Reynie’s collected, reasoning character; and finally, there’s the diminutive but disparaging poet, Constance Contraire, whose name says it all. Supporting these four are some quirky adults: the narcoleptic Mr. Benedict, as well as “Number Two” (a woman who can’t sleep and therefore must eat constantly), Rhonda (an intuitive young woman who hails from Zambia), and the perpetually-depressed and memory-less Milligan (a man who mysteriously possesses some impressive, spy-like escape and protection skills).

As for the conflict, I agree with Publisher’s Weekly and The School Library Journal in saying that it has strong echoes of Roald Dahl’s works. There is a continual emphasis on the unappreciated power of children, especially in the face of the antagonists, who believe that children are mostly an annoying blemish on society. I think this comparison is probably my best meter as to whether you will enjoy the piece or not: if you like Roald Dahl’s works, you will more than likely enjoy this one. The adventure moves a little slowly, but the climax is pretty intense. At some points, I had to remind myself to breathe.

Favorite Lines: (A spontaneous poem by Constance Contraire)

                                “Now we have waited for thirty consecutive

                                Minutes to see some old dirty Executive.

                                Thirty long minutes I could have been sleeping.

                                But she doesn't find her appointments worth keeping.”

Tasha Layton is a BYU alumnus, editor, and new mom. She is a self-proclaimed bibliophile who spends her time keeping her bibliovore baby from eating her library. 

27 Books for Fall and Counting

Summer finals are going on right now and Fall Semester starts in 20 days. Which is ridiculous. How can the Summer be over so fast?

For those of you who endeavored through and took classes during the summer, I am so impressed and I sincerely wish you straight A's on all your finals. You deserve it for taking the risk and studying through the entire year. For those of you, like me, who decided to take a break, I'm just giving you a three-week heads-up. We have to go back to class again in a few weeks. So, brace yourselves, class is coming.

This dawned on me a few days ago and being the proactive book buyer that I am, I may have already ordered my books for next semester. Since I was a brave soul and decided to be an English major, I managed to trap myself into a semester full of reading. Taking English classes leaves you with a lot of books, specifically over 27. Only a couple of my professor have put up their lists for Fall Semester and I ordered most of them but not all of them and it still leaves me with a pile of at least 27 novels to read this coming semester. Unfortunately, there are more to come and I'm still waiting on a couple of other professors to update the list. I'll post a picture in the comments when I finally have them all.

Since I've found myself in the predicament of sporting an unruly tower of books against my wall, I thought I would highlight some of the options that the BYU Store has for textbooks and such.

Textbook Sell-Back

Books are eligible for sell-back if they are in good working condition and if a professor has put that book on their list. Other than that, you can pretty much sell-back any book even if you didn't initially buy it at the BYU Store. However, there is only so much stock the BYU Store can buy back, so you will want to bring your books in as soon as possible. A more detailed list of terms and conditions is available here.

The Book Exchange

The Book Exchange is a little different but pretty self-explanatory. It is simply an alternative method for buying and selling textbooks. It's an opportunity to sell your used textbooks to other students and then buy the ones that you need directly from other students. You can access the Book Exchange here.

Order your Fall Textbooks Online

Preparing for coming back to school is daunting so we're trying to make it as easy as we can. You can order your Fall textbooks online if you go to My Booklist and then just pick them up in store. And I love the way they've set this up because they not only list the BYU Store prices but also list other online vendors' prices so you can compare and contrast.

The Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer

Recently, in approximately the last ten years or so the market for Young Adult fiction has exploded. However, with this explosion comes the inevitable money seeking authors, or authors who aren't necessarily writing solely for the money but might have only made a deal because the subject of their novel fit the bill, so to speak. Hundreds and hundreds of YA novels have been and are still being released every year and sometimes it's easy to get lost and miss out on the really exceptional ones.

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer, I would argue is one of those exceptional ones. I must reveal my faults and admit that I judged this one by its cover. I saw it and was disinterested by the fact that it was a fairytale retelling done with a post-apocalyptic twist. In my mind both fairytale retellings and post-apocalyptic novels were overdone. So, I avoided it.

However, my avoidance was not to be. All of my roommates read it and I still managed to avoid even reading the blurb but eventually it got to me. One of my good friends needed me to babysit her books while she went away on a study abroad. Cinder was in the pile. So, finally I gave in and read it.

I think I may have finally learnt my lesson to never judge a book by its cover or by the literary stereotypes. Cinder is indeed a retelling of the Cinderella fairytale but it doesn't unfold in the way you would expect it to. Marissa Meyer has done an excellent job in re-writing the tale while introducing heavier conflict and higher stakes than the typical fairytale love story. The protagonist, Cinder, is a cyborg and with that comes a sort of racial prejudice against her. The novel is about Cinder's persistent struggle with this prejudice while accidentally getting caught up in the much deeper-rooted politics between the Earthens and the Lunars. Meyer is a talented writer and manages to continue the story through the next two books without losing any of the novel's initial charm.

In the last blog post I wrote, I encouraged us to read something other than YA. However, this is one of the best Young Adult novels I have read in a long time and I encourage you to give it a shot.

Reading Something Other Than YA

Young Adult fiction is overtaking the industry. If I could be so bold, I might say that YA is our literary movement. There are just so many that it takes a very dedicated bookworm to keep up with them all. I, myself, am no where near that level of commitment.

However, looking back on this blog, I realize that I talk a lot about fiction, especially Young Adult fiction. Which is great. YA is awesome. However, as Joyce Carol Oates said, "Fiction is wonderful, but it's only one room in the mansion of literature." And this understanding of literature can also be applied to YA. Sometimes I get so caught up in the easy fiction of the Young Adult genre that I forget about the significance and power of other genres.

We have hundreds and hundreds of years of history each with their own take on literature. I would know, and other English majors would know, because of the abundance of literary history classes that we have to take.

As big of a reader as I pretend to be, I try really hard to read in other genres as well. In all honesty, you just can't claim the title of bookworm unless you really do worm through all the genres.

That being said, yesterday was the centennial anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Dubliners collection. If you haven't read these yet, I highly recommend it.

If you need more persuasion, The New York Times published a short article honoring the anniversary and you can read it here.