The Mysterious Benedict Society

Author: Trenton Lee Stewart

The Mysterious Benedict Society is about four gifted children—Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance—who, after seeing an ad in the newspaper and taking multiple weird tests, are recruited by Mr. Benedict to go undercover at the Institution for the Very Enlightened to observe an odd man, Mr. Curtain, who may be hypnotizing people all over the world into believing very strange things.  This book is the first in a series of four books (and there’s a prequel about Mr. Benedict’s childhood which is separated from these four books for some reason).  This book was very interesting, I thought the characters were amusing and I was curious to see how the book ended and what creepy Curtain was up to.  I also liked how the book had a theme of found family; the children, most of them orphans, ended up sort of viewing one another like siblings.  I thought parts of the book were very amusing too, and I thought it was interesting that Mr. Benedict had a chronic health condition (narcolepsy).  I did think parts of the book dragged and were confusing, especially in the 2^nd half; and while the book was not scary, Mr. Curtain was extremely creepy.  Stewart knows how to write a “good” villain!  There was a TV show based on the book but it got cancelled after two seasons and then removed from Disney+.  I’ve also read the 2^nd and 3^rd books and, unfortunately, they were not nearly as interesting as the first.  They were very repetitive and didn’t add anything to the story (and there was lots of rambling!).  I thought there was quite a bit of ableism too regarding Mr. Benedict’s narcolepsy, especially in the 3^rd book, as the children seemed to act like it was a burden to their adventures for some reason.  I understand that having a chronic health condition could make Mr. Benedict’s job difficult but the way the author went about addressing it made me uncomfortable. Overall, I mostly enjoyed this book and would recommend reading as a stand-alone!

“You must remember, family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood. Nor is it exclusive of friendship. Family members can be your best friends, you know. And best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”