With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all--a challenge that will reinforce the reasons they were brought together in the first place and will require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.
Review:
Set a year after their previous adventure The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey is just as great. Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance, the members of the MBS set out to follow a trail of cryptic clues left by Mr Benedict who has been kidnapped by his odious brother, Mr Curtain, in the hope that they will eventually find him.
The beginning started off in a similar way as the first book, with Reynie on his way to a rendezvous. The beginning was a little slow, with the characters dwelling on and reminiscing over their previous adventure, however, once it got going, it gripped me to the end. The book was engrossing. It was action-packed and the members of the Mysterious Benedict Society travelled across the world to locate Mr Benedict. The trail of clues was intriguing and well thought out in Stewart’s usual style.
Constance suddenly developed extremely powerful psychic abilities and extra-fast pattern recognition skills. She did not have this in the last book where her stubbornness was her saving grace. The origin of these abilities remained unexplained and I hope it is explained in the next book. I wonder whether she is someone’s laboratory experiment as she has no memory of her family and she is very advanced for a three-year old.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey was very humorous and entertaining. Even the villainous characters had their little jokes. There was one occasion where Mr Curtain would not have helped one of his henchmen because he is not that type of person- but he did- which was convenient as it got him out of the way for the main characters to make a bid for freedom. This was out of character for him.
The book went into more detail about Mr Benedict and Mr Curtain’s narcolepsy and how it affects their lives. This was interesting and frightening. If you read the first book, I am sure you would want to read The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey as it was a highly enjoyable read and laugh-out-loud funny. If you haven’t started the series, I highly recommend it. You won’t regret it.
Book Rating: 5/5
Cover Rating: 4/5
Author: Trenton Lee Stewart
