Writing about The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart because I feel obligated to

Hi, Potentially Happy Readers! It’s Jemina, and I hope you’re happy, because I’m not! I have so much homework to do and I’m not super excited to write about this book! Also, this blog is very late and I’m trying not to freak out about that! Sorry! Anyway, I won’t be revealing any important plot details, but I plan on getting pretty in-depth with ranting about some of these characters, so here be dragons, in the form of somewhat spoilers! 

To elaborate on my title, I feel obligated to write this blog post about this book for a number of reasons. 

First off, I have basically been spending all my time for reading, reading this book, since my last blog post. I’ve come to the conclusion that reading this book is no longer bringing me joy. I refuse to lie, and so I will admit that I have also, not finished this book. So much like last cycle’s blog, this is an unfinished book review blog. I hope this isn’t a habit I maintain, writing and posting reviews about books I didn’t even finish, because I actually really enjoy reading. But I’ve invested too much time into this book and I’ve grown to resent it, and it’s too late now to write about literally anything else. 

Secondly, I told DJ that he couldn’t write about this book. When I first picked it up, he was very excited, so I’m assuming that he has some sort of emotional attachment to this book, so that was probably why I stuck with it in the beginning. And then during Free-Reading Monday, I saw him start typing a title with The Mysterious Benedict Society on it and I panicked and whisper-screamed to him that I had been reading this book for three weeks and there was no way I was going to let him write his blog the same cycle of weeks I was supposed to write mine and have both of them be about the same book when I had— I’m going to stop that right there because I’m spiraling enough already. 

So now I’m writing about The Mysterious Benedict Society. I don’t feel qualified to give a summary of this very big book that I’m about, *checking book* halfway through right now, so I’m just going to dive right into how I feel about a few of the characters. 

Well, the protagonist’s name is Reynard. He goes by Reynie. He is an orphan and so sad and lived at an orphanage and no one really cared about him except for this one woman. Awww. :( 

Now, this is going to be pretty mean, but, that’s not very original of a character design. He’s a lonely orphan and he’s very smart and gifted, and such a good boy, and his tutor became his maternal figure. Big deal, underdog characters who have next-to-nobody in this world are a dime a dozen. I have very little emotional attachment to this guy. His whole gimmick, after joining the Mysterious Benedict Society, is that he’s —wait for it, wait for it— very observant. I’m probably just jaded, but I have no emotional attachment to this little boy. He does interesting, clever things sometimes, but besides from that, I don’t care about him. He’s a Mary Sue. There, I said it! He’s trusting and seems naive and maybe it’s the out-growing of middle-grade novels which I mentioned last blog that’s talking, but this one-dimensional character work no longer entertains me. DJ, if you ever read this, I’m sorry, I’m sure Reynie and this book were both magical experiences for you, but he’s not for me. 

George “Sticky” Washington had more potential, but I’m sorry to say that it was also wasted on a one-dimensional character design. He had bad parents, is even smarter than Reynie, and is just constantly unsure of himself and seems almost like a miserable mess. Asides from presenting his sad, sad backstory, the writing, again, does nothing to make me care about this character. The story keeps making him do humiliating things just so Reynie can say “It’s okay, Sticky, that was very smart of you do that thing.” His whole personality is being smart, and sad. Which if you read the book, are basically the same thing. 

Kate is probably most female reader’s favorite character in the book. She is instantly presented as being likable, and she’s a silly girl who thinks outside the box and ran away to join a circus. She also has some family drama, though. But she doesn’t express many non-reactional emotion. She’s here to be the kind of smart that “thinks outside the box”! Oooh, how exciting. 

I like her alright, as she probably has the most fleshed out personality, but I don’t like how close she is to the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” archetype. All it would take would be if one of the male protagonists to make her their love interest, and then she would, be the archetype. And that typical, heteronormative pairing is just all too common in this age-range genre of fiction. 

I think I like Constance the most, probably because of how much she annoys the other members of the Mysterious Benedict Society. It’s fitting, then, that she is a menace to society. I love her for it. Her simple character actually comes across as funny, to me. I like to think that there is just nothing in her head but rage for the system. Honestly, slay, right? Anarchy! It’s also probably meant to be funny that she’s very small, and short. She’s just a small, tiny, writhing mass of fury and I am definitely infantilizing her, but the book is written that all the characters are like that, so I don’t feel bad. I love Constance, and I don’t care what anyone says. 

Anyway, that was my review of the main four in The Mysterious Benedict Society. DJ, if you actually ever read this, I hope you don’t resent me too much for not letting you write this blog. Thank you all for reading, if you even made it to the end, and have a week you deserve. 

- Bye, yall. Jemina Feng