Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Guys (I'm from Jersey and when we say "guys," we mean "everyone," :), I'm so surprised that I didn't love this book. I haven't been this wrong about a book in a long time. I mean, it has a fun title, a whimsical cover and illustrations, secret tunnels, a master villain, the word "mysterious" in the title, etc. What's not to love? Well...I liked a couple of the main characters, Reynie and Kate. Sticky and Constance were less fun, but still interesting. Four kids who are on their own for one reason or another, but are each resourceful and creative in different ways. They all pass a very unique test and end up as secret agents for the good guy--Mr. Benedict--who is trying to stop the bad guy, Mr. Curtain, from basically taking over the world. To accomplish this, the wise Mr. Benedict sends the four vulnerable children to the grim island school where Mr. Curtain lives, works, and attempts to brainwash the world. A majority of the book took place while the kids were trapped on the island. Guys, it was bleak. So bleak and depressing that I literally stopped reading the book 75% of the way through and put it down for about 2 years. Not only was it bleak on the island, but not a lot that was interesting happened, either. I finally came back to the book only because I hate to leave books unfinished and I wondered if the book found happiness in the end. Poor, sad book. Eventually, things worked themselves out, and you can tell that Stewart is actually a very talented writer who genuinely tried to insert humor into the book, but it just didn't work for me. The Series of Unfortunate Events books are depressing, yet still somehow funny, perhaps because they're more over-the-top than the Benedict Society books. This book was kind of like 1984 on an island, at a school, for young adults. Very dystopian and grim. My advice? Read The Clockwork Sparrow instead, an utterly delightful and actually mysterious YA lit book that I've also just finished recently. One of the better ones I've read in awhile :).