The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
391 pages


"If you fail all is lost.  Join the Mysterious Benedict Society as Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance embark on a daring new adventure that threatens to force them apart from their families, friends, and even each other.  When an unexplained blackout engulfs Stonetown, the foursome must unravel clues relating to a nefarious new plot, while their search for answers brings them closer to danger than ever before.  Is this the end of the Mysterious Benedict Society?"


summary from inside cover of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (MT Books, 1st edition October 2009)


The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma is written by Trenton Lee Stewart.  I like this book as much as the first one.  In this book, the children are being kept at Mr. Benedict's house to protect them from Mr. Curtain, they can't leave.  The government keeps trying to get the Whisperer from Mr. Benedict but he is doing everything he can to keep them from getting it because he knows they will use it to invade peoples minds.  They have people guarding the house, but one of them is a spy for Mr. Curtain and he helps Mr. Curtain steal the Whisperer and capture the children again.  I really like the ending and if you have read the other two books, I would say it is definitely worth it to finish the series.  Rating: 5 stars


-mnm1309

The Dead-Tossed Waves

The Dead-Tossed Waves
404 pages


"Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the barrier.  She's content to let her friends dream of the dark city up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse.  Home is all she's ever known and all she needs for happiness.  But life after the Return is never safe and there are threats even the Barrier can't hold back.  Gabry's mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth but, like the dead in their world, secrets don't stay buried.  One night beyond the Barrier...  One boy Gabry's known forever and one veiled in mystery...  One reckless moment, and half of Gabry's generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.  Now Gabry knows only one thing: of she has any hope of a future, she must face the forest and her mother's past".


summary from inside cover of The Dead-Tossed Waves (Gollancz, First Edition 2010)


The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan is about Mary's daughter.  I just want to say that this one is much better than the first book (The Forest of Hands and Teeth).  Mary now lives in and operates the lighthouse on the beach she found after escaping from her old village.  The new town she lives in is called Vista.  Here, they are not cut off from the rest of the world and they know there are other people alive and they communicate with them, unlike in Mary's old village.  Mary leaves to try and find the people she left behind in the forest, she has tried before but she could never find them.  A little later, Gabry is forced to follow her with some of her friends from Vista.  At first Gabry seemed just like her mother, risking the lives of her friends and the two guys she likes, so I thought this book would be like the first and I wouldn't like it.  Towards the end though, she kind finds out a lot about her past and her mothers past which changes her a little.  The third book is set to come out at the beginning of 2011, and I'm actually looking forward to finding out what happens to Gabry and her friends, the book ends with a lot of unresolved things going on.  Rating: 3 stars


-mnm1309

The Secret Countess

The Secret Countess
345 pages


"ST. Petersburg Russia, 1919.  Anna's world is under threat.  The eighteen-year-old countess has lived in luxury all her life, but revolution is tearing Russia apart - and her family must escape...  London, 1919.  Now penniless, Anna is working as a servant for the aristocrat Westerholmes.  But as she falls in love with the young earl it becomes harder to keep her true identity secret..."


summary from back of The Secret Countess (Picador, 2007 edition)


The Secret Countess by Eva Ibbotson was first published as a A Countess Below Stairs in 1981.  The reason I read this book was because I have read other books by this author and they were pretty good.  In this book Anna and her family have fled from Russia and now are now living in England.  They are there with a lot of other royal and high ranking families that have fled as well.  Because they no longer have very much money they all have to work hard, but none of them are bitter about it.  This is a romance book, the person Anna loves is engaged to a woman who is 'perfect' but turns out to be an awful person.  I usually don't like books like this but this one was actually pretty good, and I kept wanting to find out what happened to her.  A lot of times when I read books like this, I get bored with them.  It has a lot of funny parts, but the ending isn't very unexpected.  Altogether it was an interesting book and I would recommend it more to girls 13 and under, although other people might like it also.  Rating: 3 stars


-mnm1309

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth 
308 pages


"In Mary's world there are simple truths.  The Sisterhood always knows best.  The Guardians will protect and serve.  The Unconsecrated will never relent.  And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.  But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her.  She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power.  And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.  Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her.  And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth.  Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?"


summary from inside cover of The Forest if Hands and Teeth (Delacorte Press, 1st edition 2009)


The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan is about a girl named Mary who lives in walled town in the middle of a forest.  They are totally isolated from anything else and they are the only humans left alive on earth, or so they are told.  The reason they are protected by Barriers is because after the Return, anyone bitten by the Unconsecrated (they are like zombies) will become Infected and become one of them.  One day though, Mary sees someone who has come from the forest.  Her entire life, she has heard stories of the ocean and she has always wanted to leave to find it.  In the end she makes it there, but the main thing I didn't like about the book was Mary and her obsession with the ocean.  By the time she made it there, everyone she loved was dead.  She said she loved them but she literally sacrificed their lives in her quest to find the ocean.  It just really bothered me how she would throw herself at two guys and make long speeches about how much she loved them, and then was the cause of their death because she couldn't let go of the ocean.  Overall it wasn't to bad, but it wasn't the best book I've read, although zombies are new.  I've never read a book about them.  Rating: 2 stars, this is because I found a lot of the things Mary did annoying, as you can tell from my rant about her ...


-mnm1309
p.s. I am reading the second book now and will post about it soon

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
440 pages


"Children you must not come STOP Dangerous.  The Mysterious Benedict Society is back with a new mission: a mind-bending international scavenger hunt designed to test their individual talents.  As they search for all the clues and riddles Mr. Benedict has hidden for them, Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance face an unexpected challenge that will reinforce all the reasons they were brought together in the first place and require them to fight for the very namesake that united them.  Join the Mysterious Benedict Society at your own risk!"


Summary from back of The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (MT Books, may 2009 Edition)


The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart is more about how the 4 children have changed after their previous adventure.  They have to try to save Mr. Benedict from Ledroptha Curtain but along the way you learn how each of them has changed.  They have all regained/found their families.  Their parents are always worried for their safety after their last adventure and in order to save Mr. Benedict they have to sneak away and go against their parents.  All in all it was a really good book, I liked the first one a little more but it is definitely worth continuing the series.  Rating: 5 stars


-mnm1309
p.s. I'll post about the last book soon

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society

485 pages

"Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?  When this peculiar add appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests.  (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.)  But in the end just four very special children will succeed.  Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete.  With their new found friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all?  Welcome to The Mysterious Benedict Society."

Summary from the back of the Mysterious Benedict Society (MT Books, April 2008 edition)

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is about younger children but I think that older people can enjoy it.  I like this book because there is a lot of action and you get to figure  out what is happening along with the characters in the book.  It has a lot of excitement and I would recommend it to anyone who likes an adventure/mystery books.
Rating: 5 stars

Tell us what you think, comment!

-mnm1309
p.s. I will post about the next book soon.