I was thrilled with Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (My Review). Not quite as much with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (My Review). Both were great stories. I’d highly recommend either. But The Mysterious Benedict Society is not just a great story–it has the additional benefit of being profound.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a great middle betwixt the two–and a great cap to a marvelous series.
“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” refers to a famous test the children are given at the beginning of the book. They’re being given the test as a school exercise–and they manage to find a way out without resolving the tricky ethical questions the exercise was designed to force them to grapple with.
Yet life will insist that they wrestle with the same question yet again.
When Ledropthe Curtain renews his attempts to regain the Whisperer, the children must make difficult decisions. Will each child choose to act in his own interests or in the interest of another–even at a high cost to self?
Stewart artfully weaves the Prisoner’s Dilemma throughout the story, never heavy-handedly insisting on recreating the exact predicament set up in the first scenario–but still managing to test the children multiple times (and to renew the question in the reader’s mind as well.)
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a potent love story–not the story of romantic love, but of the love of a father for a daughter, a daughter for a father, a devotee to his idol, a brother for his brother, and four friends for each other.
Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children find themselves in tricky positions as they must repeatedly choose between personal gain or what’s best for their friends and loved ones in this adventure to stop the evil Ledropthe Curtain.
Recommendation: Nothing can quite top the first in the series for a thought-provoking read that’s also a great story–but this third volume comes close. A must read.
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