I’ve been reading The
Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. It’s
the prequel to the Mysterious Benedict Society books, by Trenton Lee Stewart,
one of my favorite series ever. However, this book isn’t half as good as the
Mysterious Benedict Society was, and I’m finding myself dreading to even open
this book. I think it’s something about the slow moving pace of the plot, and
the abundance of details.
This book is moving very slowly.
There are plot twists, and there are many new events taking place, but nothing
drastic is occurring that’s helping the plot move forward. The setting is
always the same, which is understandable since he lives in an orphanage, but
some kind of outing would really help move the story forward. New characters
aren’t being introduced, and the same kinds of plot twists keep happening.
Nicholas keeps beating the Spiders at their pranks, and he’s always a step
ahead of them. After about 3 of the same plot twists, it’s getting a bit
repetitive.
This book also has an abundance of
details. I actually like when there are a lot of details that benefit the
story, but in this book Trenton Lee Stewart has added in very repetitive
details about the same thing that just drag the book along- slowly. For example, when Nicholas was
waiting in the hallway and going from his room to the bathroom, there were
details upon details about the lighting and the feeling of the hallway. After a
while, I couldn’t even follow what was going on because I kept hearing about
the lighting of the hallway!
I’m really disappointed in this
book. I was looking forward to reading a book that was as good as on of the
Mysterious Benedict Society ones! Hopefully it gets better in time!
Fiona:
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I love how you used text evidence to support your thoughts on the book, and you described your reasons for not enjoying the book very clearly. You stayed on the same theme throughout the post,which made your ideas much stronger and more supported. I also loved how you ended on a positive and hopeful note! After describing mostly negative aspects of the book, it was nice to see that you haden't last all hope on it. Do you think that if you read this book before reading the other books in the series, you would have found it more enjoyable? Why? How do you think the author could have made this book more interesting? How did he connect it to the other books in the series? Are there any other changes you would have made?All in all, fantastic job.
superb blog post i must say Fiona, i really enjoyed reading your blog post because of how interesting you managed to keep your blog, but i have a few questions if you don't mind if i ask.
ReplyDelete1)do you reccomend this book to differnt people?
2)do you think that the author could have made the story better if he used less monotnouse details?
3)and besides to much details what do you think alsomade the story slow?
again i really enjoyed reading your blog post nice job!
Thank Elinor and Austin!
ReplyDeleteElinor, I don't think I'd have read the other book if I'd read this one first, since it's so slow and boring at this point. I think the author could have made it more interesting by replicating the adventure in the other books.
Austin, I wouldn't recommend this book to another student, unless they'd read the other books and really wanted to finish the series. I think that if the author had taken out the useless details and added more adventure and mystery it would have made the story great! I also think the lack of mystery throughout the book, not just in little increments, make the story slow.
Thanks again guys!