Review of “Benjamin Weiss and the Divine Prophecy” by J.A. Robertson

Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

Fight some Nazis!
Explore some secret tunnels!
Solve some cryptic prophecies!
Save those children!

Benjamin Weiss and the Divine Prophecy by J.A. Robertson surprised us with just how thrilling and exciting it got! This isn't your run of a mill YA/middle-grade detective mystery. There are some heavy, weighty themes at play in this book, ones that resonate with ongoing situations in the Middle East.

Benjamin Weiss (usually just called “Ben”) is an often-bullied Jewish high school student with a unique gift: the ability to have prophetic dreams similar to Joseph and Daniel in Judeo-Christian scriptures. However, he wrestles to comprehend and interpret these dreams.

Helping him on his hero's journey are Grady, his best friend, Miriam, his girlfriend, and Rabbi Greenblatt, his mentor.

Ben, Grady, Miriam, and Greenblatt live in a community that has been ravished for decades by mysterious, unsolved disappearances, specifically that of 19 children. The baffled police often dismiss tips due to the number of conspiracy theories that have come their way. Everyone lives in fear of when the next disappearance might occur.

The only leads that Ben and company seem to have are Ben's confusing dreams and a series of Nostradamus-like prophecies by a Dr. Grimgory made 300+ years before. They are also able to follow the pattern of disappearances to deduce that the next person to go missing will be a girl who fits a very specific profile.

The race is on to protect this unique person, stop the alleged perpetrators, and find those who've gone missing in the past!

It's a very exciting premise!

There are a lot of nuances in this book that may go over the heads of younger readers, but they're important to mention nonetheless. The book doesn't shy away from the tragic and disturbing history of antisemitism, particularly of the Nazis around World War II. This book is a reminder that people still exist who dislike or even hate Jews and that Jews are still often the unfortunate targets and victims of violence. Antisemitism is not a thing of the past. It's not ancient history. It hasn't disappeared. In fact, people suffer from it every day.

This book is an important reminder of why we should stand by the mantra “Never Again!” as in, we can never allow a Holocaust to happen again. It is also a reminder of why Jews and Israel must fight and do everything in their power to protect themselves from numerous enemies who threaten their existence.

With all that out of the way, we have to say that the first quarter of this book did bore us a little. It was slow and had pacing issues. It seemed to be bogged down by the author attempting to do/show too much. For example, did Rabbi Greenblatt really have to be such a big part of this book? He seems like a character who could've been trimmed out to save time. There were also way too many villain like Shane and Strong Voice involved in this elaborate, over-the-top, decades-long conspiracy.

We get it, the author wanted to show that evil ideologies can transcend and carry over for generations, but it got a bit much.

The people we really cared about was the trio of Ben, Miriam, and Grady.

We were surprised by how much Miriam in particular endeared herself to us as a character. She is a really pleasant person who stands by Ben even when it seems like he's going a little crazy. Similarly, Grady proves to be a great friend.

There was one really weak character moment for Ben and Grady in which Grady fell on his bike into a crevice and Ben didn't seem to care at all. A quick “Grady, nooooooo!” or “Grady, are you ok?!” would've sufficed. Instead, Ben just shrugged it off and asked how he could get down there too.

Another missed opportunity is simply that the person who ultimately got kidnapped/went missing was the wrong person in our opinion. It was a character who wasn't built up to be rescued, or whom we hadn't emotionally connected with as much as the alternative.

Anyway, we came away from this book feeling mostly entertained and satisfied. Could it have been better with a few tweaks? Yes. However, it mostly does what it does well.

Although we don't get to know her much, “18” (Gretchen) is a candidate for “Hottest Character.” Also, there is one hilarious bit in which the author shoehorns in Benjamin having a deformed hand just when it's convenient. That made us a chuckle a bit.

You can check it out on Amazon!