FAMILYFANS Books & Comics

EVIL GENIUS

by Catherine Jinks

(Harcourt)

Reader Appeal: Ages 12 and up

Genre: Juvenile Mystery / Suspense

OK, Evil Genius gets off to a slow, but after the story and characters are set (about 100 pages in), there is almost no putting it down!

Evil Genius is about a boy named Cadel. Cadel is a child prodigy, and his specialty is computers. His parents, Lanna and Stuart, are both away most of the time for work, and make a good amount of money. When Cadel is about 10, the police suggest that he take counseling from a psychologist named Thaddeus Roth. Dr. Roth seems knowing and caring. Over the next few years, Cadel becomes more and more comfortable with Dr. Roth, and learns great amounts from him.

One day Thaddeus reveals to Cadel that Stuart and Lanna aren’t his real parents. In fact his real father is the infamous biologist Dr. Darkkon who was imprisoned years ago because of his diabolical deeds. Dr. Darkkon has created a school of criminal knowledge, the Axis Institute, that teaches everything from basic lying or forgery to pure evil and explosives. Thaddeus convinces Cadel and his parents that this would be a good school for Cadel, while all the time keeping the truth hidden from Lanna and Stuart. But as Cadel gets deeper into his classes and starts learning more about his father, some very suspicious clues pop up that make Cadel start thinking. After following several leads, he learns that almost nothing is what he thought it was, and he must break free of this criminal life before he gets in serious trouble.

One of the best things about this book is the readability. Since Cadel is a genius, and he is working with other genii, it could be very easy to get lost in some of the conversations, but most of the time everything is explained, and the things that aren’t explained aren’t as important and don’t need as much attention. There was some real creativity in this book concerning the characters and their development. Almost no one is who he or she seems to be, and everyone is going through a constant change through the influences of others. I also liked that the book had a satisfactory ending, but is also left open enough that there could be a sequel.

The main thing I didn’t like about this book was the beginning. It is enough to get the reader interested, but there is some boring set up that could probably have been avoided. Another thing that was bothersome was some of the character’s accents. Instead of just saying that the character had an accent, Jinks would usually spell out the words phonetically to match the accent, and those usually made it harder to decipher what was being said.

Still, I would recommend this book to those that are looking for a good book with an original story, kids and adults alike.

FAMILYFANS RATING: B

--TN

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