Catherine Jinks

After the Axis Institute is blown up, fifteen-year-old Cadell Piggot is unhappily stuck in foster care with constant police surveillance to protect him from the evil Prosper English until he gets an offer to join a mysterious group called Genius Squad. 60,000 first printing.

Genius Squad

Pepper

** spoiler alert **
           This book was just as great as the first book "Evil Genius" but in a different way. This time it is not so much about Cadel and his genius strategies as it is about Cadel trying to overcome his dark side and unintentionally walking right into a trap. 

Last time I found it fascinating to read about this amoral character - because that is what he was: the way Cadel had been brought up I don't think he realised what the consequences of his actions were and that he should care about how much he hurt people in the process of carrying out his evil plans. But towards the end of Evil Genius he comes to realise all this from Sonja and attempts to leave Thaddeus Roth/Prosper English and the evil Axis Institute behind.

This book begins a couple of months after the last. Cadel is now in foster care with Prosper English safely behind bars. But nothing is well for Cadel - Propser English refuses to admit Cadel is his son, the police are unable to find anyone other than Cadel as a key witness to testify against that villain, Cadel himself is living in the most abominable conditions possible - in a foster home with a thug kid called Mace who enjoys bullying Cadel and with very little computer time and on top of that no country or university is ready to accept Cadel. With all these worries it is no wonder that when contacted to become part of the Genius Squad in order to bring down a fraudulent organisation called GENOME he accepts the offer of living in Clearview House with Sonja. Everyone else believes it to be accommodation for hard done by kids while in reality it is a cover for bringing together genius kids to take down an organisation.

One of my nitpicks would be that the other genius kids didn't seem all that genius to me. Or perhaps we are meant to marvel at how smart Cadel really is in relation to these other kids. My brother made the point that the other kids seem only to be gifted in their respective specialised fields while Cadel is more of a 'street smart' genius. He can take all the various possibilities into account and has a very cynical outlook on everything which makes it hard to fool him. I guess the Axis Institute was good for something after all!

Seeing Gazo and Alias again was fun and Com (Dot's sister) was a good addition to the cast. I loved the two new characters, Saul and Fiona, that were introduced in this book even if they made the ending utterly predictable. The moment we had that scene between Saul, Fiona and Cadel I looked up and told my brother - they are going to get married and adopt him huh? Never one to spoil the suspense by brother kept quiet but heh I was right. And I don't care how trite the ending was I still consider it satisfying. 

Saul was like the Butler to Cadel's Artemis Fowl and I love, love, love his character. I liked how he became so attached to Cadel and always felt frustrated at Fiona for doubting his motivations (but then secretly admitting to Cadel that he appreciated how she was so dedicated to ensuring Cadel's well being). I liked how he knew that he should not hide any facts from Cadel just because he is a kid - he was open and honest with him (something I can't say for Cadel but then again he is a kid, genius or not) and that scene in the park when he informs Cadel of the assassination plot against Prosper English is one of my favourite scenes. Another one is the reunion scene when Saul finally finds Cadel locked inside somewhere that Propser had hidden him. And also that scene where Cadel talks about how Prosper should let him go because he wasn't a kid any more and how his speech "fooled the wrong person" because Saul begins asking Cadel for his opinion and Cadel breaks down in front of him and says that he just said all that to get Prosper off his back. Oh there are just so many memorable scenes!

I agree with my brother that Part 4 - when Prosper English breaks out of gaol and kidnaps Cadel, is the most exciting part of the book. Not only because of the chase but because you come to appreciate just where Cadel has learnt his genius ways from. Prosper is every bit as cunning and conniving and it is a marvel to see how he had planned everything all along! While Cadel thought he had taken charge of his life it was actually Propser pulling strings and seeing his wonderfully laid out plan come to fruition.

Overall a good follow up and I can not wait for Genius Wars

Kirsten Simkiss

This star got a solid 4 out of 5 stars for me.

Unlike the first book, I really felt Cadel grew and developed as a person. They also treated their special needs characters MUCH better in this book. I really felt like Sonja was developed nicely in this book. While I know very little about cerebral palsy, I felt as though the prioritization of her needs (view spoiler)[as well as the very awful views of the villains at the end of the book constantly neglecting her (hide spoiler)] was very well handled and paid attention to. In the prior book, there were a few things that made me feel that the characters who were neurologically atypical were poorly handled. This seemed more realistic. I'm hoping my lack of firsthand knowledge regarding Sonja's condition is not what made me feel her portrayal was well done.

The plot was pretty easy to predict, but the voice of the novel was very good. (view spoiler)[ I saw Trader being a shifty bastard coming a mile away. Seriously, just the fact that he was so slicked up should have been a dead giveaway for Cadel that the guy wasn't on the up and up, given Prosper's nature. (hide spoiler)] I enjoyed how it ended, (view spoiler)[especially considering Cadel didn't have to sacrifice any of the few friends he's made over the course of the two books (hide spoiler)].

Fiona and Saul were excellent characters and I hope they stick around forever.

I'm glad I gave the second book a chance after having not really enjoyed the first one all that much. I do think, in the next book, the plot needs to have a different structure than the first one. But, given the idea that was presented at the end of the book, I don't think that should be too difficult.

Sometimes, when it comes to fighting evil, one genius just isn't enough. A second darkly brilliant page-turner about fifteen-year-old genius, Cadel Piggott. Ages 12 to 16 years. (SA: Year 6 - Year 9).

Alix N

Rebecca Harwood

Anna Bold

After the Axis Institute is blown up, fifteen-year-old Cadell Piggot is unhappily stuck in foster care with constant police surveillance to protect him from the evil Prosper English until he gets an offer to join a mysterious group called Genius Squad. Reprint.

Genius Squad

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