Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks
Jinks, Catherine (2005). Evil Genius. New York: Harcourt, Inc. 486 pages.
Summary and Evaluation: Cadel Piggott is a genius. At seven he was already an accomplished hacker. By thirteen he was in twelfth grade (only taking three years to get through high school). From his psychologist, Thaddeus Roth, Cadel discovers that his real father is Dr. Darkkon (formerly Vernon Bobrick), known for his work in making people hallucinate and his plan to use a retrovirus to wipe out most of the human race. Before he became an evil genius, Dr. Darkkon became rich by starting a business that mapped people's genes and gave them according advice. With this fortune, he funded the Axis Institute, which is basically a University of Evil. Roth (the current chancellor of the Institute) enrolls Cadel in the School of Deception, where he takes such courses as Embezzlement, Infiltration, Disguise, Loopholes, and Pure Evil. Cadel has something else in his life besides learning how to become Evil, however. While still bored in high school, he created Partner Post, an online dating service (and study in human behavior) in which he makes up most of the partners. This is how he meets Kay-Lee, a nurse with a brilliant mind whom he converses with as a Canadian math professor named Eiran.
While the novel is fairly long and has quite a few characters, the pace moves fairly quickly and the plot seems to thicken at every turn. A mystery component is also present as strange "accidents" start to befall the students and teachers at the Axis Institute. I thought it was interesting that it seemed Cadel wasn't sure whether he really wanted to become a supervillain-most of his devious deeds (especially at his high school) were not meant to cause permanent damage (chiefly psychological) to their victims and he states several times that he doesn't want to kill anyone. Likewise, his relationship with Kay-Lee makes him start to think about what’s really going on in his life.
Booktalk Hook: It's a University of Evil! Fans of superheroes and supervillians (comic books or otherwise) would probably enjoy this novel as well as readers who might be interested in a twisty adventure story with a bit of espionage. A booktalk of this novel might start out with the question of where supervillians go to study Evil (although there is no degree in Horribleness, so Dr Horrible must have gone somewhere else-unless he's faking his doctorate).
Summary and Evaluation: Cadel Piggott is a genius. At seven he was already an accomplished hacker. By thirteen he was in twelfth grade (only taking three years to get through high school). From his psychologist, Thaddeus Roth, Cadel discovers that his real father is Dr. Darkkon (formerly Vernon Bobrick), known for his work in making people hallucinate and his plan to use a retrovirus to wipe out most of the human race. Before he became an evil genius, Dr. Darkkon became rich by starting a business that mapped people's genes and gave them according advice. With this fortune, he funded the Axis Institute, which is basically a University of Evil. Roth (the current chancellor of the Institute) enrolls Cadel in the School of Deception, where he takes such courses as Embezzlement, Infiltration, Disguise, Loopholes, and Pure Evil. Cadel has something else in his life besides learning how to become Evil, however. While still bored in high school, he created Partner Post, an online dating service (and study in human behavior) in which he makes up most of the partners. This is how he meets Kay-Lee, a nurse with a brilliant mind whom he converses with as a Canadian math professor named Eiran.
While the novel is fairly long and has quite a few characters, the pace moves fairly quickly and the plot seems to thicken at every turn. A mystery component is also present as strange "accidents" start to befall the students and teachers at the Axis Institute. I thought it was interesting that it seemed Cadel wasn't sure whether he really wanted to become a supervillain-most of his devious deeds (especially at his high school) were not meant to cause permanent damage (chiefly psychological) to their victims and he states several times that he doesn't want to kill anyone. Likewise, his relationship with Kay-Lee makes him start to think about what’s really going on in his life.
Booktalk Hook: It's a University of Evil! Fans of superheroes and supervillians (comic books or otherwise) would probably enjoy this novel as well as readers who might be interested in a twisty adventure story with a bit of espionage. A booktalk of this novel might start out with the question of where supervillians go to study Evil (although there is no degree in Horribleness, so Dr Horrible must have gone somewhere else-unless he's faking his doctorate).