Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

Sorry for the wait for the next blog, everyone.  I was on vacation to Minnesota to see my cousins, Ben and Lukas.  But, the good thing is that I have an awesome book to write about which I read on the plane- Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks.

Evil Genius is a book about Cadel Piggot who has a genius IQ and a fascination with computers.  At age seven he was sent to a troubled child counselor for illegally hacking into computers.  His counselor, Thaddeus, introduces him to his real father, international criminal Dr. Darkon.  Seven years later, where the main course of the story occurs, he goes to a school called Axis Institute, founded by his father.  It is pretty much a school of evil.  As Cadel begins to question his fathers true motives, shocking secrets are unveiled.  One of them is forcing him to ask the ultimate question.  "Who am I?".

First of all I have to thank my Nana for introducing me to this book.  One of her friends grandsons had read this book and she recommended it to Nana, who then recommended it to me.   There are 3 books in this series and I have only read the first.  The second two are Genius Squad and Genius Wars.  Hence, "The Genius Trilogy".  

This book is superb.  I have admit I have read this book at least 10 times.  The story itself is very gripping and has a curveball at the end of almost every chapter and new things are always happening.  It is interesting to see how Cadel uses only his intellect to do amazing things like, quite literally, take down the gymnasium at his old school.  It is also interesting to see how everyone but his counselor and father underestimate him because of his small stature and innocent face.

I would recommend this book to kids who do not mind a little developing before the real action starts.  I also think this book is good for ages of about 12+ because of slight use of language.  It does fit in well with the story because some of the teachers are pretty darn bad criminals. (*note from mom- this is very minor language used only a few times).  I give this book 6 stars out of 5.

PS- I didn't mention one character who is kind of important because I wanted to save the surprise.  Hint- her name is Kay-Lee McDougal (or is it?!)  Happy reading!