School stories have been popular since at least the 19th Century when Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes was published in 1857. I suppose that once school, and therefore childhood literacy, became common, young people wanted to read, and the one setting they all shared and could relate to was school. Such stories became a sort of genre, which I’ve heard labeled ‘English Schoolboy Stories’ or, alternately, ‘British school novels,’ although they can take place in any part of the former British Empire or other English-like setting. The main character in these is normally a student, often an outsider or social outcast, exceptionally talented or clever, and possibly an orphan.I’m not an expert, although I have read a few books like this. I’m sure everyone reading this review is familiar with a recent offering that falls into this category -- the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Stories set in schools continue to be written and read because all of us can relate to them. If you can read this, chances are you learned to do so in a school.Whatever the genre is called, Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks definitely falls into it. The story is set in a private school in Australia. The protagonist, Cadel, lives with emotionally distant adoptive parents. He is exceptionally brilliant and is skipped ahead in public school, which of course makes him younger than his classmates and consequently a social outcast. He is seeing a counselor because of perceived emotional problems and past discretions. He comes to regard this man as more of a father figure than he does his adoptive father. His counselor offers him a spot at a relatively new private school for ‘exceptional’ students. Cadel does not yet know that this school was founded a few years ago specifically for him, to train and mentor him in the skills needed to become a criminal mastermind -- like his real father. To avoid spoilers, this is as much of the plot as I will reveal.The story is well constructed, the plot is complex but clear, the prose is exceptional, and the characterizations are good (but not great). There is a bit more here than in many YA books I’ve read, and the points are made more subtly. It touches on human behavior, social exclusion, emotional depravation, and various other sociological and psychological topics. It especially contrasts the behavior of people who truly care about others with that of those who regard them only as tools, and it shows the likely consequences of each.The premise is a bit outlandish for something that turns out not to be quite as funny as one might expect from the title, although there are some humorous bits. Cadel is almost unbelievably bright, and his deviations into mathematics and the wonders of the periodic table may loose a few readers. At first, he is mean, vengeful, and thoroughly unlikeable. He disrupts things and causes distress to others just to see if he can do it. I could not force myself to care about such a person or about what happened to them. The story was intriguing enough that I stuck with it, though. Through a few encounters with people who accept him, he grows and becomes a much better person, especially in contrast to those around him who are responsible for his care. He learns the value of friendship when all his mentors tell him it has none other than as a means of manipulation. This is an engaging, well written, and enjoyable story. It may not appeal to younger readers, but I can recommend it to most adults and young adult geniuses.
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.Cadel Piggott doesn’t really fit in. His genius IQ and his peculiar obsessions seem strange to his classmates. He’s not a malicious child, but his boredom drives him to challenge himself by hacking into computers and designing intricate pranks. It doesn’t help that his parents are constantly busy and don’t spend any time with him. The only person who really seems to care about Cadel is Dr. Thaddeus Roth, his psychologist. Thaddeus even encourages Cadel’s obsessions and pranks. As Cadel gets older, Thaddeus gradually starts to reveal why he’s interested in the boy — he wants to enroll him in Dr. Phineas Darkkon’s special school: The Axis Institute for World Domination.Evil Genius, the first in a series of novels by Catherine Jinks, starts out with a delightfully mischievous sense of humor as we watch Cadel studying traffic patterns and bus schedules so he can play clever tricks on his classmates and teachers. The first part of the novel is fascinating and amusing and this lasts for about 100 pages (out of 500) because there’s a long build-up before Cadel goes off to Dr. Darkkon’s school.However, as soon as Cadel gets to the school, the tone of the novel shifts abruptly and becomes incredibly dark and disturbing. I suppose it’s not surprising that the teachers and students at the Axis Institute are hateful, treacherous, and murderous, but Jinks’ tone had been much lighter until that point and the sudden shift to shocking and dreadful was incongruent with the first 20% of the novel. I had been chuckling happily with my kids until then and I knew that Cadel would be going off to Dr. Evil School, but based on the cover art and the first 100 pages, I had assumed that this would be a rather light treatment of such an institution. Wrong! Once we got to school, I felt like I’d suddenly been slammed into one of Cadel’s firewalls.This shift in tone was an issue for me, but that’s not Catherine Jinks’ fault. There’s no rule that an author can’t abruptly change the tone of her novel, and it’s even possible that my misunderstanding of the tone was influenced by the audio version I was listening to (which is wonderfully narrated by Justine Eyre). Other readers, especially if they’re warned, will probably welcome the shift.But I had another issue with Evil Genius. Toward the end of the novel, at which point I passionately hated almost every character in the book, the plot twisted and flip-flopped and did all sorts of strenuous acrobatics which made the horror drag on much longer and more confusingly than it needed to. It was torturous.However, there were some bright spots peeking out of the darkness of Evil Genius. The writing and character development are excellent. Cadel’s relationship with a girl he gets to know over the Internet is perhaps the most touching YA relationship I’ve ever read. Also, Jinks gives us some things to think about in Evil Genius. For example, she shows us that our own negligent or even well-intentioned actions can have consequences that make our behaviors seem evil to others.Catherine Jinks set out to do something original and unexpected in Evil Genius, and she accomplished that. Most of my experience with Evil Genius was unpleasant, but that’s due to my personal taste, not to Ms. Jinks’ skills.
What do You think about Evil Genius (2007)?
Evil Genius starts out simply enough and we are introduced to Cadel Piggot, a seven year old genius who has a habit of dismantling his adoptive parents’ security system, hacking into high-security computer networks and bill pay services. This unusual behavior lands Cadel in trouble with the law. As a result, he is referred to Dr. Thaddeus Roth, a well-known psychologist for troubled kids. WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!!! + A LOT OF PLOT SUMMARY!!!Dr. Thaddeus Roth, being an out of the ordinary psychologist, encouraged Cadel to continue on with his antisocial behaviour, talking him into figuring out traffic and train systems so that he can disrupt them. Thaddeus advised Cadel with three rules to follow; never admit to anything, never trust anyone and especially this one; ‘whatever you do, don’t get caught.’ Through thick and thin, Thaddeus was Cadel’s role model and he put all his trust in him. As Cadel grew up, his life was monitored and overseen by Roth, who had input on every aspect of the boy’s life. But far from helping the boy become normal, Roth is steering him along another path – that of the evil genius. Later, Thaddeus reveals the truth that he is working for Cadel’s father; an imprisoned criminal genius Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Through conversations arranged with special DNA wired devices, Phineas and Thaddeus encouraged Cadel to learn how systems of human relations work, so that he could cause havoc with students failing their Higher School Certificate.At this time, while observing people’s behaviour patterns, Cadel had another plan on his mind; Partner Post, an online line dating service that fooled a great number of people because their partners were imaginary characters created by Cadel. This was when Cadel, through his online dating service, met a girl that kept him from reaching his full evil potential; Sonja. Sonja, a disabled girl with a powerful mind that can match only his, is the one that helps his emotions start to catch up with his intellect. By the age of fourteen Cadel still had his regular sessions with Thaddeus and is at university studying for a degree in World Domination. It is only here, at the Axis Institute, with the support, advice, help and friendship from Sonja that Cadel starts to question his upbringing and the motivations of those who guide him; Thaddeus and Phineas, and see them for them and the Axis Institute for what they are.Evil Genius, a novel by Catherine Jinks and published by ‘Allen & Unwin’ in 2005, is a lengthy read, but is easily read, that when picked up you can never put down. With its plot’s twists and turns and set in our modern day times in Sydney, Australia, this is a book that is mainly about ‘good versus evil’. The genre of this book is juvenile fantasy/science-fiction. The context of ’Evil Genius’ is about geniuses in our modern day society. These geniuses have they the choice of whether to become evil or good but Cadel was brought up to become evil. He didn’t even know who he was; he had adoptive parents that Phineas intended to be bad. So Cadel’s only trusted person was him and they encouraged him to break laws so Cadel wouldn’t question their wrong doings. They honed Cadel’s mind into the right tool for him to rule the world; without him even knowing.
—Lisaaa
Wow, completely forgot I read this, but that cover brought it all flooding back. I must have read it when I was about 14, and I remember feeling kinda poor to neutral about the book. I think half the trouble was that I found the main character both annoying and uninteresting, up until he makes a new, way cooler friend. I also remember the main character going to some "School for Young Crime Lords and Ladies" where he meets other evil geniuses, but the bulk of his time there must have been pretty boring, because all I can really remember from that is the main character just tapping away at computers a whole bunch and not really having any interesting interactions with the other kids. Still, there were some interesting twists and turns. I remember getting really annoyed about (view spoiler)[the love triangle twist with the main character's mother/"dad"/ and the "dad"'s right hand man (hide spoiler)]
—Lauren
I'm not sure why I picked this audio book up, but I'm glad that I did. It was a lot of fun & the characterization of the main character, a child, was very well done. His motivations, extreme intelligence in some areas & complete blindness in others was excellent. It was quite an adventure, too.The reader was perfect for me. Her accent & high voice fit the book well.On the downside, the author obviously doesn't know much about computers & they are a major part of the story. Her techno-babble made me cringe at times. Sounded like something I'd hear on TV. Blech. There are a couple more books in this series. I might listen to the next in a while. Not sure. This story was pretty long for a YA book. I pretty much got my fill & wasn't looking for more.
—Jim
