Customer Reviews

Genius Squad

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Cadel Piggott returns in this action-filled sequel to EVIL GENIUS, but he's not the same teen. The Cadel readers knew in the first book loved to create havoc just for the fun of it. However, after his life-threatening experiences at the Axis Institute with his father, Prosper English, he just wants to be a good person --- and even happy. He is helped in this change of conscience by his best friend, the paraplegic math genius, Sonja. In GENIUS SQUAD, other allies help fight Prosper and his evil, but he also finds more layers of enemies and surprises.

Cadel has an earnest social worker named Fiona who tries to protect him in a new foster home. He can go nowhere without police protection, though, as authorities are aware that Prosper once tried to kill him. He is now a key witness to the evils that went on at the Axis Institute and to Prosper's many illegal activities. Prosper is behind bars, though Cadel knows that barrier is nothing to another genius like himself and has seen the lengths to which Prosper will go. But he still feels that he's safe; after all, Prosper did not kill him when he had the chance before.

Prosper is always good at making trouble, and he is now denying that he's Cadel's father. This means that Cadel has no father on record, and with a dead mother, no citizenship in any country. So he cannot leave Australia, though the country will not recognize him. He is not allowed to take classes of any kind and is desperately bored. The foster home is run by well-meaning parents, but they are also the caretakers for a couple of other children, including the bully Mace. While Cadel tries hard to stay on the path of good, Mace pushes his buttons too far, and he develops a strategy to hurt him while still looking innocent. Mace promises revenge.

In the meantime, the very smart and stubborn Detective Saul Greeniaus has been assigned to Cadel's case and stops by frequently to give him updates on Prosper's situation and how it may affect him. When visiting Sonja one day, Cadel is approached by some adults who run the new Clearview House, a cover for Genius Squad, a group of gifted teens who will work to bring down GenonMe, a company linked to the deceased P. Drakkon and his minions, which included Prosper. They offer Sonja and Cadel $50,000 each and a home while they work on the computer hacking and coding with the other teens to find out what happens at GenonMe and who is behind it. The money and offer of living with Sonja are too good to pass up; the cash would buy Sonja good care well into the future. The problem is that they cannot tell Fiona or the detective. So Cadel begins a secret life again, but this time he seems to be working for good.

As the team works to bring down GenonMe, Prosper gets more active, even from prison. Cadel has to stay on his guard and trust his new allies to keep himself and Sonja safe.

GENIUS SQUAD is even more fun than EVIL GENIUS as Cadel Piggott is more likable when he is working for good. His new allies and friends add another layer of good guys to root for as well. The evil of Prosper English knows no bounds, even with the Axis Institute demolished. Without that school, it is harder to identify his helpers, despite clues throughout the book. The spy games and suspense are complicated at times, but the surprises will inspire readers to keep turning pages right until the end, when the next installment in the series is unveiled.

--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

Cadel, the scrawny, nerdy boy from EVIL GENIUS, is back in GENIUS SQUAD, a bit more grown up, a lot more responsible, and trapped in a foster home with a bully and without a computer.

He's miserable as he tries to bide his time until the slow-moving authorities can find out who he is and where he belongs. It is as he is waiting that the Genius Squad approaches him.

Devoted to bringing down one of Dr. Darkkon's operations, GenoME, the Genius Squad wants Cadel to help them. But Cadel is naturally suspicious and paranoid.

Can he really trust the Genius Squad, or is his hesitance to trust them warranted?

This book has even more action and quick thinking than the first! Each page builds up suspense that culminates into a surprise scenario that will leave you scrambling to catch up. Though it contains more computer and hacking references than its prequel, that doesn't deduct from its appeal.

This is one series that is sure to entrance even the most reluctant reader, especially with an ending that is wide open to accommodate another sequel, THE GENIUS WARS.

Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader

I enjoyed Evil Genius, largely because of the sense that I couldn't quite figure out where Cadgel's morals would take him. Having more or less settled who he is by the end of the first book, the second one didn't have that same tension, and thus didn't quite captivate as much. Still, a good follow-up, and I can recommend it (but only after you've read the first book). (It's labeled for young adult, and I guess that's right, but I'm a bit older that that category and still liked it!)

This book is definitely for anyone who's a fan of the original Evil Genius. Interesting plot but the book lacked some of the better twist and turns of the original. The characters also feel a little less convincing / powerful when compared to the original. Not to give anything away but I felt Cadel really got turned into shadow of his old self and have none of the cunnings we saw earlier. (Uh oh, found myself agreeing with English on that front...)

Overall, interesting read. Well worth the time and effort. I am looking forward to the next one.

Cadel Piggott is back...only he doesn't know who he is. His adoptive parents were really just secret agents who were pretending to be his parents, and with Dr. Darkkon now dead and English Prosper refusing to acknowledge him, Cadel is being jumbled into the system, stuck in a dismal foster home. Though his social worker and detective mean well, they're overbearing and can't seem to understand his need for a computer of his own.


So when he is approached by the Genius Squad on the sly, offering both him and his only friend Sonja an opportunity to take down GenoME, one of Darkkon's ironclad projects, he leaps at the chance...even though the group may not be as secure as he'd like if Prosper were to escape.


Just as harrowing and blazing fast as its prequel, Genius Squad is a winner. You'll have to pay rapt attention as the story unfolds in order to not miss a single detail. Full of computer jargon, wonderfully clever tricks, and sometimes confusing numerous subplots, this is one adventure that is packed full of action from beginning to end. Cadel's character is a bit more grown up, and his actions and feelings reflect his new maturity, which will especially appeal to the older teen. Jinks's Genius series is the Ocean's 11 for teens--and that's high praise!

I enjoyed this book, but unfortunately it lacked what was most interesting about the first book--the bad guys. I got tired of constantly being told how good Cadel was, and how perfect his girlfriend was, and frankly, all the details of the project he was working on in the story bored me out of my skull.

Nonetheless, as a whole the book is still a decent read, and I honestly didn't predict a couple of the twists towards the end.

Hello, I read Evil Genius, respectively, and now I have read Genius Squad. While I read Evil Genius a while ago, I KNOW it is much better than this book in terms of plot and interest. Much more happened in the first, where an entire group of geniuses in their respective fields are destroyed: the Axis University.

However, in the second, not much happens, and it seems to be a retread of the first. Cadel is again kidnapped by Prosper English, but this time, Sonja comes along.

And it's true what one reviewer said earlier: the characters just aren't as INTERESTING. It's kind of boring...

okay this book is just phemomimal. The lamguage is eas to umderstand and comprehemd. Jinks has skill whem it comes to telling stories. You will be getting papercuts from turning the page (or you may break the page turm buttom on your Kindle). The story is fast paced and intense (I was at some times yeling at my Kindle «No Cadel! You...» [don't wanna spoil the book]). Just buy this book. Its a great read, perfect for people who like a computery narrative full of--- well...you will see.

I thoroughly enjoyed Evil Genius, so I was really looking forward to reading the second book, Genius Squad. In this book, Cadel is a kid without a country. The Australian government doesn't know what to do with him. Therefore he is sent to foster care. He moves in with a family who fosters children, and has to put up with a live-in bully. When he's offered the chance to move to a better facility where his special needs best friend, Sonja, can also live, he jumps at the chance. But was it a smart move? Once again Cadel is compelled to guard against the sinister Prosper English who claims to be his biological father. When will Cadel ever find a real family, someone he can trust? Maybe that question will be answered in the third book. I hope!

The second in Jinks' "Genius" series, we pick up right where we left off (and end right where we're heading in book 3) with newly reformed evil genius Cadel trying out his new life of non-evil. The similarities to the first book are mostly welcome: a fast-paced, thickly serpentine plot with lots of technological mumbo-jumbo, a fascinating darkness (too dark for young kids, at least for this reader, with a handful of expletives and deaths and what-not) and a big imagination. The one thing it has in common with its predecessor is perplexing: it's not much fun. I like these books, but unlike, say, the Artemis Fowl series, there's no lightness here. I mean, almost none. Which is odd in teen lit. But, like the Artemis Fowl series it also has a heart, and that makes up for a lot. I'll certainly be reading book three, fun or not...