Customer Reviews

H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the second book out this year about a darker version of Hogwarts, although, since the two schools are set in our magic-free world, I suppose they're more like the opposite of whatever school trained the Marvel superheroes. Kids at a school for supervillains is, of course, a really terrific premise, if a slightly ominous commentary on our times. The other book, which I read first, is Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks. Evil Genius disappointed me by bogging itself down considerably in YA angst and dull plot points. In contrast H.I.V.E., while it threw me off in the first chapter, ended up being an entertaining, well-put-together book with a likable hero, Otto Malpense (yeah: last name Bad Thought!). What put me off at first was that a young Asian martial-arts expert and future roommate to Otto, Wing Fanchu, was described at least half a dozen times in the first 15 pages or so as having an impassive face. And then there's the H.I.V.E. student who's a fat German boy, a veritable clone of Roald Dahl's Augustus Gloop. This struck me as stereotyping--not simply un-PC, but cliched. HOWEVER, the rest of the book went on to be so engaging that I've decided to forgive Walden for those few bits of junk. H.I.V.E. is fast-paced, which is a real relief after Evil Genius. The book is sprinkled with humor, plot twists, and creative touches, e.g., the school motto is simply "Do Unto Others." Otto soon finds a team of buddies (Ron, Hermione, Neville) with a variety of abilities. And the story manages to wrap up nicely even as it sets us up for the inevitable Book Two. Bottom line: your 9- to 13-year-old will get a kick out of Otto Malpense and his villainous school!

Welcome to Hogwarts for bad guys, minus the magic.

H.I.V.E. is a school set on a deserted island where brilliant young adults who have come from criminal families or have taken part in criminal projects are taught to become the worst that they can be.

Otto Malpense remembers nothing about how he came to be on the H.I.V.E. island, and neither does him Asian friend, Wing. The H.I.V.E. staff explains to the young criminals that their parents agreed to let them join the school - and that they are under the highest security and scrutiny.

Otto, being an extremely smart Alpha, wonders if they were kidnapped and are being held hostage until they graduate. Throughout their time at H.I.V.E., Otto and his friends are enrolled in a number of courses you will not find in your average school. Subjects such as Tactical Education, Stealth and Evasion, Villainy Studies, and many other classes (meant for other students, such as Henchmen).

Wanting to be off the island, Otto and his friends, Wing (a martial arts fighter), Shelby (a jewelry store sleuth), and Laura (a technological genius) devise a plan that has never been pulled off before - escaping H.I.V.E. This is a feat that no student has ever accomplished.

H.I.V.E. is a great book and the ending leaves it open for a sequel, which i will be more than happy to buy. Although some parts were scattered, it all led to a great, courageous ending.

Reviewed by: Jeremey

H.I.V.E is a very exciting story that takes you through otto Malpense's first term at a school for villanous education.During his time at H.I.V.E otto finds himself being taught by a cat, nearly being eaten whole by a giant plant and traveling through H.I.V..E's laundrey system.Although Otto makes lots of new friends and learns lots of new thing to help him become an even bigger villan he can't help but wish he was back home.......

Okay. Before I even begin, I'm going to address something that's been bugging me for quite a while. The beginning of this page says this is age level 9-12. Well, I'm a high school AP student, all of my friends are high school AP students, and this is the one book we can all agree is great. We started reading this in October of eighth grade as part of our Gifted reading class.

After we had finished, my best friend and I got into a huge fight because there was only one copy of the sequel in the library. I ended up taking it home, calling her, and reading it out loud over the telephone. That's how good it was.

First, I'm not going to compare this to Harry Potter, Evil Genius, Ender's Game, or Artemis Fowl. It resembles Hogwarts only in the first book, it has SOOO much better characters than Evil Genius, I'm convinced it's based entirely on Ender's Game, and I read the first twenty pages of Artemis Fowl and never could get past it. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

Here's what I'm going to do- these are the elements that are a bit mature that you should look at before you consider letting your child read this book. A lot of people are saying their eight-year-olds loved it, but once they got farther into the series, there were problems with target audience.

Cursing: Throughout the entire series. Unavoidable.
Morbid/Dark themes: Start mainly in book 3.
Parenticide: Yes. Two of the characters have killed their parents so far. This begins in book 2.
Romantic themes: not a maturity issue, just know that the protagonist is hopelessly in love with his lab partner through the whole saga. There are other pairings, as well. And I know a lot of people don't like that.
Troubled Families: Yep. The whole thing.
Sexual references: Yeah, this is what you've been waiting to look at. I started noticing them in book 5. My friends claim I'm unobservant, that they happen since the very beginning. But the ones that are really obvious come up later.
Cheese: The whole thing. Saturated. Do not read if lactose intolerant.

And I'm sure that there are more I have missed. On to the good stuff.

Out of the series, this first one is my favorite. That is because each book is better than the last. I write fanfiction almost exclusively for this series, and I can tell you this: you will not regret reading this. It starts out cheesy and only gets cheesier, but it reads like the best video game you've ever played. The action is nonstop, the characters are amazingly developed, and the only bad thing I can tell you is that... oh wait. Can't think of one.

The students at HIVE are the best in the world at what they do -- thieving, hacking, planning the ridicule of a country's prime minister. Each student has been kidnapped and enrolled in the school to help turn them into the supervillian of tomorrow. And sense this is a middle grade book, we're talking the cartoonish kind of supervillian, the ones that build a huge magnet to draw in a giant comet to destroy the earth unless the world's governments pay them a huge ransom kind of supervillian.

The most promising member of the incoming class is Otto Malpense, a child who has been running his orphanage for years and isn't encumbered with a particularly active conscience. The only problem is that Otto does not want to be at HIVE or a part of its future. He sets his sights on being the first student to ever successfully escape.

I think this and its sequel, The Overlord Protocol (H.I.V.E.), to be two of the funnest books around. I love the cartoony (sometimes downright silly) ways the evil geniuses consider ruling the world. I think Otto and his friends are compelling characters with real problems even if they are set in a cartoon world. And frankly, I love the cartoon world of HIVE. It's not a place you could actually see existing (unlike the Axis Institute in the teen Evil Genius book), but despite its "evil" intentions, it seems like it could be an intriguing place to be. I would recommend this to kids 9 & up. It does have a bit of violence and scary/tense situation that might not be enjoyable for younger kids.

I loved every second of it,especially the climax.My absolute favorite part was the 'funny turn' of the PM.
I don't care if some people say it's a rip-off of Harry Potter,in my opinion it's much better. I would recommend this book for anybody with a good sense of humor and a love for the 'villainous hero' genre.There are only three faults with it and they are:
1.The other three streams don't feature much in it,with the exception of Block and Tackle,two thugs from Henchman stream.I don't think the Alphas should completely dominate it.
2.Book one doesn't really connect much with the plot of the other books,a trait which it shares with Pirates of the Caribbean.
3.Some parts of all the books are rather predictable.
However I'd recommend H.I.V.E for anybody.

This book is aimed more so towards teens. Great book with interesting plot but as I am a bit older than the intended audience I saw where this was going way before it got there. Overall, a good read if you are 16 years old or younger

HIVE is about an orphan who is taken to a mysterious school inside a volcano, where he learns to become a villian. This is one of my favorite books and I hope there will be a third one.

I recently bought a whole bunch of books for my kids hoping they'd read them. Finally, my oldest picked one of them up: HIVE. I was surprised when I saw him the next day on his last pages of it.
I asked him about the book, he is 14 and getting any information out of him can be a challenge. He said it was very good(why else would he read it) and it was about kid villains ..."Oh, Really?" ( I had to laugh at that point...) Well, he liked it and that's all that matters to me. Not sure if this review helped a whole lot, but like I said even my 14 year old got a kick out of it.

Beau Carlson

H.I.V.E.: The Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden (Author)



Hive is a comedy, mystery and adventure novel all in one. It is a fast paced book. When the characters are not dodging hazards, they are making jokes about the teachers. What I found surprising in the book was that there is not one reference to evil laughs. I think that Hive is an excellent book for all ages, though there are some hard words. On a scale of one to ten Hive is an amazing nine. I will continue to read the series with an evil vengeance.