Evil Genius (2005)

I can't be bothered wasting my time with this book. I'm a fan of evil, but this story hasn't done anything for me at all. This book dragged on too much and I don't have the patience for it; too many other books out there to read, so I won't waste my time on a book I'm not enjoying. ( )

I like Cadel very much, he seems innocent but turns out to be twisted. He has a therapist, Thaddeus, who turns out to be his father. I think people who enjoy adventure and mystery will enjoy this very much. It is an extremely enjoying read. My favourite part is when Cadel is at his old house where he is taken by the police and Thaddeus is captured by the police. The first book is a cliffhanger making us want to read the second book (Genius Squad). You will be engrossed in this incredible book as you experience the story as if you were in it. You will not be disappointed I promise. ( )

While not as mind-blowing the second time through (the first is just epic), Evil Genius is still amazing. The pure genius of it is just awesome, and the twists and turns are appropriately complex but still follow an understandable path.

I just love Cadel so much. I want to hug him. And Thaddeus is an amazing villain. I kind of hate him, but kind of love him too. ( )

Cadel Piggott, child genius, age 7, is sent to a child psychologist after he sucessfully hacked into high level computer systems. This begins a series of peculiar events and plot twists that keep the reader on his or her toes. This is an entertaining read, though at times some of the topics are a bit disturbing. As the book progresses, Cadel struggles with the extent to which people who are important to him will determine his character and values. I was impressed by the character development, and the plot was unique and interesting. Overall, this is a good read. ( )

Starting off this book is great. The characters are interesting, the setting is great and the things going on are truly pleasurable. Cadell Piggot is a very smart young man. He skipped many grades and finds himself in college at age fifteen. His whole life he has felt isolated and left out. while searching for colleges his counselor Thaddeus suggests a institute made for gifted children and it taught pure evil. Cadell realizes that the establisher of the institute is his father and is in jail.
The start of this book is superb and drew me into the story exceptionally well. As the story progressed, the tale became washed out and bland. Even though there was much drama going on in the institute and the story was developing it seemed to lose its effect. one thing that changed was that the Gemini twins were removed entirely from the story. Even the unexpected twist at the end seemed predictable and drawn out.
This book was in its entirety was an adquite story with some moments of greatness. ( )

Cadel Piggott is my favorite anti-hero! This is the evil version of Harry-Potter-Meets-Alex-Rider. Cadel gets nailed for hacking into the computers at school, and ends up in the office of psychologist Thaddeus Roth... who says "Next time, don't get caught." Roth is an agent of Cadel's biological father, an evil mastermind currently in prison, who has set up a school for training villains. Roth enrolls Cadel at the Axis Institute for World Domination, where by 13 he is taking classes like Infiltration, Embezzlement, Misinformation, and Disguise. Some of the other students at the Institute have powers -- including one student who has to walk around in a sealed haz-mat suit because he can take out people with (literally) killer B.O. Lots of high-tech gadgets and stealthy spy-type situations! Cadel finds an online friend who helps him deal with all of the grownup expectations at the school -- and the future expectation that he will free his father from prison and join him in his nefarious deeds. 7th grade and up. ( )

A very good book. I had my doubts at first. It seemed like such a trivial topic and idea. However, Cadel is one of the few protagonists in books which I just absolutely agree with most of the time. Like that moment with Frodo getting drunk at the Prancing Pony? Yeah, that doesn't happen in this book. And the "romance" in it is adorable and, moreover, absolutely refreshing. It's a long book, and the pace is fast, a lot happens. Yet the reader never feels like it is dragging on. It may not have a succinctly perfect beginning, middle, and end, but it's a quite enjoyable adventure nonetheless. Plenty lighthearted, plenty creepy, and plenty thought-provoking when it needs to be. Perhaps not the most clever of books overall, but it was certainly very enjoyable. ( )

Genius wars is a spectacularly written novel on a child prodigy. this book is extremely well thought out and makes for great reading. ( )

(I would recommend this)
I would tell my friends that even with a collage level reading score, this book still made me think.
5Q, 4P; Cover Art: Fine. (somewhere between okay and unappealing)
This book is best suited for highschoolers and adults.
This book was selected due to recommendation.
Grade (of reviewer): 9th
(MW-AHS-NC)

For some good young adult fiction that you may enjoy, try "Evil Genius" by Catherine Jinks. It's actually quite a lot like Harry Potter in that it's about a young boy who discovers he has a secret heritage and is sent to a special, secret school but it's a school for future evil genii. Goofy premise but it gets deep and serious and, by the end, I was very pleased to see that it's not the sort of book that talks down to young readers at all. Definitely an excellent read for young adults and not-so-young adults alike. ( )

perfect! a great story about a evil genius college where members learn to murder,and lie and other bad stuff. ( )

I could see where some would hesitate to recommend this even for young adults. Without trying to give too much away it's quite violent. Many, many promising characters are introduced only to...well, not be part of the story anymore in one way or another. Not much is too graphically described, but the implications are pretty strong.

Perhaps that's useful in some way. As a kid I wanted to be like the main character. Extreme genius with complete mad scientist potential. The likely outcomes are not likely to be good if one did exist though.

I really liked it. It is a little slow to start but it becomes a page turner. ( )

Recommended Ages: Gr. 8-12

Plot Summary: SPOILER ALERT!!! Cadel's adopted parents take him psychologist Thaddeus Roth because Cadel seems to get into trouble with the computers and doesn't have friends. Dr. Roth turns out to be his confidant, friend, and connection to Cadel's real father as he passes grade after grade, graduating from high school at just 15(?). For college, Cadel goes to the Axis Institute, which his father, Dr. Darkkon, created to teach Cadel how to destroy the world, following in his footsteps after he landed in jail. All of Cadel's professors are the most evil in the world, and classes include disguise, forgery, infiltration, and embezzlement. Cadel spends much of his time in the computer lab, away from his classmates, all of whom somehow die within the first year, except for Gazo, who becomes Cadel's closest thing to a friend, except for Kay-Lee, whom he met online through his research project "Partner Post," in which Cadel attempts to match people up in order to learn more about humans. But Cadel falls for Kay-Lee for her intelligence, and he finds out she is actually Sonja, a girl who has cerebral palsy who used the name of her nurse as an alibi. Sonja and the real Kay-Lee help Cadel to realize that his whole life has been a ploy. His adopted parents are just playing a role to help him become closer to Thaddeus and Phineas, but Cadel realizes he wants to get out of this evil world. In trying to escape, he sets up an elaborate plan that includes getting some of his professors off his back, but it goes farther than he expected, and many of his professors are murdered. The Axis Institute is closed, and Thaddeus tells Cadel that he is his real father, but Phineas can't know. Cadel wants to escape more than ever and just be free, and it turns out Sonja called the police, and American police try to help Cadel. The ending isn't happily ever after, but it's hopeful.

Setting: Major city/suburb in Australia

Characters:
Cadel Piggott/Darkkon - aka Eiran Dempster when talking to Kay-Lee
Stuart Piggott - Cadel's "dad"
Lanna Piggott - Cadel's "mom"
Thaddeus Roth - aka Prosper English
Kay-Lee - aka Il Primo aka Sonja
Mrs. Brezeck - Cadel's teacher who suspects Cadel is guilty of messing with his classmates
Phineas Darkkon - Cadel's dad
Kale - American police officer who is in charge of anything related to Darkkon
Professors: Dr. Deal, Alias, Dr. Vee, Tracey Lane, Luther Lasco and more! See inside from cover for what they teach. WAY too difficult to get all of their names since the author refers to them in various ways, making it confusing to keep them straight.
Cadel's classmates in Axis Institute: Gemina and Niobe (twins who turn on each other), Abraham Coggins (trying to become vampire), Kunio, Gazo (becomes Cadel's friend, wears a suit because he smells bad, not nearly as intelligent as everyone else at Axis), Doris

Recurring Themes: evil, technology, adoption, genius, friendship, family, murder

Controversial Issues:
pg 59 Cadel's classmates "interests revolved around cars, clothes, sex, and (sometimes) exams, so Cadel didn't fit in at all.... And he'd never had sex, of course, though he was starting to think about it a good deal, simply because of Partner Post. There was a lot of sex talk on his secure sites--more than he'd ever anticipated--and he was reluctant to ask Thaddeus for help on this subject. Fortunately, the Piggots kept a large stock of dirty magazines in their dressing room. And a few of the twelfth-grade boys talked about sex endlessly, obsessively."

pg 66 "smart-ass"

pg 66 school party, Cadel observes "pills, beer cans, and smoking butts being passed around surreptitiously around shadowy corners. Most people seemed to be getting high on something."

pg 73 pseudohell

pg 116 "Hell is udder people."

pg 145 "What do I do with a couple of blond bimbos who are all over me because they think it's good politics? I wouldn't trst them as far as I could spit, either--they make me nervous--so I can't exactly boot them up the ass."

pg 158 "I feel sorry for her, even if she can be a bitch."

pg 201 "most of the staff hated Brendan, whom they regarded as an insult. Someone who was autistic, they felt, shouldn't be receiving equal pay."

pg 264 "You're still a mad bastard, and I want you out of her life...now piss off."

pg 277 "It wouldn't be a hangover, Cadel? You didn't slip away to experiment with anything?" [He didn't]

pg 471 "You shit! You lying scumbag!"

Many people die or are murdered in this book. None of them deserve it. There is detailed description of any of them. Cadel finds out about them after the fact.

Personal Thoughts: I had a really really hard time getting into this book. I don't think I really cared about Cadel until I was two-thirds the way done with the book. It took me over a month to read because of all of the detail that seemed unnecessary. I think the author could have spent less time telling us about the Axis Institute, and even some of Cadel's classmates and his experiments without giving as much detail. I did like the way that Cadel grew both in age and maturity, although it was frustrating that he had no adult he could trust.

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction but mostly reads like realistic fiction ( )

AWESOME! :D ( )

The first thing I though when I saw Catherine Jinks' Evil Genius was, "Ooo! Shiny!" Because, well, it was. The cover of the mass market edition is this marvelous metallic crimson that no computer screen can really capture. I quite liked the artwork on the spine, too. The second thing I thought to myself was, "We evil geniuses (much like evil librarians) need to stick together; I should take this book home with me." And so I did. Evil Genius was first published in Australia in 2005, not making it to the United States until two years later. I'm not sure that I've read a book by an Australian author before, so discovering that was an added bonus. The book is also rather thick, a trend that seems to be becoming more common in the young adult section, but even so Evil Genius has some heft to it. And small print. You get a lot of bang for your buck. And there is also at least one sequel to look forward to, Genius Squad.

Simply put, Cadel Piggott is a genius. He has a particular affinity for computer networks and other complex systems, a fact that has been getting him into trouble from a very young age. His adoptive parents don't know what to do with him and so send him to therapy as a last resort. There, Cadel thrives under the tutelage of his therapist Thadeus Roth--right-hand man to one of the world's most malicious criminal masterminds, Phineas Darkkon who claims Cadel as his son. Enrolling in the Axis Institute for World Domination with his father's encouragement, Cadel will begin to hone his mind even further and gain skills befitting Darkon's heir. But it's when Cadel changes his mind about wanting to be part of Darkkon's schemes that things really get interesting.

One of the things that initially made me pick up Evil Genius (besides an appealing cover and title) was the inclusion of Cadel's course list list inside the cover. Seeing the differences between what the classes were called and what was actually being studied was a great way to set the mood for the novel ("Psychology" for Manipulation, "Microbiology" for Contagion, "Pragmatic Philosophy" for Pure Evil, etc.). Evil Genius comes awfully close to the superhero sub-genre (not that that is a bad thing) but I don't think I would necessarily describe it as such. Although there are a few notable exceptions, no one really has superpowers and most everyone is fairly "normal," albeit pretty twisted and maybe even a bit criminally insane. The few superhero elements there are could probably be removed without too much damage done to the plot's integrity since so much of it is based in reality.

The pacing in Evil Genius fluctuates quite a bit--at times it moves along at a good clip while at other times it crawls--but Jinks managed to never lose my interest. I will say though, I definitely felt the book's length. Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I most certainly did, but someone with a shorter attention span might have a problem. One of the things I particularly enjoyed about the book was Cadel. Even though he is completely lacking in a moral compass, he's really a good kid when it comes down to it. Well, for the most part anyways. I like my characters with a bit of ambiguity. Plus, he's intelligent (if a bit naive) which is a nice antidote to some of the more vapid and shallow characters that seem to be prominent in YA lit right now. While Cadel was the most fleshed out and complete of all the characters, which makes sense as it's his story, most of the others had a decent amount of substance to them as well--even if I did find most everyone's names ridiculous. But then, perhaps that, in addition to the dark humor, was part of the book's charm. Overall, I found Evil Genius to be a fun read. Even though written for a younger audience, I think it would be most appreciated by adults. Either way, I do know that I will be picking up Genius Squad.

Experiments in Reading ( )

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. The title may be a little intriguing, but please do not read this no matter what. ( )

Reviewed by The Compulsive Reader for TeensReadToo.com

Cadel Piggot has been visiting Dr. Thadeus Roth since he was seven years old and had been caught hacking into credit card company files. His adoptive parents, terrified of his intelligence and innocence, forbade him to touch computers and hauled him right off to the psychologist.

But it's not long before Thadeus is not only letting him use his computer, but is also facilitating a relationship between Cadel and Dr. Darkkon, an imprisoned criminal mastermind who claims to be Cadel's father.

As Cadel grows older, expanding his talents and often "testing" them, he finds himself at the Axis Institute, a school founded by his father where evil schemes and rule-breaking are encouraged (as long you don't get caught). But he also meets Kay-Lee. It's her friendship that opens his eyes to what's really happening, and makes him face the ultimate question: Has Cadel's whole life been just another one of his father's schemes?

A little slow towards the beginning, and sometimes a bit too fast when it comes to number theory and computer technology, this is ultimately a book that doesn't require a remarkable genius of any kind to understand. ( )

This book was slow and boring in places. I felt the character's needed more defining. The plot was dragging through most of it. I did not feel connected to any of the characters. ( )

(Thriller, HS) The last half of this book is a truly compelling page-turner. We feel sympathy for Cadel, who has been manipulated his entire life, and we watch him develop into a caring, moral person. We also feel he is in real jeopardy and the only way out will require his full intellectual ability. The one drawback with this book is that it is long and takes awhile to really get going. The first 100 pages are interesting, but the peril is muted in the first half of the book. Although recommended for grades 7-10, given the length and slow development, I would recommend it more for high school. ( )

Genius Cadel Piggot is sentenced to therapy after hacking his way into a lot of trouble. He would have been sent to jail if it weren't for the fact that he was still a minor. Cadel is seven years old and no one knows what to do with him. Not the police and NOT his oh-so-stupid adoptive parents. So he is sent to see Dr. Thaddeus Roth who, it turns out, is not just your average child therapist. Thaddeus reveals to Cadel the truth about his father, something of a genius himself, who was sent to prison shortly after Cadel was born. His real mother? Dead. Under Thaddeus and his newly discovered father's tutelage, Cadel is brought into a whole new world. One where he learns to use his genius to manipulate the clumsy high school students around him.
After he effectively brings down his high school and graduates, Cadel is sent to the Axis Institute, an exclusive college that was started by his father and caters to those with... exceptional skills. Cadel takes classes in forgery, infiltration, and pure evil. But after finding a friend in the mysterious Kay-Lee, Cadel isn't sure that this is the route he wants to take anymore. The professors at his school are all against one another and the students are dropping like flies. Cadel now just wants out. Perhaps this Evil Genius can use his crafty mind for good instead.
I loved this book. Cadel, for all his intimidating genius is so heart-achingly clueless to so many things. This is a coming of age novel with a twist and I enjoyed the crazy-silly-evil characters and all their strange quirks. Despite the carnage Cadel causes, you are rooting for him to succeed at everything he does. Jinks has a winner here and I can't wait to read the next installment. ( )

Cadel Piggott has gotten into trouble with his recent work which has involved hacking into computers. The police have recommended that Cadel attend sessions with renowned psychologist, Thaddeus Roth, whom has some quite unconventional ideas about what to do with Cadel – teach him to be more like his father, Phineas Darkkon, an evil genius whom had plans to completely change the world. Obviously his adopted parents need to pay some more attention to Cadel than what they currently do, then.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve read a book as engrossing as this. It’s not because it’s particularly well-written, or that it has beautiful, well-realised characters, or that there are astoundingly intelligent and challenging social or moral ideas here. It’s that the main idea of this is such a hoot – it’s about the son of an evil genius unwittingly working his way in his father’s footsteps, and Jinks manages to fully keep attention throughout the entire book, and manages to do so much with such an engrossing central idea.

Jinks sets up what seems to me to be the typical YA SF teenage protagonist here, but does it quite well. Cadel is extremely intelligent compared to his peers, being a genius and all, but is socially isolated from them – he is not concerned with what they are concerned with, and his interests are completely different to theirs. He also uses his intellect to get his comeuppance against those whom cause problems for him. And although it’s been done numerous times before, such as in Ender’s Game, this sort of character works for me. I don’t know if it works because the general YA SF reader, and myself, can identify with Cadel in some regard, or that the reader wants to read about people that are of above average intellect. Either way, I particularly liked the character of Cadel.

I suppose if I were feeling somewhat more jaded, or had not enjoyed myself so much, that I could find some plot holes to snigger about, point out the coincidences in the book (of which there are few, and it’s the only reason I would mark the book down), or just be a jerk about the entire experience and point out how unrealistic the whole idea of evil geniuses trying to take over the world are. But it’s been quite a while since I have had so much fun reading a book. Sometimes it is nice to read something simple and fun, a nice change from the ponderous and complex brick-thick science fiction that seems to the current trend in SF, and that’s how I would recommend this book 4.5/5. ( )

And now for something a bit, but not quite completely, different. Catherine Jinks has given us an anti-hero with a touch of Artemis Fowl, but has added a greater measure of consideration and development (this is definitely more of a grown-up book – not that I don’t love Artemis Fowl). Cadel Piggott is a genius, one whose heart isn’t of gold, just very, very human. Like many geniuses, he feels completely apart from society, peers, and people in general, and that alienation drives the progress of the novel.

Jinks has given us a lot of meat on the bones of a story that has, at least partly, been told before. Familiar elements include not just the anti-hero, but also the “special school”, the older mentor/wise old man archetype, the sidekick, the uncomprehending and unsympathetic parents, the computer nerds who run the world, and the “hey, guess what, you actually have tons of money” fantasy. Fortunately for us, by the end of the novel, every one of those presumably predictable elements has been turned on its head, or at least tilted a bit, and combined in brilliant little twists that make reading this book even more fun.

In addition, there is a level of realistic internal development that is unprecedented in all the young hero/anti-hero epics that have been manifesting out of the ether lately. Cadel is not inherently noble, nor is he naturally evil. His is a mind that struggles with the reality of the world and his own place within it, with his exceptional intelligence but also with his incredible naivete (in fact, the reader does occasionally feel like shouting “Sheesh, kid, don’t you get it yet?” at the page). The details and insights as we really get to know Cadel are what feed the reader’s urge to turn the next page and the next. I had a great time reading this and I look forward to the inevitable (like I said, not quite completely different) sequel.

According to the police, seven-year-old Cadel Piggott needs a psychologist (after all, he did just hack into top-secret computer systems and create chaos). Unfortunately for Cadel’s return to psychological well-being and/or normalcy, his largely negligent adoptive parents choose Dr. Thaddeus Roth. Dr. Roth, as an esteemed psychologist for delinquents may at first seem the apropos choice–that is, until his first session with Cadel in which he gives him three tidbits of “wisdom”: never get caught, never admit to anything, and never trust anyone.

Cadel’s acquaintance with Dr. Roth leads to his inevitable ties to Dr. Roth’s boss—Dr. Phineas Darkon—evil genius extra-ordinaire and lifetime prison inmate (he broke rule #1: never get caught). Through a series of carefully planned manipulations, these two men propel Cadel down the path towards becoming an evil genius.

Despite Darkkon’s status as a lifetime inmate of the prison system, he still manages to cook up schemes for eradication of inferior humans since in his mind “most humans [are] the equivalent of junk DNA.” Darkkon’s most recent scheme to accomplish this eradication involves funding his own institute—the Axis Institute—and Cadel.

At the age of thirteen, Cadel matriculates to the Axis Institute where he studies for a degree in World Domination by enrolling in classes such as Coping Skills, Pragmatic Philosophy, Cultural Appreciation, Law, Personal Presentation, Computer Science, Psychology, Media Studies, and Embezzlement (i.e., Basic Lying, Pure Evil, Forgery, Loopholes, Disguise, Infiltration, Manipulation, Misinformation, and Embezzlement respectively). If you have free time or some deep-seated wish to be completely unproductive, visit the Axis Institute for yourself and take the evil genius quiz. At the Axis Institute, Jinks builds up a supporting cast–this supporting cast provides her with humans to eradicate in order to move the plot forward. Readers should be aware that Jinks’ dark morality tale does contain multiple deaths and its share of gore.

Cadel’s only respite from his progress down the path to becoming an evil genius is his friendship with a woman he met as a part of Partner Post, the fake online dating service he founded. Cadel began the Partner-Post dating service due to his belief that by observing and testing theories about human behavior, he could predict and understand humans; his relationship with his Partner-Post pal leads him to know otherwise. Cadel’s concern for his Partner-Post pal gives him the strength to attempt escape the life planned out for him. Between the deaths of fellow students and his developing friendship with his Partner Post pal, Cadel begins to question the Axis Institute’s purpose and Dr. Roth’s and Dr. Darkkon’s methods.

Jinks’ myriad scientific and mathematical details and generous cast of characters that she embeds throughout Cadel’s story make for a complicated narrative that requires one’s full-attention in order to keep all of the characters straight. Cadel, in particular, manifests as a fully-developed character struggling with right, wrong, and purpose. Cadel is a genius, and as a genius he could easily choose to follow his own self-interest in lieu of concern for societal good.

Evil Genius is the tale of a young man struggling to decide whether to become an evil genius/menace to society or to become a socially responsible member of society. Cadel struggles to overcome his early training in order to recognize that his genius does not justify his actions. Cadel must find out for himself that actions do have consequences, and he is responsible for those actions. After all, John Donne told us long ago, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.” As the story winds its way to a close, readers sense that Cadel’s struggles with morality are not over; his genius will be a force of good or evil over the course of his lifetime. Readers of Evil Genius will be forced to consider the powerful effect of even the smallest of choices on the formation of character and identity. ( )

This is on the growing list of books that might have been good if they had been properly edited.

Cadel is a child genius and the son of a man that seriously needs to invest in a copy of the Evil Overlord's Handbook. His father tries to cultivate him in the ways of evil, but Cadel is not so sure if that is the way he wants to go. But he is quickly too wrapped up in his father and his minion's evil plots to just walk away.

I read this for a young adult literature class. I mention this because otherwise I would not have made it passed page 100. It's long, and while the premise is amusing, there is not a big enough payoff to make it worth the investment of time. The characters are pretty shallow, Cadel included, and the plot too slow moving and convoluted to make up for the bland characterization. I might have thought this book was funny and more enjoyable as a 13 year old - it's hard to tell. As it is, I'm someone who loves sci-fi and fantasy but I couldn't get into this book. ( )

this book kept me reading because of a big twist in the start of the book and after that point i could not stop reading it, this is a very interesting book