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

We have all have heard it a million times before, but it still rings true – never judge a book by its cover. At first glance, H.I.V.E. appears to be good read; snappy, humorous and exciting, with a fun premise and a pretty nifty acronym. It's probably somewhere in the vein of Artemis Fowl, and it's even won an award, (apparently courtesy of 'Richard and Judy'.) All in all, it looks rather entertaining. It is only when one actually opens the book that the truth becomes apparent – H.I.V.E. is the work of an amateur. The prose is barely publishable, dotted with run-on sentences and questionable usage of commas (or lack thereof). Three pages in and I was thoroughly puzzled – why had this not been addressed by an editor? Slowly but show more surely, the answer became apparent. The writing may improve minimally over the course of the novel, but reworking H.I.V.E. to a professional standard would still be too mammoth a task for any human editor.

But if the writing doesn't put you off, don't worry – there are plenty more flaws here. Walden's characters are among the most stereotypical and trite that I have ever come across. Far from being remotely villainous, they soldier through the novel with all the selflessness, teamwork and heroism of Harry Potter and his goody-goody buddies. It obviously never occurred to Walden that his original premise would require original characters – rather, he has dredged up the stock high-school cohort (the American cheerleader, the fat German kid and the nerd with inch-thick glasses, to name but a few.)

The plot is not quite as unimpressive as the characters, but it is still predictable, clichéd and disjointed. It almost feels as though Walden, having come up with the idea of a school for villains, suddenly remembered that he needed a story to go with it, and scribbled down the most obvious thing that popped into his head. Indeed, for a book that relies so heavily on its premise, it handles that premise quite poorly. The entire idea is clearly absurd and should therefore be presented with a great deal more wit and humour than Walden can muster. For the first 70 pages, he treats it with such seriousness that it just comes off looking like failed realism.

As for 'Richard and Judy' – they are clearly both deluded. The highest level of praise I will grant this novel is that it is bearable. (Just.) My advice: read something else. This book is not worth your time. show less

This book was everything I wanted and more. Do you ever find yourself rooting for the villain? I know I sure do. I didn't even have to read a synopsis, by title alone I knew H.I.V.E. was my sort of book. I love reading about the Mafia and gangsters. I love bad boys.
But of course, being me I tore through the book in several hours, hungry for more. I was surprised to read that this is a debut novel. The plot, characters, setting and world building we're all done remarkably well. I can't think of a single bad bad thing to say about this book . Mark Walden is now on my list of authors to pay attention to.

I read this book because Kristin and I had some questions about whether it was better in Youth or Teen. I think it needs to be in youth – there is really nothing teen about it. Otto wakes up on an airplane in the middle of nowhere, strapped in with another boy who also can’t remember how they got there. When they land, they are at H.I.V.E., sort of the antidote to Hogwarts. Here, teens learn how to become villains and learn how necessary those villains are in real life. It is a fast-paced adventure as Otto and his friend and roommate Wing decide to escape from H.I.V.E., but it is also quite obviously the first in a series. It describes the setting and get s the kids settled at school for more than 100 pages of the 300 page book. show more This will be very appealing to readers of Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider – there are cool gadgets, a weird place (within a fake volcano) and smart, clever kids. The other nice thing about this book is that even though the author is British, there is very little to betray his Britishness – the language is fairly universal. show less

I read this because it was a "Reader's Also Like" for Anthony Horowitz's excellent Alex Rider series. While perhaps written for the same audience, I found it lacking. The premise of kids being snatched to be taught how to become master criminals was decent and the previous accomplishments of the students was probably the highlight of the book; however, now at the school, they seem to become incompetent bumblers despite their prodigious skills -- constantly out-maneuvered by their foes. Otto, Wing, Laura and Shelby decide they need to escape from the school's remote island location and regain their freedom.

I had to laugh though, reading the following description of a teacher's hairstyle "that would require an architect, not a show more hairdresser. It was a monument to hairspray: vast, immobile, indestructible." The teachers were also above average (a la Harry Potter), including a cat. 2.5 stars. show less

I expected a lot more action and adventure from this book written with a male protagonist, Otto. The first two thirds of the book is a little slow, explaining how and why each character has been brought to the island headquarters of H.I.V.E., The Higher Institute of Villainous Education.
The main character, Otto and his friends spend most of the book trying to figure out what made those in charge believe that they would each make good villains. After that, all of the main characters focus their energies on an attempt to escape the island, even though most of them have little to go home for. The real action begins when the teachers and the students of the institute find a common foe that they must learn to fight together.
The characters show more seem underdeveloped in this story as do their relationships, but that could be because there are several sequels to this book that offer future opportunities for character development. Overall, this book wasn't bad, but I expected more. show less

Likable and entertaining story about how the bad guys become even worse!!

I found it an interesting twist of the boarding school set-up (that I personally like very much) and the only fault I can assign to the book is maybe the fact that is very introductory. While there's a plot I felt that the main focus was on the introduction of the characters and the organization of the school. I guess it's not so strange for the first book in a series but in this case, maybe because the book in se is on the short side, I think it was more evident than elsewhere the marginal role of the story's plot.

An over-the-top book about villian school training the evilest of evil children. I guess if the idea is to end up with less terrible evil people running the world, there are worse things I could think of. The book itself does remind one of Harry Potter, but promises secrets yet to be revealed and plots yet to be uncovered. Copying from the best does leave a lot of room to be quite enjoyable. I do look forward to reading more someday.