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Kaethe

Kaethe

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Evil Genius - Catherine Jinks Such an odd book, but once I got started, I hated to put it down. I think I was expecting something more satirical, a little comic book over-the-topness. But there's none of that. Jinks plays it absolutely straight: Cadel is a genius, and, it turns out, the son of an evil genius. That's the straightforward bit at the beginning. It just gets darker and more twisted from there. Although Cadel is young, I wouldn't recommend this for middle graders in general. There's way to much mucking-other-people-about, lots of heavy-duty and truly skillful manipulation of folks.Genius is a popular subject for writers. Most of the don't do it well. Either the character comes across as no brighter than average (Robert Langdon, ugh) or as having uncanny powers of precognition that enable them to consider every possible variable and create an elaborate plot which unfolds perfectly, and therefor is totally unbelievable. But Cadel comes across as believably genius, interested in things that the average reader won't understand. Oddly, for a book that is so realistic, the book it most reminds me of is The Knife of Never Letting Go. I think fans of the one might like the other. Well, I did, anyway.