Evil Genius
posted in fantasy, young adult, book review |
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.
