Customer Reviews
Courtesy of Teens Read Too 
2008-05-22
Cadel, the scrawny, nerdy boy from EVIL GENIUS, is back in GENIUS SQUAD, a bit more grown up, a lot more responsible, and trapped in a foster home with a bully and without a computer.
He's miserable as he tries to bide his time until the slow-moving authorities can find out who he is and where he belongs. It is as he is waiting that the Genius Squad approaches him.
Devoted to bringing down one of Dr. Darkkon's operations, GenoME, the Genius Squad wants Cadel to help them. But Cadel is naturally suspicious and paranoid.
Can he really trust the Genius Squad, or is his hesitance to trust them warranted?
This book has even more action and quick thinking than the first! Each page builds up suspense that culminates into a surprise scenario that will leave you scrambling to catch up. Though it contains more computer and hacking references than its prequel, that doesn't deduct from its appeal.
This is one series that is sure to entrance even the most reluctant reader, especially with an ending that is wide open to accommodate another sequel, THE GENIUS WARS.
Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader
The Compulsive Reader's Reviews 2008-05-20
Cadel Piggott is back...only he doesn't know who he is. His adoptive parents were really just secret agents who were pretending to be his parents, and with Dr. Darkkon now dead and English Prosper refusing to acknowledge him, Cadel is being jumbled into the system, stuck in a dismal foster home. Though his social worker and detective mean well, they're overbearing and can't seem to understand his need for a computer of his own.
So when he is approached by the Genius Squad on the sly, offering both him and his only friend Sonja an opportunity to take down GenoME, one of Darkkon's ironclad projects, he leaps at the chance...even though the group may not be as secure as he'd like if Prosper were to escape.
Just as harrowing and blazing fast as its prequel, Genius Squad is a winner. You'll have to pay rapt attention as the story unfolds in order to not miss a single detail. Full of computer jargon, wonderfully clever tricks, and sometimes confusing numerous subplots, this is one adventure that is packed full of action from beginning to end. Cadel's character is a bit more grown up, and his actions and feelings reflect his new maturity, which will especially appeal to the older teen. Jinks's Genius series is the Ocean's 11 for teens--and that's high praise!
Action-packed and exciting 2008-07-24
Cadel Piggott returns in this action-filled sequel to EVIL GENIUS, but he's not the same teen. The Cadel readers knew in the first book loved to create havoc just for the fun of it. However, after his life-threatening experiences at the Axis Institute with his father, Prosper English, he just wants to be a good person --- and even happy. He is helped in this change of conscience by his best friend, the paraplegic math genius, Sonja. In GENIUS SQUAD, other allies help fight Prosper and his evil, but he also finds more layers of enemies and surprises.
Cadel has an earnest social worker named Fiona who tries to protect him in a new foster home. He can go nowhere without police protection, though, as authorities are aware that Prosper once tried to kill him. He is now a key witness to the evils that went on at the Axis Institute and to Prosper's many illegal activities. Prosper is behind bars, though Cadel knows that barrier is nothing to another genius like himself and has seen the lengths to which Prosper will go. But he still feels that he's safe; after all, Prosper did not kill him when he had the chance before.
Prosper is always good at making trouble, and he is now denying that he's Cadel's father. This means that Cadel has no father on record, and with a dead mother, no citizenship in any country. So he cannot leave Australia, though the country will not recognize him. He is not allowed to take classes of any kind and is desperately bored. The foster home is run by well-meaning parents, but they are also the caretakers for a couple of other children, including the bully Mace. While Cadel tries hard to stay on the path of good, Mace pushes his buttons too far, and he develops a strategy to hurt him while still looking innocent. Mace promises revenge.
In the meantime, the very smart and stubborn Detective Saul Greeniaus has been assigned to Cadel's case and stops by frequently to give him updates on Prosper's situation and how it may affect him. When visiting Sonja one day, Cadel is approached by some adults who run the new Clearview House, a cover for Genius Squad, a group of gifted teens who will work to bring down GenonMe, a company linked to the deceased P. Drakkon and his minions, which included Prosper. They offer Sonja and Cadel $50,000 each and a home while they work on the computer hacking and coding with the other teens to find out what happens at GenonMe and who is behind it. The money and offer of living with Sonja are too good to pass up; the cash would buy Sonja good care well into the future. The problem is that they cannot tell Fiona or the detective. So Cadel begins a secret life again, but this time he seems to be working for good.
As the team works to bring down GenonMe, Prosper gets more active, even from prison. Cadel has to stay on his guard and trust his new allies to keep himself and Sonja safe.
GENIUS SQUAD is even more fun than EVIL GENIUS as Cadel Piggott is more likable when he is working for good. His new allies and friends add another layer of good guys to root for as well. The evil of Prosper English knows no bounds, even with the Axis Institute demolished. Without that school, it is harder to identify his helpers, despite clues throughout the book. The spy games and suspense are complicated at times, but the surprises will inspire readers to keep turning pages right until the end, when the next installment in the series is unveiled.
--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio
Waited for the sequel 2008-07-08
The first book in the series was pretty good.
I would recommend it to people who like crime,technology.
I ordered this book and it arrived on time
Not as good as the first 
2008-06-17
On the plus side, author Catherine Jinks' writing is still compulsively readable, and she has picked up more computer jargon since the first book, so the "computer genius" side of protagonist Cadel Piggott is more believable. On the minus side, we never do fully understand what GenoME is doing that is problematic, and given that most of Cadel's activity in the book is devoted to bringing GenoME down, this reader at least never "got" the hook. Moreover the presumption at the heart of the book -- that a group house of computer geniuses brought together to hack into an evil empire could easily be disguised as an assisted living facility for delinquents and fool the police, the CIA and the NSA, among others -- seems, shall we say, a bit implausible. Notwithstanding all of this, the book is still a lot of fun and will appeal to all Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider fans out there.
Stop reading and go outside! 2008-06-11
this is the second book in this series that my 14 year old read. He devoured it only problem was that I had to keep telling him to stop reading and get some exercise.
Not as Good as Evil Genius! 
2008-05-28
Just as thick and heavy on the word count as Evil Genius this sequel to that great book although starting off well does not keep up the high quality for the duration of the novel. Although the pages are quite eventful for Cadel Piggott, he doesn't have the impact on the rest of the world which he did in the first book either.
This adventure starts of with Cadel who has now decided to use his genius for good (especially towards his only friend Sonja, a very intelligent but very physically disabled girl) and move on with his life. Only problem though is the police won't let him, with Prosper English in Jail and not about to claim him as his son gives Cadel no identity, he can't be proven to be Australian, American or any other nationality, so can't enroll in university to give himself anything worthwhile to apply his brain to (he already finished the equivalent of high school in his younger days). Still a minor he is forced to live in a foster home with a range of social rejects whose problems seem to take precedence over any he has. Also in residence is a bully called Mace who urinates in Cadel's bed and physically torments him on a daily basis. The old Cadel would just do away with Mace but the new Cadel knows this to be wrong. There is also a new police officer assigned to lead his protection named Saul Greeniaus who seems a lot more intelligent than anyone Cadel has had to deal with before. Unlike the other officers assigned to keep him safe, Saul seems to actually want to be involved.
When an opportunity at a better care home opens up for his friend Sonja who is miserable where she is, with the only catch being Cadel must come live there as well and join a secret group within the home called The Genius Squad, Cadel has a decision t make. Genius Squad is determined to hack into a corporation called GenoME (which can map a person's DNA) and bring it to its knees. Cadel knows this isn't exactly the right thing to do but his determination to ensure that Sonja's future is secure and escape the place he now lives outweighs the negatives in his mind. The only problems are keeping the Genius Squad hidden from Saul Greeniaus and his social worker, oh and keeping himself hidden from Prosper English, the criminal mastermind he played a hand putting behind bars who is also probably his father.
This adventure seems to be a bit more about quickly cashing in on the eventual breaking through to the American market of the long time published elsewhere Evil Genius, and hoping these novels will become the next Harry Potter like phenomenon rather than putting in the effort and writing a good quality book.
Another great book by this author is Witch Bank, check it out!
