Book Review

Genius Squad

Application
Day 1
Dear Diary,
Today had been a very bad day. To begin with, I woke up at 3 o'clock in the morning by Janan's piercing screams. Because of my interrupted sleep, I was late for breakfast. It did not really matter as I did not have to go to school, but Mace and Janan, my foster brothers, had to attend school. After finishing breakfast, I returned to my room, only to realise that my mattress was wet. Mace had wet my bed, but was forgiven, as most people made allowances for Mace as they explained that he had badly underdeveloped motor skills for a fourteen-year-old. Glumly, I decided to visit Sonja. However, she stayed far away from the Donkin's house. I overstayed and I missed my usual train, which meant that I missed my usual bus, and had to wait for another thirty minutes. When I finally reached the bus stop, I found a computer monitor at the side of the road, and decided to bring it back to the foster home. When I reached the foster home, a detective arrived to question on the other children that had counselling with Thaddeus Roth. After the interview, I went back to the bedroom, but Mace had already emptied half a can of lemonade into the air vents. Sullenly, I returned to my bed to sleep.

Day 2,
Dear Diary,
There was a email from an unfamiliar puzzle site. Taking all the first words of the email to form words, and then doing it once more with the new words formed, I realised that it was from Com, a classmate from the Axis Institute formed by Thaddeus Roth. However, I could not use the computer anymore, and when I tried to find out if it was Com who sent the email by using the computer at night, I was caught and thus went back to bed.

Analysis
I would compare Saul Greeniaus and Prosper English. Saul, whose job is a detective, is tasked to look after Cadel, and soon becomes very devoted to his job, though his character is cool and calm, and he hardly speaks much. At first, he is seen as a intruder and a busybody, with his unfriendly tone and unsmiling personality. When Prosper English escapes from prison, Saul rushes to Clearview house to protect Cadel, and though some measures he takes may be seen as hostile, he has good intentions, which are only seen by Cadel at the ending of the book.
Prosper English, however, who believes that he is Cadel's father, ruthlessly binds Saul up to capture Cadel. When Cadel tries to escape, he resorts to violence and threats against Sonja, who is disabled and cannot talk without her DynaVox, a device that allows her to type, as she has difficulty talking as well. Prosper English, who believes that he is a genius himself, hates Saul Greeniaus for the care that Cadel shows to him, obvious when Cadel anxiously tries to find out what happened to Saul when after they binded him. As his alleged father, Prosper English is jealous of the concern Cadel shows, and thus regards Saul as a dimwitted person, evident as to the way he responds to Saul during the hijacking of the car that helped him escape.

Synthesis
I would change the ending of the book, where Chester Cramp is discovered to be Cadel's father. I think that it would be easier for the story to be written with Prosper English, who escapes, as his father, so that they can develop on the character and not introduce a new character that has not been introduced in the first two books. Besides, they can show the change in Prosper English, and change him into a round character instead by allowing it to have a chance to change his ways. Besides, I do not think that new characters should be introduced as important ones so deep into the novel, as it gives very little time for character development and interaction with Cadel.

Evaluation
I do not like the way the story ended, with Genius Squad disbanded and Dot revealed as Prosper English's accomplice. As mentioned above, I do not think that introducing Chester Cramp into the story so late would be advisable, with the possibility that he may not have enough time to be introduced. Although most of the members of Genius Squad comes back together, I think that they should not have driven Trader, Tony and Cliff from the story, as they have not been given any room for character analysis. Besides, the ending should have ended off with a sighting of Prosper English, or an interesting ending that would provoke the readers to want to read the last book, the genius wars.