Teen Geniuses #2

Genius: The Con by Leopoldo Gout

Publication Date: August 1, 2017

Summary from NetGalley:

Three teen geniuses from diverse backgrounds must work together to stop a vicious warlord, protect their families, and save the world in this fast-paced sequel to Genius: The Game.

ON THE RUN!

Tunde: This fourteen-year-old self-taught engineering genius from Nigeria is in a race against time to save his village from a ruthless warlord.

Painted Wolf: This mysterious sixteen-year-old activist blogger and strategist from China is searching for a way to rescue her father from the corruption he’s inadvertently been caught up in.

Rex: This sixteen-year-old Mexican-American has proven himself to be one of the best programmers in the world, only to be falsely accused of stealing billions of government secrets for the terrorist hacking group Terminal.

Pursued by the police, the FBI, and most dangerous of all, Kiran Biswas, visionary CEO and evil mastermind, three teen geniuses have to move fast and stay low as they race to find a missing brother, stop a vicious warlord, and save the world in Genius: The Con by Leopoldo Gout.

Confession:

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Because this was an ARC there were not any of the graphics and drawings like in the first book and I really missed them.  It was one of the things that I really enjoyed about the first book.  I also kept thinking that there was a hidden message in them but I was never able to discover what it might be,  but it was fun looking.  It does say that the final book will have the drawings, which is good because it really enhances the story.

Even though I liked this story,  I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first one.  At first I kept thinking it was the characters or the lack of drawings, but I finally decided that it was the plot.  It just didn’t feel as realistic as the first book, not that that one was realistic towards the end.  I just had a harder time believing that these three kids could pull off what they did and no one was suspicious at all.  But I guess that is what makes a good thriller, and you want to believe that they can do anything.  

All of the same characters are back in this sequel and continue to amaze me in their ability to outsmart the adults around them.  We see more of the General, the warlord that is taking over Tunde’s village and more of Kiran Biswas, who does turn out not to be such a nice guy after all.  There is a lot more traveling in this book, as the characters spend time between Africa and India.  I enjoyed some of the culture in Africa, especially the story that is told to Tunde that helps him figure out the machine he is building at the time.

There are some new characters in this book.  Even though we met Cai’s parents in the first book, we see more of her father in this one.  He is a man in way over his head, but is trying to put things right. It was nice to see them interact with him as well. We also meet Naya, the General’s daughter. She is an interesting character, who was just sort of annoyingly in the background through out most of the book, but towards the end she becomes important and I’m not sure whether or not she will be helpful or more harmful to our heroes as they try to bring down Kiran. 

Even though I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book in the series it is still a thrilling page turner and a solid second book in the trilogy.  It is probably one I will reread before the third one comes out, just so I can see it with the drawings and diagrams.