Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

Ahh, another wonderful teen/YA novel to sink my teeth into! Evil Genius sort of plodded along for the first 200 pages or so - it was amusing enough, reading about the childhood and school experiences of the quirky Australian genius Cadel Piggott, but then somewhere around page 250 this novel suddenly became un-put-downable. I found myself carrying it everywhere I went so I could sneak in a few pages' worth of reading. Cadel becomes caught up in a very complicated and deadly web of intrigue centering around a school he attends called the Axis Institute, which is supposed to teach him how to be the perfect evil mastermind so he can take over the world and get rid of all the non-genius people. The problem is that Cadel turns out to have a mind of his own (along with his genius IQ). At some point he has to make a decision about just who is friends are what he really believes in - but that's hard to do when you've been brainwashed your whole life by an evil psychologist who claims to have your best interests at heart, and who has taught you one fundamental truth - to never trust anyone.