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Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout

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Brief synopsis (no spoilers): From Goodreads

The Game: Get ready for Zero Hour as 200 geniuses from around the world go head to head in a competition hand-devised by India's youngest CEO and visionary.

The Players:
Rex- One of the best programmers/hackers in the world, this 16-year-old Mexican-American is determined to find his missing brother.
Tunde- This 14-year-old self-taught engineering genius has drawn the attention of a ruthless military warlord by single-handedly bringing electricity and internet to his small Nigerian village.
Painted Wolf- One of China's most respected activist bloggers, this mysterious 16-year-old is being pulled into the spotlight by her father's new deal with a corrupt Chinese official.

The Stakes: Are higher than you can imagine. Like life and death. Welcome to the revolution. And get ready to run

Category: YA, technology thriller

Why I chose this book: Honestly, the cover. 

My personal opinion (the review): I wanted to like this book. It had a lot going for it, but ultimately it fell flat. Each of the kids had their own agenda and "The Game" was used really only as a device to get three kids from different continents together. In my opinion it would have been better either to have the kids stay where they were and help each other online or to have them come to "the game" and actually focus on the game. Some parts of "the game" had really neat elements to it, but again that was not the focus. The book had quite a few illustrations and designs on the pages - generally speaking these did not add much to the story. Maybe half a dozen of them were helpful to see the device a character was constructing and the butterfly from "the game" was cool, but otherwise it was just messy. Overall, I might give a second book a try (if there is even going to be one) just to find out what happens, the ending is super ambiguous, but overall I'd say it's not worth the reading time.  

Warnings
Language: No
Violence: Threatened, but none happens during the book
"Adult" situations: It's been a while since I read it, but there may have been one teenage kissing scene, but it lead no where. 
Death: One assumed death happens before the story begins and some is threatened, bu none none happens during the book

Movie rating equivalent: Strong PG-13 

Protagonist description: Rex and Painted Wolf were very "teenager-y" with chips on their shoulders. Tunde was very simplistic. Overall I wish there had been better character development. 


Point of view of story: Switches between the three main characters. It lists who is narrating at the beginning of the chapter, but it does get confusing a few times to switch back and forth. 

Book length: Medium

Story flow: Choppy with three different narrators and there were a few parts that dragged, especially when I realized the book wasn't going in the direction I thought it would.

Grammar and spelling issues: A few weird names

Character connection (no spoilers): I'd like to know more about Rex's missing brother

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