Criminal Destiny

November 1, 2015
After discovering that their home of Serenity, New Mexico, is really a giant science experiment to test the effects of nurturing on clones of master criminals (Masterminds, 2015), four teens escape and head out into the world in search of revenge and freedom. But the scientists behind Project Osiris have no intention of allowing their test subjects to walk away. Malik, Eli, Tori, and Amber will need to draw upon all their criminal-mastermind DNA if they are to succeed in exposing their captors and saving the other clones. Eli and Tori are torn between enjoying their mastermind skills and battling their fears over who they may become. Malik is pure bravado, focused on living life to its fullest, even if that means breaking some laws to do so. However, Amber, with her poor impulse control, manic tendencies, and violent outbursts, is the source of most of their problems. What worked well in the series opener fizzles in this sequel. The rotating point of view is needlessly confusing and highlights uneven characterization. All the kids' plans and wandering leaves them with new enemies and in worse shape than before. Rather than continuing the first volume's excitement, this second installment reads more like an extended preamble for the next book. Oddly paced with little payoff, this sequel falls victim to middle-volume slump. (Adventure. 8-12)

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January 1, 2016
Grades 5-8 After discovering the truth about their parentage in Masterminds (2014)they've been cloned from criminal masterminds as part of a twisted experimentEli, Malik, Tori, and Amber are on the run and desperately lost. In their manufactured hometown of Serenity, New Mexico, they were carefully shielded from reality, but without any understanding of how the world actually works, they can only rely on their wits to get by. Desperate times call for desperate measures, however, and since they're imbued with the street smarts and problem-solving skills of their criminal parents, figuring out how to break into buildings and manipulate dimwitted adults is disturbingly simple. Though occasionally the kids' alternating first-person narratives sound too similar, Korman's cinematic adventure is packed with enough thrilling action and suspense to keep the pages turning. Additionally, he weaves in thoughtful questions. Does using their inborn abilities make the kids any better than their imprisoned progenitors? And at what point do desperate measures turn into crime? A late-breaking twist ensures another installment on the horizon in this highly entertaining series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
In this exciting sequel to Masterminds, Eli and his three friends--who have learned that they are cloned from evil criminals in a morally abject nature-vs.-nurture experiment--are on the run. Narrated in rotating chapters by each character, the friends' daring escape from Project Osiris is filled with challenges; a cliffhanger ending leaves their fate still to be decided.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)