I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Leib

Lynnie

young adult, contemporary fiction

 

Oliver is a middle school moron. At least, that's what he leads everyone around him to believe. The truth is, Oliver is the third richest person on earth with a devoted and well-paid staff of minions at his disposal. He just has to make sure that his parents, teachers and the other kids at school continue to believe in his incompetence. When his father waxes poetic about his own history as class president however, Oliver sees it as a challenge and plots to prove that any moron can become class president... even him.

I was looking for an audiobook to listen to while driving around and cooking dinner and I admit that I downloaded this one based solely on the title- I was not disappointed. Josh Lieb's I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President lived up to every bit of the hype its name promised.


I had no expectations going into this book and more than once I laughed out loud at the exploits of Oliver and his minions in Oliver's quest to become a middle school class president. If you do decide to entertain yourself with this novel I can't recommend the audiobook highly enough, because Marc Thompson's voice repertoire is an absolute delight- especially when differentiating between Oliver's public voice and his evil inner monologue!

Initially I thought this book was really geared to middle grades- and in many ways it is. But some of the humor is clearly aimed at adults so I honestly don't know who to recommend this book to- which is one reason why it stays in the 3 1/2 heart range. Will you love it? Probably- if you're up for something silly. Will your kids love it? I honestly have no idea- maybe- if they are OK looking up a few things or just not understanding that they are missing some of the funniest bits. Regardless, you could safely listen to this on a family road trip as long as you're OK with the fact that you and the kids may laugh at entirely different parts of the book.

I was ready to go with 4 stars, but the end was a little cute for my tastes- which is why I veer back toward "maybe it IS a kids' book" territory. Still, I don't know what else I expected to happen and I enjoyed the rest of it, so I can't fault Lieb too much for this bit of sentimentality. If you need a good laugh, this book delivers.