Book Brief – H.I.V.E. by Mark Walden

Series: H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education, Book #1

H.I.V.E Book #1 was an exhilarating tale of highly intelligent and talented teens kidnapped to join a school for potential criminal masterminds.

H.I.V.E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a top-secret school of applied villainy where children with a precocious gift for wrongdoing are sent to develop their talents into criminal mastermind. After all, ‘villains have the best lines and wear the best costumes’. One small catch is that the children cannot leave until training is complete, six years later. With villainy comes a certain freedom of thought, and every year one student in particular will show exceptional talent – after all, it takes the best to produce the worst. This year there are two students: Otto Malpense and his new friend Wing Fanchu are both exceptionally bad, and they are definitely not keen on being held against their will for six long year Goodreads blurb

Nothing I say will come close to describing how good a read this was. It’s everything you want in a YA book, great subject matter, good portrayal of different types of characters, convincing backstories, effortless delivery.

What has sold this to me is how likeable the young people are, the friendship which binds them and trying to get to the bottom of the overarching plot, what is H.I.V.E and G.L.O.V.E really about.

There is also the mystery of their parentage and/or living up to a parental or family image.

Just excellent all-round.

I realise that I am late to the party but will be recommending to the Kids as a next read.

When I turned the page and found that the story had ended without an epilogue, I was momentarily saddened, which was immediately alleviated by trying out the quiz to see which stream I was in.

I will leave you to guess if I’m Alpha, Henchman, Technical, or Political Financial, I’m off to see about obtaining the next book in the series

4 stars – really liked It