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Masterminds

Masterminds
By Gordon Korman
Blazer + Bray, 2015. Fiction.

Eli lives in Serenity, New Mexico. A town that continuously wins awards for being the best town to live in, and why would it not--it is perfect. There is no crime, every house has a pool, and no one lies. Well, Eli thought no one lied until one day after he and his friend Randy venture out to the town limits to go exploring and Eli’s world comes crashing down. He discovers things are not quite as they seem and that he is among the ten “special” kids that the community is keeping a close eye on. What makes them special? Why are they living out in the middle of nowhere? And why has he been taught that the Boston Tea Party was a meeting in Boston where a bunch of men came together to have tea to calmly discuss things, when it was really, as he discovers when his computer glitches during an electrical storm, a violent beginning of a revolution?

First book in a thrilling series by Korman, with a new twist on the dystopian genre. Told in multiple viewpoints, it brings the individual characters’ personalities and struggles to light as they realize that the world they grew up in might not be so perfect after all.

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