Mad Skills by Walter Greatshell reminded me a bit of Flowers for Algernon in the beginning, lots of differences but the overall science of it was similar. But ending was totally different and I was so glad! It didn't get you emotionally wrapped up in the character like Flowers did, or at least to me but enough I still felt for the girl. I don't think I would want to cry like I did in Flowers! This book had good interaction and showed how she was becoming more and more. Pretty good. ( )

A very fast read and I liked how Walter Greatshell dealt with the heroine's perceptions of modern society before and after her brain surgery. ( )

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

While this is far from a badly written book, I think that maybe Walter Greatshell's Mad Skills is perhaps a victim of mistaken categorization; because now that I've finished it, I find it hard to describe in any other way than as a Young Adult action-adventure version of Daniel Keyes' classic Flowers for Algernon, although it was promoted to me by the publishing company as a grown-up book for grown-up audiences. And so as an adult book, this simplistic novel leaves a lot to be desired, a sort of clunky tale of a brain-damaged girl turned into a supergenius through an experimental procedure after a bad accident, who comes to realize that it is merely a byproduct of a secret governmental/corporate plan to mentally control a docile population through innovative brain implants, with both a plotline and dialogue that feel much more often like they're plodding along instead of sailing or soaring; but if you instead assume that this was meant for teenage readers, nearly all of these things can be excused, with the manuscript suddenly much more on par with something like Scott Westerfield's hugely admired "Uglies" series. I've got another title from Greatshell in the pike as we speak, ready to be reviewed here later this year, and I'll be interested in seeing whether that one appeals more to adult readers, or whether Greatshell simply writes in a style more appropriate for a teen audience.

Out of 10: 7.2, or 8.2 for Young Adult fans ( )