06 April 2018

Supergifted by Gordon Korman, 2018

Click to view
on Goodreads 
Donovan Curtis has never been what anyone would call “gifted.” But his genius friend Noah Youkilis is actually supergifted, with one of the highest IQs around. After years at the Academy for Scholastic Distinction, all Noah dreams of is the opportunity to fail if he wants to. And he’s landed in the perfect place to do it—Donovan’s school.

Almost immediately, Noah finds himself on the wrong side of cheerleading captain Megan Mercury and alpha jock Hash “Hashtag” Taggart. Sticking up for Noah lands Donovan in the middle of a huge feud with Hashtag. He’s told to stay away from the sports star—or else.

That should be the end of it, but when a freak incident suddenly makes Donovan a hero, he can’t tell anyone about it since Hashtag is involved. So Noah steps in and becomes “Superkid.” Now he’s gone from nerd to titan at school. And it may have gone more than a little bit to his head.

(304 pages)

Anyone who has followed this blog for long knows that I am a huge fan of Gordon Korman's. I have read most of his backlog, and I make a point of reading every one of his new books as they come out. Ungifted, the prequel to Supergifted, is one of my absolute favorites of his books.  I'm not just saying that, either: I have literally given it to my friends as birthday presents more than once, because it's a funny and engaging read that I knew they would enjoy.

That being said, I obviously came into Supergifted with a lot of enthusiasm and very high expectations.

And it largely did deliver. I have to say that it doesn't quite reach the same level of awesomeness as Ungifted–it's a little less wackily original, and it sidelines a couple of my favorite characters–but it's still a fun read in its own right. Perhaps most importantly, it feels like a genuine continuation of the first book. I always hate when the tone changes from book to book, or when characters act completely different in later books. But Donovan's and Noah's stupid decisions ring completely true and realistic within the context of Ungifted, so I took them in stride and laughed at their ridiculousness rather than being bothered by them.

As I said, I didn't enjoy the book quite as much. I found myself getting rather annoyed by the characters at certain times,  and their dynamics were kind of strange. The storyline with how underappreciated Donovan is at home, and his strained relationship with his brother-in-law, was probably my least favorite. I also didn't appreciate that Rachel was sidelined and basically replaced with Megan.

All in all, I enjoyed reading Supergifted and I'm glad I had the chance to read it.  If you have the opportunity, and you read and enjoyed Ungifted, then I recommend that you check out Supergifted.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Join the conversation!