Karl Petrofsky has spent his years in school trying to hide the As on his papers. He sees himself more as a shy maverick than a geek. When the smoothest guy in high school asks him to aid and abet a ring of hightech cheaters, Karl flatly refuses. But then the tyrannical assistant principal makes an example of a hapless student—and threatens anyone caught cheating with expulsion and an indelible stain on their permanent records. This means war! With a droll narrator and a delightfully intricate plot, this satire of school pressures and modern-day ethics will provide welcome laughs between exams.
When a student’s life is laid waste by an evil school vice-principal with a McCarthy-like penchant for hunting down cheaters, geek genius extraordinaire Karl Petrofsky steps up to the plate and conspires to aid and abet a band of Robin Hood–like rogue cheaters in his high school. Cue the wiretaps, radio signals, iPods, hidden microphones and James Bond soundtrack. Make no mistake, though, this is not another tiresome title about the stress and angst of testing. Laser’s wry, snarky narrator keeps the chuckles coming with an offstage drum roll–like pacing, and his slick action sequences fly like a spy novel, complete with enough cool gadgets and gizmos to keep Alex Rider entertained for weeks. The characters are offbeat, well-drawn and simultaneously slimy and lovable. The message isn’t all yuks, however, especially when Laser uncovers an ugly political underbelly beneath the city’s education system. The lines between right and wrong become skewed as Karl begins to question authority and his future, and what results is a full-on Animal Farm style attack on No Child Left Behind, where readers find themselves illicitly cheering for the underdogs.—Kirkus Reviews
Karl is a brainy nerd, and so no one is more surprised than he when the cool kids suddenly take notice of him and start chatting him up. Of course, it's because they want him to share his test answers with them, using some high-tech devices. Flustered by the attentions of a pretty girl, Karl agrees, though he promptly regrets his decision. Not only do his old friends, including Lizette, the girl he's always liked, now disdain him, but the conniving assistant principal catches him and attempts to blackmail him.
In addition, a determined student reporter is trying to get Karl to expose the cheaters, while a would-be politician wants Karl to help others cheat in order to raise SAT scores and therefore home values in their community. Karl must find away to expose both the cheaters and the nasty adults without being forced to snitch on friends or sacrifice himself.
In this rather sardonic look at high school pressures, the focus is mainly on Karl's dilemma, but the novel does raise the intriguing topic of who cheats and why. Some of the characters are a bit cartoonish and the plot is a little convoluted, but the story is played for laughs and along the way touches on some ethical issues that all students might want to consider.—KLIATT
