Masterminds was a good book overall. It had action/adventure and mystery to the book, which I really like. The story takes place in a peaceful town in New Mexico called Serenity. There is no criminal activity in Serenity-it is always peaceful. One day Eli and his friend Randy go out bike riding past the Serenity border-line and Eli gets pretty sick, but Randy doesn't. This leads to Randy's department, him leaving Serenity. Randy leaves a note behind saying something screwy was happening in Seren...

Eli Frieden and his friends in Serenity, New Mexico are living the happy, pampered life, that on the surface of things, seems ideal. Yet, they never leave, not even for a day trip, vacation, or school field trip. Something keeps them within the confines of this isolated community....why would anyone want to leave, their parents tell them, everything we would want or need is here. Yet, one day, as Eli and his best friend try to go beyond the city limits, something strange and foreboding happens.

I think that the book was outstanding it was intriguing and unpredictable. Gordon Korman was very good at explaining what was happening where it was taking place and how it affected everyone else in the story. The balance of action and suspense was also incredible. This book was an easy 5 stars for me.

Loved this book. I would have loved this as a kid, and I loved it as an adult. Mystery, suspense, adventure, hi-jinks, twists and turns. Korman has written a book with a Dan Brown-feel to it. It's smart and thoroughly enjoyable. Do you need to suspend belief? A bit but the fun of the book outweighs the disbelief. This goes on my summer recommendation list for students for sure!

So, so good! Edelweiss has a digital ARC. review to come, but thought it was brilliant! Korman rocks!

YAY! It's conspiracy fiction for kids and sooooo much fun. I don't want to say too much but I giggled out loud in glee when I got to the key aspect of the conspiracy. Kids are going to love this. I'm ready for the sequel right now!

Awesome! it was one of my favorite books. Its definitely worth to buy. If your into books that give suspense, this is your kind of book to read. eli frieden lives in a town called serenity, but he has never gone past the town limits. So when eli and his friends go to the edge, they find a big secret about there town. So eli and his friends try to make it out.

This is a totally riveting page-turner of a conspiracy thriller for kids, in which several young teens living in an isolated, seemingly idyllic community find out that they have a shocking link to some notorious criminal masterminds. I was halfway through this book when I decided I must get hold of the two sequels immediately.

This was a strange book. It left me feeling kind of annoyed and angry because the ending felt like a beginning. I'm giving it 2 stars because after writing this review, I realize that the author actually did do a good job of getting me interested in the characters, but I didn't really like the way it was written, the plot holes, or the time it took to get to any action. It took about 2/3 of the book to lead up to anything super exciting. I usually like going into books not knowing what to expect...

Ever lived in a idyllic community, these kids have. Only, the community is not so perfect? This book is an action packed mystery book. This is a very good book that has you anxious about what is going to happen next on every page. This book takes place in an idyllic community, meaning peaceful and happy, called Serenity. This is a very small town with a population barely over a hundred. Everybody that lives there have a swimming pool and a basketball hoop. All the adults have a job and nobody is...

This book is not what it seems... in the beginning, you think you know what the story is going to be and you say, "Huh, interesting," but by the end, you're saying, "I want to read MORE." Get ready for some unexpected twists and turns. This book was fun to read, and I can't wait to get the next one. I would recommend this to any long-time Gordon Korman readers, fans sci-fi - realistic fiction, and anyone who wants to sit down and read some good adventure.

I really liked this book that posed an interesting question and experiment. I don't want to spoil the plot, so I'll just say that it made be curious to find out what is going to happen to these kids. I can't wait for book 2!

The cover really got me interested in listening to this audiobook and so did the blurb. It was such a fun story and I felt more excited to find out what was going to happened next, than i probably should. I hope I can get to the next book soon enough instead of it going into "loved the first one but forgot to read the others" gigantic pile that are ever growing

THE AUDIOBOOK-WOWOWOWOWOWOW~~~~~~~~~~~~~It’s so good as alwaysUPDATE: my friend told me she read it and she loved it (mission accomplished)

That was rly good. Cant wait 2 read the next one

*Light spoilers below. Heavy spoilers are hidden in spoiler tags. Read at your own discretion!*Well, this was disappointing. Too slow. Much too slow! Maybe I'd be able to forgive that if the characters were likeable, but they weren't. The only good, interesting and likeable character, Randy, was gone within about 4 chapters of the book. And the 2 seconds which he appeared in at the end was the only thing that made me smile in the last 40% of the book. He had more charisma in his only sentence in...

Normally I simply read the first book of these middle grade adventure/mystery series so I can recommend them to students...but this one was so good that I'm probably going to have to add the next book to my giant TBR list. The pacing of this was perfect, and I found myself easily lost in the story. The multiple-narrator format is well-done and the characters are easily distinguishable from one another. And the reason the kids are being kept in their town? SO original and intriguing. I knew that

As usual, Gordon Korman delivers a fast-paced, well-crafted adventure full of creative twists and surprises. Eli lives in Serenity, New Mexico, which is so perfect it seems too good to be true. Everybody has a nice house. The schools are great. There is zero crime and zero unemployment. Eli has never left his hometown, but one day he discovers something that shakes his world. Serenity is not what it seems. He and his friends can’t trust anyone – not their neighbors, definitely not their parents....

This is one of those books that most people liked and I couldn't remember the title two days after I had read it. When that happens I sort of wonder if I was having a bad-book-reading day or jet-lag brain. I had been on a plane traveling for 20 hours so maybe the neurons were short-circuiting? Whatever the reason I found it hard to get into the beginning with all the multiple points of view, was reminded of Haddix's "Running Out of Time," in the middle and figured out quite a bit of the plot, an...

There's something screwy in Serenity, New Mexico.Everything should be perfect. In fact, it is. There's no crime, no poverty, nothing bad to speak of at all in this small town.But five kids will learn a devastating secret that will change their lives forever in this fast-paced, exhilarating first book in a new trilogy.Offering various points of views, the picture is completed piece by piece. Boys and girls will find something to enjoy in this adventure story.It'll be criminal to miss out on such