Jax Opus has a gift, having been born into one of the most powerful hypnotist families in the world. The only problem is Jax doesn't know it. That is until Dr. Mako arrives and invites Jax to be a part of The Sentia Institute, a place where all the best hypnotists learn and where great things are expected of Jax. However, the world of hypnotism is full of rivalries and set-backs, good and evil, and Jax may be the only one powerful enough to stop it.
I am neither a hater or a lover of Gordon Korman's books. Some I love, some I could leave. This one, not so excited about. The book began rather slow for me, with far too many examples of Jax hypnotizing people, but never actually figuring it out. In fact, it bothered me a lot that at the age of twelve, Jax had not yet figured out that he was capable of making everyone in his entire life do whatever he wanted, besides his best-friend who is immune.
Worse yet, this book committed one of my least favorite tropes of fiction...making the bad guy very very obvious. There was no twist. Anyone with half a brain could see who the bad guy was and what he was after because Korman didn't bother to disguise it. This would have been okay if the plot had moved faster or if there had been some kind of surprise in the end, but sadly this was not the case. So I pondered through, hoping that it would get more exciting, but perhaps when most of the action of a story only takes place in someones head, it is difficult to make that seem action packed.
I don't mean to make the book sound terrible. It isn't awful. Believe me, I have read much much worse. It really was just, blase.
