Deviant

Adrian McKinty

“Good, OK, well, now that I’ve checked out the scene and alienated you forever, I have to go back.  This is an unofficial scouting mission on your family, unsanctioned by the rest of the street, but I must deliver my report before church.”

“What are you going to tell them?” Danny asked.

“What else?  The truth.  You’re into heavy metal, devil worship, and you have dug a portal to hell right here in the living room.”

Danny smiled.  “Don’t forget the human sacrifices.”

“Human sacrifices, check.”

Danny Lopez and his mom Juanita and step-dad Walt live in Las Vegas where his mom works at a Casino for Mr. Glynn.  They move to Colorado because Glynn is opening a new casino and wants Danny’s mom to manage it.  Danny is therefore enrolled in Cobalt Junior High where they use the system of Direct Instruction.  Direct Instruction is where the teachers and students read from a script.  They do not permit talking aka triangulation at this school and the students have to wear white gloves all the time.  This is where Danny meets Mr. Lebkuchen, the principle of the school.  The students he meets there are Charlie, Tom, Olivia, Cooper, Hector and Todd.  They are member of various secret groups within the school.  

Before Danny arrived in Cobalt, there was a “cat killing.”  There were more after he arrived and he and a neighbor and fellow student, Antonia aka Tony try to figure out who the cat killer is.   They enlist the help of one of the chain-gang at Walt’s work named Bob Randall, who is an expert in crimes.  Bob is in prison for check writing and is expected to be released on parole in the coming months.  Bob explains to them what they need to figure out in order to find out who the cat killer is.  This story tells of the process they go through to identify the killer.

Finally Cooper said, “So last night I was on Gears and I was just drifting, chatting, killing people, getting experience—“

Tom began coughing and gasping for air.

“What’s happening to you?” Cooper asked with no concern whatsoever.

“I’m feigning an asthma attack,” Tom said.

“Why?”

“So you won’t tell me any more of your Gears of War story.”

Goodreads synopsis:

Danny Lopez is new in town. He made a mistake back home in Las Vegas, and now he has landed at an experimental school in Colorado for “tough cases.” At the Cobalt Charter School, everything is scripted—what the teachers say, what the students reply—and no other speaking is allowed. This supercontrolled environment gives kids a second chance to make something of themselves. But with few freedoms, the students become sitting ducks for a killer determined to “clean up” Colorado Springs

No, bears did not wear sneakers.

I like the way the characters develop in this book.  There are so many to keep track of and it is easy to associate them with the secret groups that they are members of.  It was hard for me to put this book down once I got into the plot and they were actively trying to figure out who the cat killer was.   A good read.

Miss Benson read.  The kids read.  No one seemed engaged.  It was like a school play.  A bad, boring school play.