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    I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
    Unavailable
    I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
    Unavailable
    I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
    Audiobook5 hours

    I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President

    Written by Josh Lieb

    Narrated by Marc Thompson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Josh Lieb's hilarious, New York Times bestselling debut, now in paperback!

    When a provocation from his dad irks twelve-year-old evil genius Oliver Watson, he'll have to put his plans for world domination on hold in order to beat the pants off the competition and win the middle school election.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9781101145739
    Unavailable
    I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President
    Author

    Josh Lieb

    Josh Lieb is an Emmy-winning executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and has worked on such shows as The Simpsons and NewsRadio. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President is his first novel. He lives in New York with his wife and family.

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    Reviews for I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President

    3.5/5

    229 ratings36 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This book just didn't catch me. It tried really hard to be different and funny but I was mostly uninterested.
    • 2/5
      I listened to the audio book version of this, and I gotta say that the narrator, Marc Thompson, did an excellent job. He used an arsenal of voices and had excellent comedic timing and inflection. I much enjoyed the way the story was told. I even laughed out loud at a few parts.

      The book's political agenda, on the other hand, irked me. I knew what I was getting into from the beginning (this being written by Josh Lieb and all) but, still, I was hoping for more subtlety. That joke was on me.
    • 4/5
      Oliver is a genius controlling a huge financial empire, but to hide that fact, he has found it necessary to convince everyone that he is a dim-witted loser. Now in middle school, he has decided to run for class president, and will let nothing stand in his way.
    • 4/5
      Teen fiction; comedy. The executive producer of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart has written a lightning-quick read full of silly gags that should delight people of all ages (unless, of course, you've outgrown that sort of thing). A good recommend for reluctant readers (short paragraphs and short chapters).
    • 4/5
      A good readalike for Artemis Fowl.
    • 3/5
      OK--I'll admit this book had its moments--but they were very few. For the most part, it is a novel made for the "Diary of a Wimpie Kid" generation which means that it is probably OK for that Jr. High boy who is forced to do a "real" book report, but other than that there is very little here that is actually humorous or even worth the time to read. The constant footnotes are irritating, Oliver is irritating, his family is irritating and except for a few of his villians (I actually enjoy some of the Motivator) it is just plain irritating. But then as Oliver keeps pointing out "Kids are dumb" so yes, there will be some kids who enjoy this.
    • 4/5
      This was funny and fun. The footnotes were a riot.Oliver is an evil genius and a rich one. Unfortunately, he is only in the 7th grade so he can't actually run his empire. There is someone that runs the company for him, but Oliver is the one actually calling the shots.In order to hide his secret identity as an evil genius, Oliver pretends to be really dumb. Even his parents think that he is not the brightest kid. This also means that he gets picked on, he doesn't have any friends, and no one knows the real him. When he decides to run for class president everyone is surprised. How can someone with Oliver's reputation win an election even with all of his money?
    • 4/5
      Funny and clever and wholly enjoyable. A quick read.
    • 4/5
      Oliver is a genius controlling a huge financial empire, but to hide that fact, he has found it necessary to convince everyone that he is a dim-witted loser. Now in middle school, he has decided to run for class president, and will let nothing stand in his way.
    • 5/5
      really enjoyed this crazy book.I printed out "A Small Good Thing" by Carver to read later. I will see if I agree with Oliver that it is an awful short story. He says it is a perfect showcase of everything that is wrong with his fiction.The Basque language is how he describes it.I like the reason he is evil:"I am evil because I really don't care about what's best for the world. I care about what's best for me. I have no particular respect for this earth or the two-legged vermin how infest it."Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. It is a real album.Gravity's Rainbow is a real bookI loved Oliver's speech about school elections & elections in general. It sums up a lot of what I feel
    • 4/5
      Narrated by Marc Thompson. Oliver Watson is only 12, and apparently a doughy pathetic nerd, but he secretly presides over a vast business empire that makes him the 3rd richest man in the world. And yet for all his business success, what he really craves is his father's acceptance. He runs for 8th grade president, determined to impress his father with an election victory, and carrying out all sorts of expensive and contorted plans to ensure a win. (He hires a political consultant to advise his opponent after his father states that a competitive electoral process is worthier.) Oliver's angry ambition is a little scary (the ridiculousness reminded me of M.T. Anderson's crazy "Whales on Stilts" in which the whales plot to take over the world and no one notices) but this wildly improbable story is pretty entertaining. Thompson interprets Oliver as a cross between the snarly Grinch and sinister Mr. Burns of "The Simpsons" which works quite well, especially in the explosive speech scene. At first, I found Oliver's voice a little offputting. But once Oliver's full story rolls out and additional characters appear (Tati and Liz in particular), it's a terrific audio presentation.
    • 4/5
      There is no doubt in my mind that Oliver Watson is a genius. I'm actually a little green with envy. I don't want to be an evil genius or anything, but I would like the benefits that go along with it--like the secret lair, bodyguards that keep life's annoying people* away, that sort of thing.

      This book was a lot of fun to read and I kick myself a little for not having read it sooner. Oliver is not your typical narrator. He proves himself to be an evil genius and that he's also an incredible actor. I suppose the two have to go hand-in-hand when your evil genius-ness is a secret.

      The writing is solid and conversational. It's written from Oliver's perspective, almost like a diary but not quite. Even so, graduates of Diary of a Wimpy Kid should find this enjoyable as well.

      I highly recommend this title. It's humorous, includes some fun pictures and evil** footnotes. What more could you want?

      ______________________________________________
      *ie that guy who wants to take me out to lunch for helping him find some music. Dude, I promise, the thank you was enough.

      **Evil on an e-reader at least. Clicking back and forth was a little annoying (especially when it wouldn't click). So I recommend reading the print version over the digital version. Either way, it's an enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Fall-down, laugh-out-loud, till-your-sides-hurt funny. I learned of this book during a Jon Stewart book reading. The author (a writer on the Daily Show staff) was asked a question, and he responded by first plugging his book (good for him!). The audience loved the title, and I had to read the book, which is a scream. The premise is completely out of this world, but just go with it. I do suspect that I might be alone on this, however, but still, give it a whirl. Try something very, very different for a change.
    • 4/5
      Oliver Watson is one of the dumbest kids in the seventh grade, and one of the most pathetic. However, he knows something the other kids don't. In fact, he knows lots of things the other kids don't, because the dumb-kid thing is actually his cover for his genius. And we're not talking quiz-bowl genius, but third-richest-man-in-America, secret-lair-under-the-house genius. After buying up companies and corporations (several for the sole purpose of helping or hurting classmates' parents, depending how nice each classmate is to him), Oliver has his sights set on one more task: becoming class president. With his connections, it's easy to eliminate the competition--but how can one really win an election when there's nobody running against him?

      Despite Oliver's penchant for being a vindictive jerk, he's still enjoyable to read about. His voice never wavers; Lieb manages to make him sound exactly as you'd expect a seventh-grade evil genius to sound: part cartoonish, part business, part exasperated with his family, his teachers, his classmates, his minions. Oliver may be strategically brilliant, but his immaturity trips him up in hilariously unexpected ways.

      This is one of the few books I've found that can sustain a particular style of humor without working my last nerve by the end--it never seems self-conscious, but just so much exactly who Oliver is. Probably best for 8th-11th grades--even though Oliver is in the 7th grade, his voice is a little older and many of the references will go over younger readers' heads. A sharp and funny read, even if the cover may look a little young.

      [edit:] You could make a case for a certain Walter Mitty-ness to this, but that's more thought than I want to put in right now. I like it at the surface level. Fascinating to consider it as the daydreams of a bullied kid, but that's a lot of intellectual energy I don't have at the moment.
    • 4/5
      Oliver Watson is 12 years old, in the seventh grade, and overweight. This is his story, told by him. If it’s true what Einstein said, that “imagination is more important than knowledge,” then Oliver has a great deal of what is more important. He plays dumb at school, he says, so that no one will know that he is actually an evil genius, a billionaire, the hidden power behind the wealthiest man in town. From his headquarters in a blimp, he manipulates his teachers and parents with an unlimited budget for bribery and dirty tricks, and with the aid of his front man and a goon whose primary job is intimidation.I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil reads like Lieb’s memoir of how it could have been back then if he had only had, then, the brain he has now. Early on I saw that many of Oliver’s metaphors are a bit above the radar of even the most precocious seventh-grade nerd, when he describes his dog as “a pudgy dewdrop of brindled fur and baby teeth, smiling happily at the world from a cold and barren cage.” Half way through, I stopped to check if I was mistaken about this being a book published as “young adult fiction.” Oliver’s vocabulary, grasp of politics and business, not to mention his rather advanced knowledge of literature, is less believable than his batman-like hideaway built into the lockers outside study hall. In the end, I judged that the many sly inside jokes for brainy adults are well enough balanced with the quantity of pubescent body-function jokes. Just as is true with many cartoons, the format and basically simple story line are sufficient to engage the target audience, who most likely breezed past the adult content with nary a notice.As so many young men (and even old ones) before him, Oliver’s deepest desire is to win his father’s approval. It is this longing that inspires him to run for class president. He spares nothing in his effort to succeed. He threatens, cajoles and bribes - - even accepts the help of the school’s meanest girl.Until nearly the end, I bought into the notion that I Am a Genius of Uspeakable Evil is just another wipe-your-boogers-under-your-seat-and-fart-at-every-opportunity glee-fest for adolescent boys, with bits of adult-in-the-know humor thrown in here and there. Thus the ending was a complete surprise. The hints at depth given throughout the book were realized just when I thought it was too late for it to be anything other than what it had most obviously been for 284 pages. It now qualifies for a second read and a pass-on to people-watchers of all ages.I’ve saved the worst for last. I hated the block format of the book, the use of spaces between paragraphs instead of indents. I kept thinking I would find some reason, but in the end all I could see was convenience and laziness - - or spite. My first impression was that the publisher took the economical way out by publishing directly from the author’s manuscript, which was in email/block letter format. The only other reason I can fathom is that maybe Lieb’s father is the editor of an important literary magazine, or a copy editor for a text book publisher, or just something of a old-school grammar nut, and Lieb did it to get even with the old man.
    • 4/5
      Some parts of this were funny, but the general tone was more obnoxious that amusing. Oliver's desire for approval from his father is one of the interesting things about the story. Oliver recognizes his father's basic phoniness, yet he wants to somehow force his father to appreciate him for himself (hence the defensive cover of stupidity).
    • 3/5
      Written by Daily Show producer Josh Lieb, this humorous (bordering on crass) book for young adults stars Oliver Watson, a seemingly ordinary kid who is anything but. Oliver is a genius who pretends to be slow so that he can become class president, which he is only running for to irritate his father. Oh, and Oliver’s a billionaire. The premise of the plot is a bit on the convoluted side, but Oliver’s antics are fast-paced and sometimes witty. The book is not always as funny as it tries to be, and the copious footnotes and photos become tedious and get in the way after awhile. Lieb’s debut novel may be the ticket to get middle school boys interested in reading, but some mild profanity and adult references make the reading level questionable. For ages 13-16. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Oliver Watson is your average, everyday 7th grade evil genius stuck in Omaha, Nebraska. On his way to world domination, Oliver has decided to win the election for class president... only creating shell corporations, stealing moon rocks from the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and overthrowing foreign governments are actually easier than winning a middle school election. Seriously. "I can assure her (but I won't) that the burglars didn't "just stroll" into the museum. This was a precision military operation, conducted by top-flight Armenian mercenaries. They were in and out in under five minutes, and they didn't leave a trace. Okay, that's not completely true. I had them leave one of Miley Cyrus's fingerprints just to blow the FBI's minds."This reminds me of Artemis Fowl -- Americanized, and hilariously rotten! There are photos and footnotes in this one that made me laugh out loud while reading -- loved it. Good for 6th grade and up, especially for those who love sarcastic humor with your world domination.
    • 4/5
      SO funny. I read this one aloud on a long trip and it made the miles fly by. Funny characters, funny dialog, engaging plot. The horror that is middle school as seen through the eyes of a self-proclaimed super genius. He's part Dwight Schrute, part Bond villain.
    • 4/5
      I hate to say stuff like this, but it was actually touching. Really funny, too.
    • 4/5
      Oliver Watson is a chubby, slow, socially-awkward middle-schooler in Omaha, Nebraska. Or so he'd like you to think. This image is simply a front to hide who he really is: a super-rich businessman who overthrows foreign dictators, buys corporations, and has a whole platoon of minions who do his bidding. He has a secret button for getting chocolate milk out of the water fountain, and an out-of-order stall in the bathroom where he can get a snack. When Oliver decides to run in the student council elections to impress his father, he turns out to be the only candidate, and he must use all his powers and influence to mold an opponent to run against. After all, he has to win by votes, not by default, if he's going to make his clueless dad proud of him.
    • 4/5
      very cute YA, for all of us who long to secretly rule the world! ;-)
    • 3/5
      Normally I don’t read much contemporary young adult literature. Honestly, I can’t remember any I’ve read in the last couple of years. I read some along with my daughter when she was young but stopped as she got older. I couldn’t bring myself to read the “Twilight” series because the brooding vampire thing doesn’t really do it for me. The last brooding vampire I read about was Lestat and I lost interest in him after “The Vampire Lestat”. I would have read along with my son but he went from “Captain Underpants” to Issac Asimov. Until last week.Looking for a new book for him to read I saw “I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President” by Josh Lieb. I could no more pass up that title than I could pass up free breadsticks and trust me, my friends, there’s no way I would pass up either. If the title alone didn’t attract me there was a great story to boot.Now, my family can tell you I have an infinite ability to suspend disbelief. Really, I’ll pretty much buy anything for a good story. So, I didn’t have a problem with an eighth grade genius being the second richest person in the world with a secret lair the covered almost the entire underside of the city of Omaha and secret minions who keep him protected from the bullies in not only the world but in the halls of Gale Sayers Middle School. The problem I had when I started to read this was the over the top style it was “written” in. I could really see the writing, at first. But, then I had to rejigger my thinking. It’s suppose to be over the top. How could it not? We’re talking about a boy running for eighth grade president to secretly hires an elite campaign strategist to help him rig the election, he has a special stall in the boys bathroom where the toilet dispenses milk duds and popcorn. I got it, over the top is what Lieb was going for. It’s sly and irreverent, it’s funny and snarky, and it actually has somethings to say about politics, parenting, and what being an evil genius really means.Lieb was an Executive Producer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and also worked on The Simpsons which definitely shows in his style. It’s smart and funny. Think Dexter’s Laboratory (do people remember that cartoon?) with less accent and more treats. Better still, there’s a happy ending even though Oliver is now only the fourth richest person in the world.
    • 5/5
      Oliver Watson is the third richest person in the world, and probably the smartest. Some day, he's going to going to rule the planet. There's only one problem: he's also a pudgy seventh-grader in Nebraska. Oliver rules his vast commercial empire through a proxy--recovering alcoholic and cringing minion Lionel Sheldrake-- while pretending to be the dumbest boy in class in order to punish his neglectful "Daddy". He would have been content to keep up the charade for another six years, if not for Tatiana Lopez, the Meanest Girl in School, who nominates him for class president and sets off a disastrous chain of events not even Oliver could see coming. This book presents a tempting alternate narrative for every kid who felt bullied or out-of-place in Middle School. Josh Loeb creates a world where Oliver's perceived powerlessness is actually his greatest strength and the all-American "hero" of the school is a closet nose-picker. Rife with gross-out humor and witty sarcasm that will immediately appeal to boys of this age, the story is actually remarkably safe given its premise. Early on in the narrative, Oliver explains the difference between evil and insanity as "why we call one dictator 'Alexander the Great' and another 'Hitler, the little creep with the mustache'". With a secret base beneath his suburban home and master to a killer pitbull named Lollipop, Oliver could easily wage a reign of terror over Gayle Sayers Middle School, but instead he plays dumb to please his clueless mother and embarrass his self-obsessed father. His great power is tempered by an iron will and almost perfect self-control. The only person who suspects he could be something more is Tatiana, a tough, crafty girl intent on winning him the presidency--at whatever cost. Satisfying wish-fulfillment for the tween set, this book would go over well with boys in grades 5-8. The bodily humor and references to latin phrases and classic literature might be a bit much for younger readers, but the bold typeface and spaces between every paragraph will make for easy reading. Additionally the formatting of the book--with footnotes, transcripts of conversations, newspaper articles and captioned photographs--will keep readers' attentions while introducing new literary techniques.
    • 4/5
      The novel encompasses a young boy who wants the attention of his father. In the beginning, Oliver shows us how disengaged his father is from his life. Throughout the middle, we learn of Oliver's evil plan to not only take over the world but to win the class presidency to prove to his father that he is worthy. By the end, he learns nothing.
    • 4/5
      Very, very funny (also appealed to my 20 year old son), excellent pacing, unique. Give to boys or girls. Ending a little abrupt.
    • 4/5
      Some people think this book isn't that funny. I am not one of those people.
    • 3/5
      I am a genius of unspeakable evil and I want to be your class president - JuniorJosh Lieb This is a fantastic new read along the same lines of the popular book series 'Evil Genius' by long time author Catherine Jinks. Josh Lieb has created a fun read that will have you chuckling away. The evil hero speaks directly to you the reader so only you know what's really going on. Oliver is in disguise as a simpering idiot who is widely pitied and despised. This cunning tactic keeps people out of his business while he's taking over the world. He overcomes childhood trials such as bullies by poisoning them with a flatulence and puberty delaying potion. He is wonderfully evil and spiteful but manages to not be too hateful to enjoy reading about. Then Oliver's world is disrupted when he runs for class president, will he be able to win the position when he's the most despised boy in his class? Read it and see.
    • 4/5
      This book was enjoyable for about 50 pages, then it started to wear thin. Gutted it out to the end, but even that was fairly predictable.
    • 4/5
      Although written for the young adult-set, this book works remarkably well for adults. There are many dual-level events in the story, and the entire book, while resting on the nearly implausible concept of a twelve-year-old super genius with a giant network of minions and underlings, is totally captivating and amusing. The "plates" add to the humor, in giving the reader actual, visual parts of the story, and the story itself is one long reminder of middle school, and how it would have been completely different, if only there had been an evil genius around. At its heart, it is really the story of a young boy's desperate attempts to garner pride, respect, and some attention from his father (a perhaps not so out-of-the-ordinary condition of young boys) and that even being a truly Unspeakable Evil Genius doesn't change some basic facts of character, or of growing up.