Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 03/15/2018 Drawing older characters from her My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish series, O’Hara sends budding supervillain Mark; his evil kitten, Fang (smuggled in, as pets are strictly forbidden); and his cohort in crime, Sanj, to evil scientist summer camp, aka Camp Mwhaaa-Haa-Ha-A-Watha. There he finds himself abandoned by the treacherous Sanj (who hooks up with Dustin, a rare evil Canadian) and forced to pair with a despised fellow camper, whom he dubs “Geeky Girl,” in a hot competition for Evil Emperor of the Week. Mark spends most of his time and energy frantically trying to keep his ill-tempered pet fed and hidden. Readers will likely see this warm attachment as his main redeeming feature, as he otherwise comes off as a sexist twit for the cold hostility with which he treats his reluctant partner. By the end, though he never does bring himself to mention her actual name, the two manage to work together well enough. Jagucki’s frequent vignettes add properly sinister notes with lots of glowering faces and figures in mad-scientist-style lab coats. - Copyright 2018 Booklist.