#ReadThis 3 Books With Dangerously Brilliant People

October is #WickedGoodReads Month here at GXO. This week, we’re focusing on books with wicked people, and today’s discussion is on 3 Books With Dangerously Brilliant People (see the full list of discussion topics here).

Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam #1), Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood totally freaked me out with this book because it could so easily be true. The lunatics in this book weren’t obviously evil – but instead, hiding a secret agenda of cleansing the World … sounds all too familiar … and they had the smarts and the means with which to do it.

Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride.

Geek Love, Katherine Dunn

The Binewskis are a carny family whose mater- and pater- familias set out – with the help of amphetamine, arsenic and radioisotopes – to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan; Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins; albino hunchback Oly; and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious and dangerous asset.

This is such a weird book, and honestly, not one that I enjoyed reading very much. However, the parents, Al and Crystal, were unforgettable. Al thinks up drug cocktails for his wife, so she will conceive children with deformities … on purpose.  He’s clearly brilliant, but also dangerous and not just a little bit psychotic.

Parasitology, Mira Grant

A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease. We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives and will do anything to get them.

Again, I could totally see science convincing us mere mortals to do something like this one day in the future – which is why this book creeped me out. And although I wasn’t hooked at first, as the shit started to hit the fan because the people with parasites started freaking out – I got more and more into it, and more and more creeped out.

What books have you read where brilliant people did something crazy?