The Department of Cautionary Tales by Katy Stauber

The Department of Cautionary Tales Reviews

• 
  Mia

  RATING: 4.5 brains
  
  EXCITED UTTERANCE PROMPTED BY THE BOOK: I want a gutbrain! Sorry, I needed to get that out of the way. Now, let me backtrack to a more logical starting point.
  
  DISCLOSURE: I received this book from Mr. Zachary Jernigan, author of NO RETURN, and challenged to write a smarty pants review. I'm only promising a smarty shorts one, anything beyond is a bonus and is to be considered over-achievement.
  
  BOOK REVIEW PROPER: Juniper Strauss is a young genius-- curious, precocious, persistent. Unfortunately, her great desire for knowledge is rarely accompanied by foresight to anticipate consequences. When her projects get her in trouble with the law, she opts for the apparent least painful punishment: joining the Department of Cautionary Tales, a secret government agency housing other errant but gifted (and mostly juvenile) scientists.
  
  To her delight, joining the DCT felt more like finding a home than punishment. With a state of the art lab, she no longer has to conduct her experiments in secret with scrap materials. She's made friends and they share her love of science. Most importantly, she can finally realize her self-image as a hero using science to do good.
  
  But Juniper's fairy tale with DCT is short-lived and she realizes DCT and some of her new friends have their own agenda, not necessarily the greater good. When the veil is lifted, it is much like the moment a child discovers her parents are weak and flawed.
  
  The Department of Cautionary Tales is a creative romp in the minds of extraordinary young geniuses. It's a fun exploration of the sense of wonder, fearlessness and curiosity of a nonstop brain. On the flip side, being exceptional means standing out, being different, and is often accompanied by boredom and loneliness. Special gifts can be encouraged, hindered, nurtured, warped. Potential is but the starting point to many different possibilities. No single factor is responsible for the emergent thinker. It is a confluence of influence and experience.
  
  This is a coming-of-age story, a science fiction tale, a superhero chronicle. But the whole truly exceeds the sum of its parts. Don't let the playful cover fool you. This book is like a well-executed dance, hiding a level of difficulty in the fluidity of its movements and its seamless transitions. It is an Argentine tango, flicking between science and science fiction, levity and earnestness, entertaining and educational, all with a very readable writing style. Juniper and her cohorts, nemesis and jailers are all unique, multi-faceted characters.
  
  This is a feel-good story about profound virtues and an exploration of the complexity of relationships at any age. Young and old equally wrestle with difficult choices on the never-ending road to self-discovery.
  
  VERDICT: Teens (even some pre-teens) and adults alike will derive many pleasures from and find numerous reasons to like this book.
  
  REITERATION OF EXCITED UTTERANCE WITH REQUEST FOR INFORMATION: Now, who do I have to kill to get a gutbrain?
• 
  Coyora Dokusho

  It was so very, very good. The mad science was glorious!! Glorious!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA! (glorious)
  
  I loved the characters with unholy love and would really, really, really like a sequel, please.
• 
  Lia Correia

  E acabou de chegar o meu primeiro giveaway ganho ;) Estou desejosa de o ler, hehehe.
• 
  Melody

  I loved this book! I was a little worried as I’m not usually a sci-fi reader but I thought to myself why not give it a shot. I do love explosions!
  
  
  The Department of Cautionary Tales is told from the perspective of the main character Juniper Strauss who is a teenaged mad scientist. As if being a mad scientist wasn’t enough throw in all the turmoil of the teenage years and you get one hell of an adventure. Her voice is intellectual but throws in a dose of witty which gives the reader a relatable character despite the large doses of nerd talk that was way past my science knowledge.
  
  Stauber does a great job of catching your attention right away and holding it through Juniper’s experiences with the super secrete government agency for scientifically awesome teenagers also known as the Department of Cautionary Tales (DCT). I could not put this book down once things started blowing up and going crazy which starts in Chapter 1.
  
  As much as I loved the science experiments gone rogue, Juniper continually struggles with the choices of right and wrong and all the shades in between. She is a girl that loves to push the boundaries of her experiments but ultimately doesn’t want to cause more harm than good. This is hard to do when you work for the DCT. This internal battle is carried throughout the entire book and really gives the story depth.
  
  I would say The Department of Cautionary Tales is the perfect combination of science fiction, comedy, drama and romance. Long live the rogue experimentalists!
  
• 
  Damera Blincoe

  Review of The Department of Cautionary Tales by Katy Stauber
  Release Date: August 26, 2013
  Publisher: Metasagas
  Age Group: Young Adult
  Format: Book
  Source: Goodreads Giveaway
  Pages: 388 pages
  
  Juniper Strauss is one of those teenaged characters that you would have a hard time not liking. She has mad scientist written all over her, but precocious teenager coating her inner being. I imagined myself as her briefly while reading this book and I must say that after a shaky start on my part, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Although I’m not a Science person, this book made me want to purchase my own chemistry set and figure out how to rule the world. Katy Stauber seems to have effortlessly written a book that will have you wondering if you could take over the world as well and what you would do when you had.
  
• 
  Andrea

  Juniper Strauss is one of those teenaged characters that you would have a hard time not liking. She has mad scientist written all over her, but precocious teenager coating her inner being. I imagined myself as her briefly while reading this book and I must say that after a shaky start on my part, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Although I’m not a Science person, this book made me want to purchase my own chemistry set and figure out how to rule the world. Katy Stauber seems to have effortlessly written a book that will have you wondering if you could take over the world as well and what you would do when you had.
• 
  Alex

  This book was pretty awesome. I loved the way the story was told. The characters were very interesting with great history and chemistry. This book was part science fiction part action, and a pinch of mystery. I recommend it for anyone who likes crazy inventions, action, the tiniest bit of romance, and time travelers. My one problem with the book was that there was bad language. Other then that, I enjoyed this book, and can't wait to read the next in the series. Thank you Katy Stauber for sending me this book!
• 
  S.A. Gibson

  Very fun read. Light hearted without being silly. Serious in the right places. Teenage girl who is a semi-mad scientist has wild adventures when sentenced to work for a top-secret government agency with other teen geniuses. What could possibly go wrong. Read and find out. You will enjoy the crazy ride!
• 
  Liralen

  Quite the madcap tale. Juniper's stuck in a juvenile detention centre for mad scientists. Hers is the kind of mad science where you get into the zone and work really hard for a day...or eight hours...or fifteen minutes...and at the end of it you've created a biochemical hazard capable of taking out Houston. Or you've hacked into NASA and rerouted a space shuttle. Or you've rewired your own brain.
  
  Juniper's adventures are similarly scattered. As a prisoner-genius, Juniper is required to help out with containing the sorts of biohazards that she sometimes accidentally creates, but she also starts to figure out that the government is not always...forthcoming...about their motives. I think there's an overarching conflict here, but I'm not a hundred percent sure just...what that conflict is. Or rather: what the bad guys want and how Juniper plays into that. There are indications at the end of the book that there will be another book in which Juniper is in an even more secretive facility, which will give her something else to fight against, I'm sure, but it's less clear what she's fighting for.
• 
  Tom Loock

  I have read and very much enjoyed every book the author has published so far (three novels, two shorts) which is quite an accomplishment on her part, and just like with "Revolution World", I hope this one gets a sequel because ... the story is good, the ideas are fresh, the science seems solid - she has a degree in biochemistry - and most importantly: her characters are really great.
  Criticism? Minor - the mother in this one is OTT, and the novel is borderline YA.
  
• 
  Derek

  Okay, I'll be honest - I really liked this book, which should earn the book a four-star rating.
  
  Right?
  
  Wrong.
  
  So what made me only just like the book?
  
  Simple.
  
  The glaring typos.
  
  I took a proofreading/copyediting class and these typos were just too numerous and ridiculous to try and even keep up with. Yes, Virginia, there IS a difference between "breath" and "breathe" and "it's" and "its." But I guess that's what I get for an e-copy version.
  
  My disappointment in the typos aside, this was an incredible book. I loved the amount of action, suspense, comedy, and romance prevalent in the novel. Don't try and keep up with Juniper, the main character. She is as complicated as teenage protagonists come.
  
  The ending would lead me to believe that there will be a sequel. The title of the sequel is obvious, since the last few words hint at what it probably will be.
  
  I hope to see more from this very talented author.
  
  I just hope she finds a new copyeditor/proofreader...
• 
  Louise

  I really enjoyed the story and the characters, and it is packed with action, a lot happens in it! However, sometimes this action jumps around a bit too much like an overhyped teenager, a bit like Juniper's crushes, and unfortunately the poor editing spoils the reading somewhat (spelling/typing errors and frequently muddled tense changes between past and present, making it tricky to work out if she is recapping a past event or back to discussing the present moment). Worth a read if you can get past that though, and you definitely get your money's worth with the amount of story packed in!
• 
  Carrie Ives

  A light read in the amusing style I have come to expect from Katy Stauber. What happens when you put a bunch of teenage geniuses together? Mayhem of course. It is young adult fiction and deals with some of the trouble with being a teenager, boys and friends and trying to not destroy the world.