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NERDS #4
The Villain Virus
The NERDS series combines the excitement of international espionage with the awkwardness of elementary school as it follows the adventures of a group of unpopular fifth graders who run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities, and the results are awesome, inspiring—and hilarious.
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus.
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2012
142 people are currently reading
982 people want to read
About the author
Michael Buckley
84 books1,931 followersNew York Times bestselling author Michael Buckley was born in Akron, Ohio. He tried his hand as a stand-up comic and lead singer for a punk rock back before attending Ohio University. After graduating with honors he moved to New York City to be an intern on the Late Show with David Letterman which led to stints developing programming for Discovery Networks, MTV, MTV Animation and Klasky Csupo (producers of Nickelodeon’s Rugrats). Today he lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife, Alison, and their son Finn.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews
October 28, 2014
This book is humorous an fun to read. After every 4 or so chapters, you get to do some wacky exercise as part of you "training". I have already read the other 3 books, so this book goes great with the story. If you haven't read the first three books, you should. The words are humorous and goes great for a short read. Some good pars are the humor and story line. Some bad parts are that at the end, it leaves you with a cliffhanger. You will enjoy this book if you read the first three first. This book is one of my favorites this year.
May 19, 2021
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it's much worse than your run of the mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into super-intelligent criminal masterminds! Soon nearly everyone, including some of the NERDS team, is plotting to take over the world! And who's to blame for this nasty infection? None other than the NERDS' former teammate, Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it is up to Flinch, the hyper-active super-spy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. To do so, he needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he's going to have to get inside Heathcliff's head, literally. Flinch will have to miniaturise himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillian's body to fight white blood cells, stomach acids, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in hopes that he can save the world from the Villain Virus.
December 12, 2012
The NERDS series combines the excitement of international espionage with the awkwardness of elementary school as it follows the adventures of a group of unpopular fifth graders who run a spy network from inside their school. With the help of cutting-edge science, they transform their nerdy qualities into incredible abilities, and the results are awesome, inspiring—and hilarious.
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus.(less)
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus.(less)
March 15, 2016
A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, where the NERDS headquarters are located, and it’s much worse than the normal flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this dangerous virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone including some of the NERDS team is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Healthcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil crackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Healthcliff’s head, literally. Finch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight the white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from the Villain Virus.
August 5, 2014
The NERDS crew has moved on to middle school. As if that wasn't bad enough, their new principal reminds me more than a little of Dolores Umbridge. Throw in a virus that turns the infected into supervillains and you have another action-packed, hilarious addition to the series.
April 12, 2019
Is this a real test to take at school
July 3, 2018
This is a great series for middle grade boys! Each book focuses on a different member of the "team" and in this one, several past villains come back and there is an interesting twist at the end.
"A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus."
"A virus has infected Arlington, Virginia, home of NERDS headquarters, and it’s much worse than your run-of-the-mill flu. Instead of coughing and sneezing, the victims of this voracious virus are transformed into superintelligent criminal masterminds. Soon nearly everyone—including some of the NERDS team—is plotting to take over the world. And who’s to blame for this nasty infection? None other than former NERDS teammate Heathcliff Hodges. With more people breaking out into evil cackles every day, it’s up to Flinch, the hyperactive superspy with a sweet tooth, to stop the virus. He needs to destroy the virus at its source, and to do that he’s going to have to get inside Heathcliff’s head—literally. Flinch will have to miniaturize himself and take a fantastic voyage through the supervillain’s body to fight white blood cells, stomach acid, and a nest of nasty nanobytes in the hope that he can save the world from . . . the Villain Virus."
January 31, 2019
I would say this book is almost perfect, because it shows all people that you don’t have to be perfect to fit in in middle school or anywhere. In fact, everyone has at least one awkward sport in there life. This series ties in perfectly to the awkward spots because it is all about how a group of awkward “Nerds” get at least one of their awkward areas of life “upgraded” with nanobytes so that their downfalls in life become their most powerful tools in the secret agent world. In this book Flinch ends up getting to take charge of the team. This is a very big thing because Flinch is hyperactive, and although he has a harness that helps him channel his hyperactivity to super strength and or speed, he still has problems thinking and focusing under pressure. Throughout the book Flinch continues to get put in charge of the team when they have to stop someone whom is Infected with a virus that makes them try to conquer or destroy those who are around them. Will Flinch stand a chance against the pressure, and save the day, or will Earth fall to The Villain Virus?! Read to find out!
September 6, 2017
I chose to read this book because I liked the title “The Villain Virus”, I also liked the really colorful cover. I liked that they sent in the NERDS when James Bond couldn't complete the job. It was really cool that a team of superhero kids were able to save the world every day. This book kept my interest because every chapter left you on a cliff hanger. For example on chapter Ruby was fighting a bad guy and the chapter ended with her getting knocked out. As you can see I wanted to keep reading so I would know if she got killed or not. Another example is that Flinch was injected into Heathcliff when he had the villain virus and the chapter ends with Ms. Information and the Antagonist go into Heathcliff to and try to stop Flinch however Flinch beat them and makes it out alive. However it end the chapter halfway through the fight so it makes you want to keep reading. I finished this book and I read 52% of it on my kindle this week.
March 7, 2019
The book is about a group of friends that save people from evils villains and in this one there is a night guard that has to watch a beast. It could destroy the universe and it is in a deep sleep and the guard has to be quiet or the beast will wake up and destroy every thing and then it will take years to make it go to sleep again I recommend this book to who ever likes super heroes. I rate this book a 4.
July 25, 2025
While not my favorite, this is probably the best of the NERDS series. The premise is gold: most of the NERDS spies turn evil. It was very interesting seeing how they were all like as evil villains.
The weak link in here is the main character, the only one that does not turn evil: Flinch. I think in this series, the female characters are the best anyway. Speaking of female characters, there is a shocking villain reveal in here that was mishandled but had a ton of potential.
The weak link in here is the main character, the only one that does not turn evil: Flinch. I think in this series, the female characters are the best anyway. Speaking of female characters, there is a shocking villain reveal in here that was mishandled but had a ton of potential.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 12, 2022
I absolutely loved the NERDS series when I was younger, and the books still hold up now. The fun action staring kids who use their weaknesses as powers is very entertaining, and the characters are all very memorable. This book features a change in location, and a threat that rivals that of the last book. It is a very fun read, even after years.
August 30, 2017
While the daughter and I enjoyed the book as much as the previous volumes I'm docking it one star because I hated the fact that the author tried to make certain aspects of bullying into a noble art. Luckily that doesn't go much beyond this particular entry in the series.
December 10, 2017
If you feel hot and sweaty and get mad at everything, you have the villan virus you are super smart and you build doomsday devices. Flinch is the only person who is immune to it.
Read my other reviews.
Read my other reviews.
September 12, 2024
When a virus outbreak causes everyone to not act themselves, Flinch is their only hope. Because he does everything fast he develops antibodies quickly and is the only one immune. Making decisions is not his strong suit, but he was the only hope.
June 23, 2017
Review by G.P.: "I like how the author puts it in case file form and has you do stuff before you can read the next bit."
May 21, 2020
3.5★
Read
August 16, 2020fun!
March 22, 2021
I can't think of a better evil name than Miss Information lol
September 12, 2021
Fun series.
Read
January 18, 2022very interesting book recommended for kids 12 or under.
March 1, 2023
MS HOLIDAY????
Read
June 23, 2025idk what date i finished the book..sometime in feb tho(?) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
January 31, 2020
This is my favorite one in the series. I just loved how creative it felt. Plus there was a plost-twist somewhere at the end that I didn't see coming. Overall, a great book imo.
May 29, 2020
omg read this book get all of the books get them!
March 8, 2018
I don't have enough words to describe how much I love this series, because I'm way older than I was when I read the first books but now that I read this one I still love it.
September 25, 2012
The NERDS were 5th graders who live secret lives saving the world, occasionally disappearing to a secret lab beneath the elementary school. (And where their natural abilities were enhanced by the addition of nanobytes into their bloodstreams, giving them super powers.)
Now they're 6th graders trying desperately to save the world, but their new middle school teachers and principal don't understand the kids' need to disappear suddenly and see the juvenile delinquency looming. In the meantime a vicious virus is infecting nearly everyone in the whole world, causing them to turn into villains as they invent and use all sorts of crazy weapons to destroy practically everything around them.
Different team members are featured in each book of the series. In this one Flinch is the leader of the team. Flinch's body has been enhanced so that his sweet tooth fuels super speed and power, but he hasn't quite yet figured out how to use his gifts--while the sugar gives him powers, it also tends to confuse his mind. Nonetheless, he's the team leader and he leads.
Pretty much nonstop action, crazy situations, and lots of drawings rush the story along.
Good for about 4th grade and up, kids who like action and thinking outside the box.
Now they're 6th graders trying desperately to save the world, but their new middle school teachers and principal don't understand the kids' need to disappear suddenly and see the juvenile delinquency looming. In the meantime a vicious virus is infecting nearly everyone in the whole world, causing them to turn into villains as they invent and use all sorts of crazy weapons to destroy practically everything around them.
Different team members are featured in each book of the series. In this one Flinch is the leader of the team. Flinch's body has been enhanced so that his sweet tooth fuels super speed and power, but he hasn't quite yet figured out how to use his gifts--while the sugar gives him powers, it also tends to confuse his mind. Nonetheless, he's the team leader and he leads.
Pretty much nonstop action, crazy situations, and lots of drawings rush the story along.
Good for about 4th grade and up, kids who like action and thinking outside the box.
August 17, 2012
An excellent novel, and the best in the series so far!
Amazon shipped me this early, for some reason or another, and I consumed the book in an hour. The plot is a lot less silly than it seems, and certain elements that worried me in the summary didn't even show up until the last 50 pages, so....
The pacing is strange and very fast (maybe to reflect the mentality of our protagonist?) but the character development in this book is very nice- we see Flinch grow up and see the world around him in new light, and Ruby, the final protagonist, is given a spotlight as well, setting up for her novel. Unfortunately, this means a lack of focus on Jackson and Duncan... which is alright, i suppose, as they've already had novels to themselves. The complete lack of the Hyena, however? Thaaat's a little harsh, especially when she featured so little in previous books.
The art was top notch, and probably had my favorite set of drawings thus far. I loved the details put into the background- unique faces for each kid at school.
Lastly, the twists in this books are excellent, and a fantastic set up for the last book. I'll be eagerly awaiting it.
Amazon shipped me this early, for some reason or another, and I consumed the book in an hour. The plot is a lot less silly than it seems, and certain elements that worried me in the summary didn't even show up until the last 50 pages, so....
The pacing is strange and very fast (maybe to reflect the mentality of our protagonist?) but the character development in this book is very nice- we see Flinch grow up and see the world around him in new light, and Ruby, the final protagonist, is given a spotlight as well, setting up for her novel. Unfortunately, this means a lack of focus on Jackson and Duncan... which is alright, i suppose, as they've already had novels to themselves. The complete lack of the Hyena, however? Thaaat's a little harsh, especially when she featured so little in previous books.
The art was top notch, and probably had my favorite set of drawings thus far. I loved the details put into the background- unique faces for each kid at school.
Lastly, the twists in this books are excellent, and a fantastic set up for the last book. I'll be eagerly awaiting it.
September 24, 2012
The NERDS series is just as hilarious & entertaining as Buckley's "Fairy Tale Detectives" series, & that's a pretty solid feat - especially considering just how different the two are.
In this book, NERDS member Julio "Flinch" Escala is put in the spotlight as he tries to lead his teammates in figuring out just what is causing the sudden spike in wannabe supervillains running around the country - seems like suddenly, every Tom, Dick, & Harry (not to mention Jenny, Sue, & Sally) are inventing crazy machinery & attempting to take over the world to prove to everyone just how unappreciated they've been. Can Flinch use his vaunted ADD/sugar-addiction induced superspeed & superstrength to figure out just what's going on & stop it before it's too late - & before his own teammates start to succumb themselves?
A super twist at the end will leave readers desperate for the next installment, & the guys will especially love the gross-out factor caused by Flinch's time spent inside the bloodstream & brain of a giant, sleeping head.
In this book, NERDS member Julio "Flinch" Escala is put in the spotlight as he tries to lead his teammates in figuring out just what is causing the sudden spike in wannabe supervillains running around the country - seems like suddenly, every Tom, Dick, & Harry (not to mention Jenny, Sue, & Sally) are inventing crazy machinery & attempting to take over the world to prove to everyone just how unappreciated they've been. Can Flinch use his vaunted ADD/sugar-addiction induced superspeed & superstrength to figure out just what's going on & stop it before it's too late - & before his own teammates start to succumb themselves?
A super twist at the end will leave readers desperate for the next installment, & the guys will especially love the gross-out factor caused by Flinch's time spent inside the bloodstream & brain of a giant, sleeping head.
July 3, 2017
The NERDS team has moved on to Middle School, with new teachers and a new principal, though Agent Brand hates it and bemoans “Can’t we just flunk the team and send them back to 5th grade? Heathcliff Hodges aka “Agent Choppers” (former NERD) is also in the new school, sedated to keep from harming anyone. But is he having an effect on the team members? It starts with their own “renaming” .. From now on you will call me “Captain Kapow” or “Colonel Cuckoo” or some other ridiculous super villain name. Then their intelligence increases dramatically along with their paranoia and anger. When Wheezy blows a mission, Agent Brand begins to investigate what is behind. What they find is a highly contagious virus that turns normal people into Super Villains, and now they’re everywhere! How will the NERDs be able to fight this without being infected themselves? A fun sequel with an ending reminiscent of “Fantastic Voyage.”
Displaying 1 - 30 of 98 reviews