It's like an X-Men story if Professor X was such a ruthless teacher that he drove most (all?) of his students insane (and each of his students was omega level in their own unique way). I'd call it a hyper-violent page-turner mystery, but that's not quite right--the chapters were all excellent page-turners, but there was something about the flashback structure and end of each chapter that actually made it easy to put aside.
BTW, if you read the book:
@scottrhawkins pic.twitter.com/xxHgUiHLzO
— Kevin (CaringForTransKidsIsn'tCrime) (@Ovasi) July 26, 2015