Review: The Naturals

The Naturals

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

 Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides— especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own.

Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Source: Netgalley (Thanks Disney Hyperion! )

My Thoughts:

I was very interested by the blurb of this book but I wasn't sure I wanted to read this because the author's  Raised by Wolves was a book that I hadn't managed to finish . After reading this book , I'm seriously considering giving that series another shot (I had read like four chapters I think) . The Naturals was such an interesting book that I'm dying to get my hands on the sequel!

The Naturals is a mix of  sci-fi, paranormal,mystery and crime fiction. If you love mysteries and crime I would suggest you just get this book already .It's been a long time since I read a young adult crime fiction novel and I wasn't even sure such a genre existed in YA (I usually just read Agatha Christie if I need some mystery and crime ) . Thank you , Jennifer Lynn Barnes for writing such a novel. 

Something that I really liked is that I'm not 100% sure if the 'abilities' are a genetic mutation or a paranormal thing. The fact that some people are naturally gifted at some things was very realistic.This made the story more believable and left things to explore in the sequel at the same time.The concept of naturals and all the secondary characters were very interesting as well.

Cassie is a character I really liked. It's easy to relate to her and she's the rare female protagonist that doesn't get on your nerves. She's courageous,smart and not ridiculously naive. 

The male protagonists in the novel are the weakest link. There wasn't enough character development for the same. There is a love triangle but I barely paid any attention to it because I was so engrossed in the criminal storyline  The romance was like white noise to me and  mostly I just ignored it.I'm not saying that the characters were annoying or that the love triangle-ish situation was bad but it just wasn't as interesting as the rest of the novel. 

Overall, this was a novel that I didn't want to put down and I for one am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

My Rating:

4 /5

Couldn't resist  :)