Sunday, November 3, 2013

Review: The Naturals

The Naturals

 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  :) 




4 comments:

  1. I have been on the fence about reading raised by wolves. But after this review I can't wait to give it and The naturals a chance. Sounds like it will be a good fit for me.

    Thanks so much for the great review!!

    DaydreamerN.blogspot.com

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  2. It's great when an author who's work you didn't love, can turn around and surprise you. The Naturals does seem like a pretty cool read. I'm glad you enjoyed!

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  3. I DO love mysteries and crime--so I guess I'd better fire up my Kindle! :D YA thrillers are hard to do well, so it's great to hear you had a positive experience with this one. Thanks for the review--I've been curious about this one but hadn't seen too many reactions yet.

    Wendy @ The Midnight Garden

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  4. I loved Raised by Wolves series, so I knew that I would read anything else that this author wrote for us. So this one was a natural (hehe) for me. And I loved it! It wasn't a deep, complex, involved mystery, but it was a good one nonetheless. I didn't figure out whodunnit until close to the end. And the characters were very well written. I am glad there is another book coming, and I am looking forward to checking it out!

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