Barnes, Jennifer Lynne The Naturals, 308 p. Hyperion, 2013. $18.
Language: PG-13 (16 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG (serial killer
going after women); Violence PG-13+ (serial killer, torture, blood splatter and
an amount of description edging towards graphic).
At 17, Cassie is an excellent profiler – she understands the
place, the history and the motivation of anyone around - friend, family or
stranger. Her father serves in the
military and her mother was horribly murdered when she was young and Cassie was
the one to find the blood-splattered scene.
Now the FBI has approached her; they are assembling a team of teens with
a natural talent for those skills that a good agent needs. Cassie is put into a situation where each of
the other four teens around her is hostile, has secrets to hide and nowhere to
keep them, because they all use their abilities on each other with malice and
spite. As she is trying to settle in and
hone her skills, however, Cassie has worse problems that teenaged angst. A serial killer has increased his/her pace
and they seem to be targeting women who look like Cassie.
Barnes manages to make the serial killer
scenes gut wrenching, but just bordering on the edge that would make them too
much for high school. Cassie and her
fellow profilers are well characterized in their disturbed and damaged ways, leaving the adults as sketchy, non-supportive figures. This is a definite move towards
the dark for Barnes.
HS – OPTIONAL. Cindy, Library Teacher
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