REVIEW: 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 comes 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.

Creepy times 10 billion, and brilliant to boot. When I picked up The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, I knew I was going to love it. I mean, how many times does one get to read a police procedural type YA? I can count on one finger how many times, thank you very much. I can honestly say that I believe this to be one of Barnes’ best books so far. Her use of second person for the small chapters in the killer’s perspective was not only absolutely terrifying, but also absolutely fantastic. And even with these killer POV chapters, this book still read at a level acceptable for middle grade as well as young adult. A feat, I tell you.

            The book cover is beautiful and the writing style is very succinct and to the point as a police procedural should be. The characters were good, though they could have been more dynamic. Lia did not seem like an important enough character and was not in the story enough for her to have had to be there. As for the rest of the characters, they were really well done and their Naturals ability truly shone through and developed their characters further. Dean wasn’t as developed as I wanted, though he was supposed to me tall, dark and mystery and thus I did not give a damn! The plot was great, though rushed and a bit clique at the very end. I was reading the big twist at the end about a paragraph before it actually occurred. That was disappointing. The writing wasn’t necessarily poetic or deep but it worked for the story written. With an analytical story such as this, where the characters are all Naturals at what they do, having that stylized critical sort of writing worked amazingly. I mean, all Sloane did was give statistics throughout the book, no other sort of dialogue really, and I feel like I know that character like the back of my hand.

            Overall, I loved the book. I thought the writing was great and made for a really quick read, which I like. I loved the characters, Sloane and Michael being my favorites, and little plot twists throughout (which I won’t mention because spoilers kill baby animals) were well thought out and cunningly brilliant. I really enjoyed the found family trope in this, as well as the tension between Cassie, Michael and Dead. It was a great love triangle of sorts and I honestly have no idea who she’ll choose, much less who I actually want her with. It’s a mental struggle I’m going through, I swear. Also the tension between how Dean used I when profiling and Cassie used You really helped separate and unify the character together despite them both being Natural profilers. It worked incredibly well and helped define their unique backgrounds and how they’ve shaped them.

            I can honestly say that I have not seen a book quite like this one in YA, and rightly so. Who in their right mind thinks, “I’m going to turn Criminal Minds into a YA novel”? Nobody sane is who. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is amazing, and her psychology background really pushed this book to a whole other level. It was an awesome read and I honestly feel like I could recommend it to anyone. What’s next for this author? The YA Grey’s Anatomy? I would actually keel over if that ever happened. I actually tried to think of a way to do it and I have absolutely nothing and so I’m now determined to figure out a way. I may never write it because I didn’t even get past high school biology (I’m graduating with my undergrad in December) in terms of non-social sciences and so I would fail miserably. Anyway, read this book if you haven’t already. It’s great. Sloane is to The Naturals as Abby is to NCIS. If that doesn’t peak your interest then I just don’t know what will.

XOXO Tia