[NOVEL] 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.

Note: Ongoing joke for me, naturals in my language would be close to a word used to describe heterosexuals, so imagine me reading this.

I'll be honest, before reading I might have gotten the wrong idea, because I had the impression from all the people recommending this book that first the team of teens has some abilities and this is a fantastic read. In both cases I was wrong.

By abilities they mean that the teens' analytical ability in certain aspects is far superior to average citizen (profiling, reading emotions, statistics), but the way others talked about it led me to think it was on the edge of supernatural. It's not.

And it's a questionably okay read, I wouldn't call it "fantastic".

It has a very peculiar taste of an American movie where for some reason teens that were gathered around for some special program (training) are way better than adults at their job. Younger mind may be less compromised by the years of experience and can give a fresh look, but in some cases experience matters more. And when these teens think better of themselves than agents, well, it just explains the character of those teens (FMC). The book was released in 2013 and it shows.

Some say it's like a Criminal Minds fanfic. Never watched.

It has a very cliche setting for such a script, we have a special girl who is suddenly picked up from a crowd, she has some top-notch profiling skills. She is offered to be a part of a special group - Naturals.

Teens trained in a specific field they excell at. And what do you know they are to go through old / cold cases to give a fresh view. Unbelievable, but it's a teenage fantasy, so we'll let it go for now.

Funnily, to me these Naturals did not create any value to be in awe. It felt like they were just spending time together bonding and being teens. I heard of school programs that were stricter than what they had and it was just a public school. 

Anyway, while Cassie has been out there being trained for a week or two it felt like no one is doing anything. Should it be like that? I have no idea, the book doesn't answer.

Funnily, Cassie is the narator so we know that she hasn't done anything yet, but she sure is pretty natural with calling herself  a Natural and "Because I'm a Natural" is her direct quote. Where is the confidence and pride coming from though?

Note: Later on when Cassie meets the director he mentions a case (they supposedly solved) and I was surprised - have they solved something? when did it happen? I had no idea, because I'm reading about teens in a house doing teen stuff. 

Because there is an on-going case both agent Briggs and Locke are partially present/absent. Later our team gets too interested in this case and they find the case is connected to Cassie's mother, especially the individual in question decided to send Cassie a present. I was sitting and thinking while reading - of course it would all happen like that, after all we start from here and I feel like I'm really watching a movie like that.

But I suppose author actually had given the answer from the beginning. The moment you reach the part where they talk about profiling Locke says along the lines "Don't say he or she, use UNSUB or YOU" and the killer's part is titled YOU. This is where I thought.. aren't they talking like a profiler then? 

But you know why I never thought about Dean or Locke? Dean may be the son of a serial killer (oops spoilers~) but he is always under FBI's nose, it'd feel dumb. Locke was always in the picture.

But when it was revealed it was...

Locke, my first reaction was - when do you get the time? Aren't you always working? but they later explained it that she always had time~. I mean really. How they even let her work, what is your background check.. so many questions and raised eyebrows.

I don't want to mention that the "killer" parts under the YOU felt convoluted like badly written (I'll be honest, I remembered that dumb part in some American film where a Chinese guy had a last name You and the dialogue was built on You and Me.. I know I have interesting assossiations), but if they were mentioned to give us an idea that Locke was the person in question all along, then where is the joy in that?

The second thing that got me is her "motivation" for action. The girl was angry the older sister (Cassie's mother, yeah she's a biological aunt) ditched her and now she became the punching bag for their violent father. She hated her so much that she wanted to off her herself, but someone did it before her, so she continued on with her victims.

She included Cassie in this program for a reason, to get her ready. But why did she think Cassie will be like her in few weeks? Honestly, so trashy. It's like she couldn't decide if Cassie is a victim to replace her mother or a future her.

The last scene where everything is revealed is so messy. Like try to think of possible scenarios and what is not in front of you and you will see how nothing will work out (with given settings).

And it's a lazy excuse to explain all this nonsence by saying this Locke lady is "not normal".

Oh! How could I forget. How about the romance.

Honestly, it was dragged by ears, I could understand the attraction between her and Michael, at least they have a story, but what about Dean.

This "I can't decide" from 2010's between several love interests. Girl, you a player, you bad.

And she is so confident in herself because this book is a 1st persont narration and she talks how both are into her.

Why are they even into her though, they spent like few days together and everyone has that hot teen love.

I honestly found the portrayal quite shallow (blame the 1st POV books, this is why I dislike them), I couldn't care about any of these characters, even the FMC. 

I really want to know why this became popular. Like I really want to get into the heads of people who think this is worth 5 stars. This book didn't work for me.

I'm debating on continuing the series, I may try other series by JLB, like the Inheritance Games.

RATE: 2,5/5.