The Naturals
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Reread
Started: January 31, 2019
Finished: January 31, 2019
āPeople were people, but for better or for worse, most days, they were just puzzling to me. Easy puzzles, hard puzzles, crosswords, mind-benders, sudoku. There was always an answer, and I couldnāt stop myself from pushing until I found it.ā -Cassie Hobbs
Favorite Character: Micheal TownsendĀ
Ahhhh, I should not have read this book because I now desperately need to read the rest. And if Michael does not get the love he deserves by the end if this series Iām going to scream. I literally love him so much like honestly, who gives a fuck about Dean and I know that the second book is about him but I just have an immense love for Michael. Heās so good. He saved Cassie, he was fun, heās so sweet, and he literally just let her go so she could figure herself out, no selfishness. Anyway aside from Michaelās character, I liked quite a few other things about this book as well. It is a bit rough with some of the writing, a few adverbs I could have done without and some phrasing I didnāt like but it was really good overall. The story is interesting, I mean a group of kids living together is a fun trope for me and love triangle is kind of boring, like I definitely rolled my eyes a few times at āCassie keeps noticing one boy getting annoyed at other boy for doing basically nothingā but it wasnāt the main point of the book and it wasnāt done horribly so I donāt mind too much. Although I do get annoyed when she compares Michael to Dean. The whole FBI thing was pretty cool, not gonna lie though, I do not like gross things and some of the murder scenes were a bit graphic for my taste, but they were relevant to the story and thatās kind of the point and itās honestly pretty cool that this story is written in way that takes something that I probably wouldnāt be interested in normally and actually gets me pretty obsessed with it. This was my second time reading it so I knew that Locke was the murderer but it was still a pretty good twist I reckon. I love the idea of all these kids with special abilities even though they come from bad places and Iām in love with all the characters like Michael obviously, heās totally my type with the fun energy despite his sucky past and his tendency to hide his feelings despite the fact that he can read everyone elseās also what kind of awesome ability is that like being able to tell what people are feeling all the time, I mean that would be so cool and I love the way that he conflicts directly with dean, like Michael tries so hard to hide his true self so someone who can figure out a personās personality, like Dean, sucks for him and then Dean is like the typical, no one can know I have feelings and he just hates that Michael always can tell what heās feeling anyway I just think thatās cool I donāt really know about Dean I guess overall I like him, heās very serious and like I know that his life might suck and honestly⦠who would take a kid who had to deal with the trauma of his dad being a serial killer and from what I remember of the second book, dean is forced to participate and then have him work on murder cases his whole life, like can he not get a break, just let the kid live on the beach and not have to have this weight all the time, at least for a while and honestly the only times that I didnāt like Michael so much was when he would make comments to Dean about him turning out like his dad bc honestly thatās a pretty terrible thing to do. I gotta say, I think all the characters were really cool, Michaelās my number one, Sloane is precious and needs to be protected, Dean is a solid dude, Cassieās a bit of a disaster but still likeable, and Lia is intriguing at the very least. I honestly canāt wait to learn more about their backstories. In this book we really only get Cassieās with a little of Dean and a little of Michael and I know that the second book reveals Deanās because I did read that like a million years ago but I donāt remember if it said anything about anyone else. Iād definitely like to learn more about Sloane and Lia, there were some hints that theyāve both had sketchy pasts just like everyone else, which I can imagine from Lia, especially with her ability but Iām probably most curious about Sloane because she doesnāt give off the ātortured youthā vibe like the others and Iād like to see her open up. I donāt know for sure how many books are in the series but I think thereās like four or five and I know book one covers but doesnāt resolve Cassieās backstory, and book two is about Deanās dad and his childhood, so Iām hoping that the other books let us into the other characters a little more. Anyway, this was super rambly, most of it written right after I read it, but I enjoyed this book a lot more than expected, I have a lot of love for Michael Townsend, I love a book about a group of friends, and Iām excited for the rest of their story.















