Sam@WLABB
Written on Jul 31, 2020
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Cassie Hobbes is not like most teenagers.
Most teenagers don't lose their mother in a bloody, unsolved murder.
Most teenagers can't tell who you are, where you're from and how you're likely to behave within moments of meeting you.
And most teenagers don't get chosen to join The Naturals.
Identified by the FBI as uniquely gifted, Cassie is recruited to an elite school where a small number of teens are trained to hone their exceptional abilites.
For Cassie, trying to make friends with the girls, and to figure out the two very different, very hot boys, is challenging enough.
But when a new serial killer strikes and Cassie is drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse, she realises just how dangerous life in The Naturals could be.
- ISBN10 1780876823
- ISBN13 9781780876825
- Publish Date 7 November 2013 (first published 5 November 2013)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 29 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Hachette Children's Group
- Imprint Quercus Children's Books
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 352
- Language English
Reviews
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ammaarah
Written on Jul 16, 2018
"You could tell more about a stranger by seeing their house than you ever would by inviting them to yours." (Cassandra Hobbes)
The Naturals has a really cool concept. A bunch of teenagers who have a natural talent for reading people and their emotions, detecting lies and sprouting off analytical facts and probabilities are recruited by the FBI to help them solve cold cases.
The main character, Cassie, is a natural profiler, which means that she can 'read' people, get inside their heads, find out what makes them tick and predict their actions. I enjoyed seeing the world through Cassie's eyes.
The secondary characters are quirky and different, but they aren't well developed. I like them, but I only saw one side of them and it wasn't enough to make them stand out.
There's also an extremely unnecessary love triangle. I don't care who Cassie likes and I really don't care who likes her back.
In The Naturals, a serial killer is on the loose. I really enjoyed the psychological aspects of The Naturals such as getting inside the killer's head and trying to anticipate their next move. I also enjoyed the mystery and had no idea who the serial killer could be. However, I couldn't believe that just after Cassie is recruited, she becomes involved in a case that has strong ties to her mother's murder. I couldn't believe such a huge coincidence. I also found it difficult to believe that the FBI would recruit teenagers to help them solve cold cases, especially when they pay no mind to the teenagers' education. Maybe I'm just getting old.
The Naturals is an entertaining read, but it lacks something. It didn't evoke much feelings and emotions from me.
"No expectations, no disappointments." (Michael Townsend)
liz089
Written on Oct 12, 2015
Re-read 2018
I never continued with this series because I wanted to listen to the other books as well, but I have never been able to find them in audiofile.. so it was time to start over and read the books instead. It was kind of funny, I kept hearing the voices from the audiobook in my head while is was reading this one haha.
But, even though it is kind of short I really enjoyed this one. I really like the whole profiling aspect to this novel and I can't wait to see how it will develop in the next installments.
readingwithwrin
Written on Jun 5, 2015
cat and mouse with killers."
Finally a book that involves profiling that doesn't have any superhuman paranormal powers!
When Cassie gets recruited by the FBI to become a profiler due to her "natural" ability to tell read people, her world changes completely. For the first
time since her Mom died she feels like she can be normal and not have to bend to other peoples wills and to make decisions for herself again.
After being recruited she moves into a house with 4 other teenagers she starts learning how to be a better profiler and how to get inside the killers
(UNSUBs) mind without knowing anything about them besides how they murder people.
While all this is going on Cassie is also becoming friends with her fellow housemates Dean who is another profiler that doesn't like her.
Lia who is like a human lie detector while being a pathological liar herself. Micheal the person who can read peoples emotions who is also super smug and
want to keep every human emtion of his hidden. And finally we have Sloan who spouts off random facts at any given time and also happens to be a computer whiz.
With all of these teenagers in one house things can get pretty petty at times and made me not like the story as much. While I did enjoy it at times it
just got to be too much and I wanted to get back to finding out who the killer was.
Even though I was majorly wrong about who the killer was. It also made me realize that despite the fact that we were learning how to tell who an UNSUB was, we
were also assuming it would be a certain type of person due to what we have seen most commonly in the past. It showed me that we all assume a certain
type of person does things when really it could be anyone and to never just assume its one type of person when it could be anyone.
The one major thing I could have done without though was the love triangle. I could tell it was gonna happen as soon as we started meeting the other
housemates and I was not looking forward to it. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. But I still think the story would have been just as good
without it.
I can't wait to see what happens in the next book and what new character will come in to replace someone.
See more reviews like this on my blog
jnikkir
Written on Nov 15, 2014
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Wow. It's really amazing to jump out of your comfort zone every once in a while, is it? I mean, I guess this book isn't strictly outside my "comfort zone" ... maybe just outside my norm. But still, it's good to mix things up. I have to be in a very specific mood to pick up a modern thriller, and luckily, that mood finally struck, because I've been wanting to pick up this book for a long time. And it didn't disappoint.
The Naturals is about a group of teens, recruited by the FBI because of their various natural talents, who work to help solve cold cases using those talents. Cassie Hobbes is the newest recruit, a natural behavioral profiler thanks to her fake-psychic mother -- who was murdered when Cassie was 12, and whose killer was never caught.
The book spends a lot of time introducing us to Cassie, taking us along with her as she moves from her home with her grandmother, to being contacted by the FBI, to moving into the house where the "Naturals" all live and work and train. It takes a little while before getting to the main plot, but I was perfectly happy to spend time getting to know the other Naturals -- Michael, who can read emotions; Sloane, a whiz with probabilities and numbers and facts; Lia, a Natural lie-detector (and liar herself); and Dean, another Natural profiler like Cassie. These characters -- especially Cassie and Dean -- were really the main reason I loved this book.
Cassie herself has a really interesting way of looking at the world -- and looking at people -- since her first instinct is to profile them, and she's usually always right. She's also strong, smart, and very believable as a 17-year-old profiler thanks to her history and upbringing, which I appreciated. In fact, all of the characters are really well-done. They all felt believable as teens thrown together and forced to work as a unit -- they're not always super nice to each other, there's drama, and they don't all get along all the time. I liked that believability. Out of all of the characters, I definitely have a soft spot for Dean, as he's sort of the outcast of the group. Much of his story is spoilery, but just know that there were many moments where I just had to pause and go "Oh, my heart!" in response to something Dean-related. ...OH, MY HEART. I just want to wrap him in cotton and keep him safe and let him watch fluffy movies all day and be happy...
...Erm. Moving on...
Anyway, yeah. If you put great characters on the page in front of me, I'll read about them doing pretty much anything. It's a bonus when the plot is equally gripping -- which is definitely is. Even when the first part of the book is spent getting to know Cassie's new situation working and training with the Naturals, it's still super interesting and intriguing. But then when the plot really kicks into gear... oh man, watch out. I almost never read books in a day, but I was glued to this book and read 90% of it in basically one sitting. It was that good.
There were just a couple things that kept me from rating this one 5 stars. The main thing was that I have to reeeeeally love a book to give it 5 stars -- and though there are elements of this book that I adore, it just doesn't hit the sparkly, head-over-heels-in-love-with-it level, for me personally. (The Naturals is a thriller/mystery, and for any mystery to get me to looove it, the level of character-development has to be out-of-this-world strong. It's really very good in The Naturals, but not OMG good, for me.)
The other thing that kiiiiind of got to me was that there's a bit of a love triangle going on... *grumble grumble* But I massively ship one side of this triangle, and I NEED THEM TO BE TOGETHER, so I'm kind of dying to start book 2. Just so they can be together. Because they will be. Darn it, they WILL BE!!
...Argh. I knew I shouldn't talk about the ship. I knew I would devolve into capslock. Forgive me. Now back to your regularly-scheduled, mostly-coherent review...
In conclusion...
I really enjoyed this book. And I've gone the entire review without saying it, but it does have to be said: The Naturals seriously is a YA Criminal Minds. I usually don't like the whole "comparison" thing -- this book is the YA Game of Thrones! etc -- but here, it really fits. I'm a huge fan of Criminal Minds, and I can say with near certainty that if you like CM, and you like YA, there's probably a 90% chance you will like The Naturals.
...which is really just a diplomatic and rational-sounding way of me saying "OH YOU LIKE CRIMINAL MINDS?? YOU LIKE YA?? YOU SHOULD READ THE NATURALS OMG IT'S SO GOOD YOU'LL LOVE IT."
...aaand back to the capslock.
--
There were books involved...
Amber
Written on Jan 11, 2014
Lauren: I loved Cassie’s voice, and I found that even when she was waxing poetic about either Michael or Dean, she still came across as pragmatic and succinct; she was honest with herself, even if it was only in her own head, which I really appreciated. I loved how she didn’t back away from a fight but also wasn’t afraid to own up to her fear. I also loved how curious she was, because it made me feel curious too, wanting to know about the other characters and what had brought them together.
Tatum: I wasn’t crazy about Cassie but I do think she was, for the most part, an interesting protagonist. I liked her history; it immediately made me feel more engaged with the story. Like Lauren and Amber, I thought her curiosity was great both as a character trait and a necessary plot device. Unfortunately she eventually succumbed to the generic fallback of Insecure Teenage Girl Protagonist, comparing herself with other female characters and wondering why boys liked her, and I lost interest in her altogether when the love triangle took over her narrative.
Amber: As a protagonist, I loved her. I agree with Lauren, her curiosity was magnetic, and it appealed to my own highly curious personality. Seriously, neither of us would ever back away from an investigation, even if the FBI themselves told us to. Some parts of her personality were slightly quirky, although never overly so, which is great because that type of character annoys the crap out of me.
Characters
Lauren: Other than Cassie, I would say that Sloane and Lia were the most interesting characters, and I really wished we’d had the chance to get to know them in more detail, especially Lia. She’s a total bitch, which I loved, but we never got to understand why, so I really hope we get to hear more about them both in future books. I also loved Dean, because I find his backstory absolutely fascinating. And none for Michael bye.
Amber: I don’t think the secondary characters were developed as much as they could have been, and once again this comes down to the fact that this book could have been two hundred pages longer. I wasn’t a fan of Lia, although I totally get why Lauren was. She just didn’t appeal to me. I did love Sloane, who was basically Criminal Minds‘s Reid on crack, and would have loved to have seen more of her backstory, along with that agent guy whose name escapes me. *thinks* *has a look through the book* Briggs. Yeah, him.
Tatum: I liked Briggs too! In fact I really liked most of the characters except Michael, because fuck Michael t b h. Dean was intriguing because of his background but I also really liked how closed off he was and his whole internal conflict thing was sexy, so sexy compelling. Lia and Sloane were also pretty great; I liked how different they were and it would have been nice to have had more scenes with them instead of the love triangle.
Plot
Lauren: The idea of a group house filled with a bunch of teenagers learning how to profile crime scenes was a very interesting one, and it didn’t disappoint me. While I wish that we could have seen more of the actual lessons and seen more of the group dynamics, after the ending it actually made more sense that we didn’t. It was fast paced but never more than it needed to be, and I thought that Barnes did a fantastic job of balancing Cassie’s new life with the case unfolding around her. Even though I didn’t manage to spot the plot twist, I never felt that it was trying to do too much or was more convoluted than it needed to be, which is a trap a few crime writers have fallen into.
Tatum: I don’t really get it? I mean, I enjoyed it but in the back of my mind I kept asking myself ‘okay but what exactly is a Natural? Are they X-Men? Are they just really intelligent/talented?’ The book never really answers this question either but you’re expected to accept that this group of teenagers are better than fully trained FBI agents and NOPE. Not buying it, I’m afraid. I did love all the training scenes and would have liked to have witnessed the other two characters, because fuck Michael, learning as well. I didn’t see the reveal coming but I loved it because what a good everything.
Amber: I definitely think that more of the lessons were necessary. While I loved the fast pace of the plot, I don’t think more lessons would have dragged it down, and I actually think they were rather essential. I wanted to learn more tips and tricks, and see Cassie learn them too. I didn’t see the plot twist coming until right before it happened, which is always good! Very few twists in fiction surprise me these days, so to feel that rush towards the end was fantastic.
Romance
Lauren:This was the only thing that let the book down for me, and although I think both Tatum and Amber have rated it as 4 stars, I would only give it 3, and it’s because it includes the 2 very worst tropes in literary history – Instalove and the dreaded Love Triangle. I mean seriously, Cassie moves away from her family and into a house full of people who are slightly weird and she’s suddenly having lessons about serial killers, and yet within a week of her being there, all she can think about is which of the two boys in the house she likes more. Nah man, I’m never going to be here for that shit.
Tatum: I liked the natural progression of Dean and Cassie’s relationship; I enjoyed their dynamic and the subtle tension in their interactions made me really want to see more of them together just to watch them bounce off each other. And I repeat: fuck Michael.
Amber: I’m pretty sure I’m the only one out of the four of us who loved the romance. Well, not loved, exactly, but very much enjoyed it. It’s not often that I like a love triangle in YA, and yet I didn’t feel any negative feelings towards this one. While I personally ship Cassie with Michael, I could totally get behind her and Dean if he has a bigger role in the sequel. But for now I’ll be waving my Michael flag, because I like sarcastic arseholes.
Prose
Lauren: I spoke about Cassie’s voice at the top, but as the book is told in first person, it’s also relevant here. To be honest, this is my favourite kind of prose; simple and clean, not too many metaphors or flowery symbology. Cassie says what she thinks, and she thinks in clear, crisp lines that not only make sense for her character, but also make reading the book an easy flow. Barnes doesn’t mess around with the exposition, but neither does it feel like an info dump, and she manages to bring attention to Cassie’s ability to read people without it ever encroaching on her own distinct personality. I found the language came across as a mix between entertaining YA fiction and easy-to-read pulp fiction language (only without all the terrible OTT punctuation, obviously). It made for a very entertaining and easy read, and yet the subject matter remained interesting and thought provoking.
Tatum: It was pretty bog-standard YA first-person tbh, which I tend to find irritating after a while. The prose is fairly simple and clean, which, like Lauren pointed out, works in favour of the narrative.
Ending
Lauren: This was the best bit for me, because despite both reading and watching myriad crime procedurals and always being able to guess who the killer is before they reveal it, with this one I did not see it coming. I knew it was someone connected with the house, that it was someone that Cassie knew, but that was as far as I got into puzzling the answer out. That was an amazing feeling, and the best part was thinking back and realising that there actually were all those little clues thrown in up until that point and I’d missed them. I also thought Cassie was amazing in the last couple of chapters; as though once the two boys were no longer the main thing she was thinking about, she grew into a spectacular character that I would love to see more of.
Tatum: I thought the climax to the murder mystery was fabulously done and it really helped that I didn’t see it coming at all. Unfortunately the last few pages of the book are devoted to the love triangle and as I care more about wallpaper than I do about irritating romantic subplots I found myself tuning out.
Amber: As that bloke from Pitch Perfect said: Endings are the best part. That statement is very much true for this novel, because the last fifty pages are where everything picks up and starts to spiral towards the conclusion. Like I said previously, I did not see the twist coming until Cassie went into the bathroom to make a call. That’s when it started to click. I love that we got to see the killer’s backstory and motivation, it really made me feel some sort of connection with them. The last couple of chapters were excellent, while I wasn’t a huge fan of the epilogue type chapter at the very end. I like how it wrapped things up in a “X Months Later” type way, it felt a lot like the end scene of Ocean’s Eleven: disconnected, and with too much emphasis on the romance.
Sequel
Lauren: I’m looking forward to it, and I’m definitely going to be picking it up the moment it hits the shelves. I’m really hoping that the love triangle will be toned down a lot, and that we’ll get to learn a bit more about the other characters. I’m also hoping that the Serial Killer they have to find next time won’t be so intimately connected with Cassie, so that we’ll get more of the crime scene detailing and less of the ‘oh no they’re after me!’ monologues. I can only read so much of that before I feel an intense need to roll my eyes out of my head tbh.
Tatum: Umm, I liked this book but I’m still not sure I’ll be reading the sequel, at least not straight away. Maybe if the sequels are written from different characters perspectives because I think a book about Lia would be most excellent.
Amber: I’m very excited to see where the sequel takes the characters, although I’m also quite hesitant. The Naturals would have made a great standalone book. I hope that the author uses the sequel to tell us more about Cassie’s mother’s murder, because I think we all need some closure on that front. My fingers are crossed for another well-researched thriller. Favourite Aspect Lauren: I loved the I/You aspect of Cassie and Dean’s working dynamic. I thought it cleverly reflected their individual backgrounds and brought them together in a really individual way, and I’m excited to see if that gets expanded on in the sequel. Tatum: What Lauren said ^^
Amber: The amount of research that clearly went into it, because it felt like I was watching an episode of Criminal Minds. I loved all the little details that were included, and I hope to see more of those in the sequel.
Least Favourite Aspect
Lauren: Michael. I know Amber loves him, and usually we tend to have similar tastes in male characters, but I just wasn’t feeling him. I am all for sarcastic assholes (I stan many of them), but Michael didn’t come across that way to me. Instead I found him to be a self-entitled dick – especially when it came to Cassie, I mean what, did he call dibs on her before she arrived or something and just forgot to inform her? – and antagonistic without any reason. I like my sarcastic assholes to have reasons for why they’re sarcastic assholes, and I’m sorry but ‘because I want the girl’ is not a good enough reason to me. Maybe he can be a tragic victim in the sequel? I’ll pretend to be upset and everything, honest!
Tatum: What is a Michael why am I meant to care
Amber: The length. I feel like this book could have been longer, so as to include more training and lessons. I loved those parts, and I don’t think we got enough of them! And whatever, Lauren, Michael is awesomely dickish.
Describe The Naturals in one word Lauren: Intriguing. Tatum: Different. Amber: Gripping.
kimbacaffeinate
Written on Oct 17, 2013
Ashley
Written on Oct 4, 2013
4.5 Stars
I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
Here's what the synopsis for The Naturals says on NetGalley:
Think The Mentalist meets Pretty Little Liars—Jennifer Lynn-Barnes’ The Naturals is a gripping psychological thriller with killer appeal, a to-die-for romance, and the bones of a gritty and compelling new series.
If you cut out the part about the romance (which I've done), this is spot on. I normally roll my eyes when books are compared to certain movies or other books, because it rarely actually fits. Now with The Naturals, I can't really comment on the Pretty Little Liars part since I don't watch that show, but this book fits The Mentalist PERFECTLY!
When I first read about The Naturals I think I pictured more of a paranormal book with legitimate mind reading or crazy powers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not like that! This is where The Mentalist comes in. That show isn't paranormal; it's just about a guy who's exceptionally good at reading people and drawing quick, accurate conclusions from his observations. That is Cassie in a nutshell. I thought that idea was SO COOL! And of course, you have the serial killer part too.
The Naturals was so cool and creepy, and it really took you into a killer's mindset and how people like the FBI deal with them. Watching the agents train up Cassie was really interesting, even if it's not an accurate representation of how that stuff works in real life (I have no idea if it is or not). When Cassie profiles a killer, she literally gets into his head, to the point where she understands the killer, even if just for a few moments. It creeps her out, and it creeps me out!
The Naturals kept me guessing the entire time. I have a problem with mystery books where I can't not constantly guess the killer/ending/etc. I'm constantly analyzing, crossing people off my "might be the killer list", etc. But with The Naturals, I could not figure it out! Towards the very, very end (like pages away from learning the truth) I did start to guess, but for most of the book I was almost 100% in the dark... and it was awesome. I'm getting a little sick of books that are so easy to figure out.
Remember how I said to cut out the romance bit? Well I'll go over that. The Naturals didn't have a bad romance, it just didn't have an amazing one, which is why I wouldn't label it as "to-die-for". And that's not necessarily a bad thing. The romance was so far from being the center of the story, it just sat on the edge of certain scenes. And while I did kind of like one of the love interests (Dean—he was a really interesting character!), the relationship didn't really develop beyond "I might kind of like you" so it wasn't much of a romance. And that's perfectly fine! In fact, I think a full blown romance would have killed this story.
I loved how all of the characters were so different and dynamic. I can clearly identify all of their different personalities and tendencies, which is pretty cool. Sloane was definitely one of my favourites. She's a statistics, patterns, and probability whiz. Her character was HILARIOUS! I feel like I'd want her to be my best friend.
"There are fourteen varieties of hugs," she said. "This is one of them."
Sloane
The only reason I'm not giving this book a full 5 stars is because I felt like it was missing some feels. Not necessarily a heavier romance.. just.. feels. I thought The Naturals was really interesting, unique, and fun to read, it just didn't always have me giggling with excitement or have my heart pounding with anticipation. But despite that, it was still a damn fine book!