Book Reviews and More: Twelve - Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Tuesday, 21 May 2024

Twelve - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Naturals Book 4.5

Twelve

The Naturals Book 4.5

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

eISBN 9781368021302

ASIN B075573YK6

ASIN B0BXMP1LML

Twelve - Jennifer Lynn Barnes - The Naturals Book 4.5

First, I need to state that this volume is currently only available in eBook or audio book formats. Unlike the four main novels in the Naturals series.

I picked a copy of the first book in the main series a couple of years ago because my niece was reading it at the time. However, it got lost in the numerous books on my kindle and I never got around to reading it. This year my youngest, 13, picked it to read in class for school reading and a book report. She has to read the physical copy and read it in class. She debated between this and the Inheritance Games series, both had come highly recommended, but a few other girls in her class were doing Inheritance. While picking it up for my daughter I read the prologue and was hooked. My daughter is a little mad that I read it in 1 day and she has to wait and read it in class, but oh well! And she is even madder that I have now read the four novels and this novella and she has still not finished book 1, and is not allowed past chapter 26 yet. (I had told her on March break to read book 1 and do the report on book 2. But she held out.)

The description of this volume states:

“Cassie Hobbes has been working with the FBI since she was a teenager. Now twenty-three years old, she and her fellow Naturals have taken over running the program that taught them everything they know. As a unit, they're responsible for identifying new Naturals—and solving particularly impossible cases. When their latest case brings back a ghost from their past, Cassie and the other Naturals find themselves racing against the clock—and reliving their own childhood traumas.

In a small coastal town in Maine, there has been a rash of teen suicides—or at least, that's what the police believe. Mackenzie McBride, age twelve, thinks differently. Desperate to make herself heard, she stands at the top of a lighthouse, threatening to jump . . . unless the FBI agents who rescued her from a kidnapper at age six come to hear her out. Enter the Naturals. It doesn't take Cassie long to realize that Mackenzie isn't bluffing: she truly is convinced that the suicides are murder, and she really will jump if she can't get the FBI to believe her. To the outside world, Mackenzie is nothing more than a traumatized child. But so was Cassie, once upon a time. So were Michael, Dean, Sloane, Lia, and Celine. With a storm rolling in off the ocean and Mackenzie's position becoming more precarious by the moment, the Naturals have very little time to get to the truth about the deaths—and about twelve-year-old Mackenzie McBride.”

I wrote previously that this series started just a year after Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers series which I read as they were releasing. I absolutely loved killers. The two series share a lot of tropes, and have some similar events, I believe both are worth reading. This series has a somewhat similar feal, except it is a team of ‘naturals’ young adults with special abilities, such as: human lie detector, ability to read emotions and feelings almost exactly and of course natural profilers. Cassie’s is brought in as the newest member of the team. This story is set five years after the last volume. Or at least the main story is set five years after the main volume.

In this story some of the original Naturals are now in the FBI academy, some are still in Colorado running the Natural’s program and assisting on cases as consultants. Mackenzie McBride a kidnapping victim from one of the earlier novels is on the ledge of a lighthouse threatening to jump if the FBI do not come and speak with her. She wants the Agent that rescued her. Soon the teams finds they have a real case, and Mackenzie can see something others are missing. But will they be able to solve the clues in time to save her. Or will she become another victim.

This is a great little volume that is like a check in with old friends. We get to visit the team and see where they are in five years. I would still love to Barnes to go back and write stories about the Nightshade case, and other stories set after these events. This was a wonderful read for fans of the series. I can easily recommend it!

Books by Jennifer Lynn Barnes:

The Lovely and the Lost (2019)

Nobody (2013)

Every Other Day (2011)

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The Naturals Series:

The Naturals (2013)

Killer Instinct (2014)

All In (2015)

Bad Blood (2016)

Twelve (2017)

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