11/06/2011

Darwin's Children by Natasha Larry Review


★★★★☆
Release Date: June 28, 2011
Age: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural
Format: e-book
Source: Author

Life can get pretty complicated for any seventeen-year-old girl, but for a home-schooled telepathic black girl trying to survive in a prestigious private school in small-town Jonesborough, Tennessee, it can be maddening; especially when her telepathic father keeps eavesdropping on her thoughts! Jaycie Lerner's family isn't the usual mom-dad-kid setup. Jaycie's mom is MIA, but Allison, her personal live-in trainer, is more than a mom, with her own special abilities, like being able to lift cars and run incredibly fast. And Jaycie's godfather John is more than persuasive; he can literally convince anyone to do anything. As far as the rest of the world's concerned, Jaycie's on the outside looking in. The townsfolk love Jaycie's paediatrician father, but she doesn't fit in with "normal" kids, and she doesn't really want to. Most of her free time is spent training to keep her telekinetic and telepathic powers under control. But there's one thing she can't control; and that's her feelings, especially when her best friend Matt is nearby. If only he knew what she was truly capable of... Everything seems to be status quo for Jaycie until she receives a cryptic message from a stranger and meets a very unusual girl new to Jonesborough. Then all hell breaks loose!
Natasha Larry is a funny and witty writer who knows exactly how to make her readers laugh out loud and also knows how to make a story so suspenseful that you're biting your nails as the pages turn. This book has the perfect balance of comedy and drama. We all know I love books with as many surprise and expected elements as possible, and Darwin's Children is one of those books! It's an amazing story filled with super powers, supernatural beings, humor, love, family, and plenty of drama.

I love books with a strong central cast of characters like the Delos family in Starcrossed or the Hayward family in Eternal Eden; Darwin's Children has a close family unit like those I love. It's is a novel filled with fun dialogue and relationships that some of us can only dream of. Jaycie's family is a strange one. Yet, even with her mother out of the picture her life is not lacking in the parental department. In the story we meet Allison, her car-lifting trainer/nanny, Johnny, her "uncle" an amazing guy with powers of his own, and her doctor father Mason who has her telepathic abilities only much stronger. Together these four take on a lot in order to help others. Darwin's Children is a book much like the X-Men comics and films. It's a story about people who are born with powerful abilities and what they do with them.

Jaycie is a seventeen year old girl in a prep school in Tennessee, who on the outside might look like any other high school girl, but inside is harboring loads of secrets including being telekinetic (moving things with her mind) and psychokinetic (reading minds and transferring her thoughts into minds). Her story takes a dramatic and suspenseful turn when she begins working at a Christian Book Store. There she meets a sad girl, Haylee, who needs her help. From there this amazing story just builds and builds.

I will say my least favorite part of the book comes in the form of Matt, Jaycie's best friend from childhood. He's like any normal teenage boy, hormone driven and not very understanding. Jaycie keeps a lot of secrets from him, for obvious reasons, but he kind of just gives up on her and I wasn't and probably will never be part of team Matt. See for yourself.

It is a dark and incredibly sad book at some points. I will say that it deals with some very adult issues towards the late middle and end of the book that makes the book more for an older teen audience. I would not recommend it to those under 14 or 15. The struggles and obstacles that the characters overcome is immense, Haylee and Jaycie especially the readers see so much growth in. I loved it and can't wait to check out book 2, Unnatural Law, available now on kindle and nook.


I recommend Darwin's Children to fans of:





0 comments:

Post a Comment