Book Review: Darwin's Children by Natasha Larry
Natasha Larry- Darwin's ChildrenFormat- ebookSource- review copy provided by authorSynopsis: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!Review: Darwin’s Children is the first book in a series about Jaycie, a teenager with telekinetic abilities. She lives with her father and her personal trainer who is more like a mother than her own, who walked out on her when she was young. Jaycie tends to socialise more with adults who have similar abilities, so when her father insists on enrolling her in a regular school after being home schooled for years, Jaycie has trouble fitting in. But that doesn’t seem to bother her, she is quite happy being the outsider looking in. Jaycie’s is a strong, likeable character and comes across as more mature than other teenagers her age.The characters were definitely the strength of this story; however the plot wasn’t quite suspenseful enough for me. Problems seem to get resolved easily and there were times when I felt Jaycie was just a little too perfect. Jaycie’s relationship with her childhood best friend, Matt was sweet but a little ad hoc because he doesn’t know about her special abilities and she is too scared to tell him about it. I enjoyed Haylee’s character also, who Jaycie takes under her wing when she realises she has a dangerous power and needs to learn how to control it. The author creates a sense of family among the characters in the story and I really enjoyed this aspect.Overall, this was an interesting read that has strong characters and provides a different spin to the usual YA paranormal stories currently on the market.
3/5 rating
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Also by Natasha Larry:
Natasha stopped by The Australian Bookshelf a couple of months ago and shared a fun character interview. Check it out here.