Virals by Kathy Reichs

448 pgs/2010

About the Book: Tory Brennan is the niece of famous forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. She has only recently discovered her father and is now living with him on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. Tory and her misfit group of friends take it upon themselves to rescue a dog from a medical testing facility, only to be exposed to an experimental strain of parvovirus. Soon the group is experiencing heightened senses and powers, which will help them solve a mystery of a missing girl and solve a cold case murder.

Sarah Teenlibrarian Says: Yet another adult author seeing the money in writing for teens. As far as adult authors writing for teens, this book isn't bad. Some of the references felt a little dated (Tory's friends refer to her Agent Scully and a few other references I now can't remember that struck me as odd). The group of teens is your typical, "we're science geeks, super smart and a bit nerdy, but we have each other" group of teens that usually show up in these types of novels. Of course they are able to break into medical facilities, fool adults, solve mysteries and twenty-year-old crimes. Of course the bad guys have long monologues explaining everything and there's a twist of suspects where the person you least suspect has been involved all along. So, pretty much, nothing out of the ordinary-it's what you would expect.

The biggest thing that bugged me was how easily the teens were able to outwit the adults and solve the mystery. I also was rolling my eyes when the teenage son of one of the bad guys starts spilling the story, even though he wasn't even alive when the murder happened, but he knew every detail because he Dad had had to spill everything to his son to protect everything. Really, I think the Dad would have kept his mouth shut, so I thought it was pretty annoying the teen knew everything. And there was the whole innocent character (so you thought) who really was bad-another groan and eye roll.

But for teens who like lots of action and some mystery and especially teens who enjoy the Maximum Ride series, I think this is a good pick. It's a new series and great for middle school readers.