The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes Summary

The Naturals follows seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes, who is recruited by the FBI into a classified program for teenagers with exceptional abilities to solve cold cases. Cassie is a natural profiler who can read people by piecing together tiny details. She joins four other "Naturals" with unique skills—including emotion reading, lie detection, and pattern recognition—to help catch serial killers, though they soon become targets themselves when a new murderer emerges.

The Naturals is perfect for fans of Criminal Minds, psychological thrillers, and YA mystery series who enjoy fast-paced plots with forensic profiling. Readers who appreciate teen protagonists with special abilities, ensemble casts, and suspenseful cat-and-mouse games with serial killers will find this book compelling. It appeals to those who enjoy Jennifer Lynn Barnes' signature style, similar to her work in The Inheritance Games series, particularly readers who love intricate mysteries with romantic subplots.

The Naturals is worth reading for its addictive pacing, unpredictable plot twists, and engaging premise that blends teen drama with FBI procedural elements. Many readers report finishing it within 24 hours and being completely riveted, with reviewers praising the shocking ending they never saw coming. While some note predictable elements and a love triangle subplot, the book successfully balances YA accessibility with darker thriller content, making it an entertaining page-turner that spawned a successful four-book series.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a bestselling YA author who graduated from Yale University in 2006 with a degree in cognitive science, the study of the brain and thought. Beyond The Naturals series (four books plus a novella published 2013-2017), she is widely known for The Inheritance Games trilogy, which features similar elements of mystery, romance, and clever plot twists. Her academic background in cognitive science heavily influences her writing, particularly in crafting characters with exceptional mental abilities and psychological depth.

The Naturals program recruits five teenagers, each with a distinct natural ability that aids FBI investigations. Cassie Hobbes is a profiler who reads people through behavioral details; Michael Townsend reads emotions from gestures and expressions; Dean Redding is also a profiler specializing in understanding criminal minds; Lia Zhang functions as a human lie detector; and Sloane Tavish possesses genius-level abilities with numbers, statistics, and pattern recognition. These skills allow them to solve cold cases that have stumped traditional FBI methods.

The Naturals features Cassie Hobbes as the protagonist, a seventeen-year-old profiler whose mother was murdered when she was young. Dean Redding is a brooding profiler who keeps Cassie at arm's length and harbors a dark secret about his serial killer father, Daniel Redding. Michael Townsend is a sarcastic, privileged emotion reader who develops feelings for Cassie. Lia Zhang is a lie detector with an on-off relationship with Michael, and Sloane Tavish is a numbers genius. FBI agents Briggs and Locke oversee the program.

The shocking twist reveals that FBI Agent Lacey Locke, who trains Cassie and the other Naturals, is actually the serial killer they've been tracking—and Cassie's aunt. Locke grew up in an abusive household with Cassie's mother and felt abandoned when her sister left after becoming pregnant. Though she planned to kill her sister herself, someone murdered her first, leading Locke to join the FBI to find the killer while becoming a murderer herself. She attempts to transform Cassie into a killer before Michael shoots her.

The Naturals draws heavy inspiration from Criminal Minds, featuring teenage versions of FBI profilers who hunt serial killers using behavioral analysis. The book uses the term "UNSUB" (unknown subject) to describe suspects, which is strictly a TV-based term popularized by Criminal Minds. Both focus on profiling psychology, cold case investigations, and the dangerous cat-and-mouse dynamics between investigators and killers. Readers who enjoy Criminal Minds' procedural format and psychological depth will recognize similar themes, though The Naturals adds YA elements like romance and teen dynamics.

The Naturals features a prominent love triangle between Cassie, Michael, and Dean that develops throughout the book. Michael, the emotion reader, uses his abilities to get inside Cassie's head and under her skin, while Dean, the fellow profiler, keeps her at arm's length despite obvious chemistry. During a game of Truth or Dare, Lia dares Cassie to kiss Dean, which upsets Michael; later, Michael kisses Cassie himself. Reviewers note Jennifer Lynn Barnes excels at crafting compelling love triangles, similar to her work in The Inheritance Games series.

Cassie's mother was a lounge singer who was murdered when Cassie was young, though her body was never found. Cassie was backstage preparing for her mother's show when she went into the crowd; upon returning to the dressing room, her mother was gone and blood covered the walls. The amount of blood led police to presume her dead. This cold case motivates Cassie to join the Naturals program, hoping the FBI can help solve her mother's murder. The book ends without providing closure about who killed Cassie's mother, setting up future books.

The Naturals series consists of four main novels and one novella.

• The series began with The Naturals in 2013
• followed by Killer Instinct (2014)
• All In (2015)
• the concluding book Bad Blood (2016)

A novella titled Twelve was published in 2017, expanding the series universe. The complete series allows readers to follow Cassie Hobbes and the other Naturals through multiple cases while developing their relationships and uncovering deeper mysteries about their pasts.

A Natural is a teenager with an exceptional, innate ability to perform specific cognitive tasks that benefit FBI investigations without formal training. The FBI's classified Naturals program identifies and recruits these teens to hone their skills for solving cold cases and tracking serial killers. Agent Briggs explains that Naturals possess abilities like profiling, emotion reading, lie detection, or pattern recognition at levels that surpass trained professionals. These gifts are natural talents rather than learned skills, making the teens uniquely valuable for cracking infamous unsolved homicides.