The author of the Artemis Fowl series hits another one out of the park with The Supernaturalist; the difference is that the latter is an action-packed sci-fi cyberpunk thriller and not a funny YA fantasy novel. Fans of Eion Colfer won’t be disappointed, though. The Supernaturalist has all the charm, zippy pace, and imagination of Colfer’s previous novels, maybe even more so. One critic cited on the back of the book’s cover rightly said that it reads like a “Dickens novel set in a Blade Runner world.”
Fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill is an orphan living in the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. When he escapes, he discovers a distopia even bleaker than the lab-rab-like experiments he had to endure in the orphanage. Following a near-death experience, Cosmo sees blue creatures that seem to suck the lifeforce out of injured humans. He then joins a ragtag group of teenagers known as the Supernaturalists who’ve made it their mission to save the world from these creatures, or parasites.
What follows is a wonderfully plotted series of twists, rescues, and tender moments. Colfer is a master of world creation and lovable characters. He makes you care about these people.
I had been listening to the book on my iPod — which is voiced wonderfully by some English chap who sounds exactly like Jude Law — but soon found the reading too slow to my liking, and picked up the book to finish it. A must for AF fans. A.