"The Supernaturalist" by Eoin Colfer

Rating: 4

Description: Fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill is an orphan, unwanted from birth and sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. At Clarissa Frayne, the children engage in sometimes dangerous product testing, and Cosmo realizes that he'll be dead in a matter of years if he doesn't get out. So when the opportunity to escape presents itself, Cosmo leaps at the chance. Unfortunately, this leads to him being electrocuted and left for dead on a rooftop watching a glowing blue thing suck the life from him. Luckily, just before Cosmo gives himself up for dead, the Supernaturalists arrive. The Supernaturalists are a group of kids (except for Ditto, who is in his twenties but looks like a kindergartener due to an experiment gone wrong) who patrol Satellite City looking for the blue things, which they call Parasites. It seems that only a few people can see the Parasites, who are attracted to pain, and Cosmo is one of them. Having nothing better to do, Cosmo joins up and helps the Supernaturalists in their quest to rid the city of the life-sucking entities. But rather than disappearing, the Parasites seem to be increasing in number, faster than the Supernaturalists can blast them into oblivion. The kids get more and more desperate to wipe out the Parasites once and for all, but when they discover new information about their foes, they find that they may face an even greater challenge than they had imagined.

Review: "The Supernaturalist" is an amazing science fiction/fantasy story set in a semi-realistic, but still unique, future. The Parasites are well-imagined paranormal entities, and the Supernaturalists are wonderfully different with their own personalities and goals, but still a functional team. The plot is full of delightful twists that will leave the reader gasping, and the ending will leave them hungry for more. Here's hoping for a sequel.