Exposed and Fabulous

Some kids just can't help themselves. They find themselves in trouble regardless of where they go or what they do. Tory Brennan seems to be drawn to the craziest situations like a moth to a flame. In the fourth Virals book by Kathy and Brendan Reichs, Exposure, Tory and the other Virals find themselves caught between life and death... again! 

After the Gamemaster was stopped and the Virals found out their pack member Ben was helping him, nothing has been the same. Ben was expelled and lives with his mother, which makes it easy for Tory, Hi, and Shelton to avoid him. The problem is, even if they feel betrayed by Ben, they still never feel whole without him. He is the fifth member of the pack with the three kids and Tory's wolf-dog Coop. When the pack is apart, their powers are disjointed. When twins from school are kidnapped and the killer leaves a Zodiac card behind, Tory and the others just can't help themselves. They have to investigate. Even with everyone from their parents to the headmaster to the police watching them after their involvement with the Gamemaster, they can't help themselves. They know they can find things the investigators overlooked. 

The problem is, they do find clues to the disappearance of the twins, and when they realize the police aren't making any real progress, they can't help themselves but get further involved. The deeper they get, the more they realize the story behind this kidnapping isn't what it appears to be. To make matters worse, their separation and struggles within the pack have left their powers a little wonky. Now, when they flare, it feels like the flare is completely consuming them. When hunting a kidnapper, there is nothing worse than going from 100 to 0 in 10 seconds flat. Now the pack is in danger, but can they get themselves out of this one?

These books are so much fun and so adventurous, it is hard not to get sucked into them. Each time these kids get sucked into another dangerous adventure, I know I should be skeptical, but I just don't care that in reality, their parents would have left this island already. I just love how much fun the story is! And it really is fun. From start to finish, you know they are going to get into trouble, they are going to work together as a pack, and by golly, those bad guys are going to get what is coming to them! On a whole, the stories are predictable, but their bits and pieces are not. There are always twists and turns around each corner to keep you hooked, which is why I love them so much. 

I love these books for mature middle readers. They are fun, exciting, easy reads, and fabulous for strong middle readers. Because they are just clean, fun stories, you don't have to be afraid to give them to an inappropriate reader. My one complaint was toward the end when the pack was split, the narrator remained first person but it jumped from Tory to Hi and back and forth. It took me a while to figure out who on earth was speaking, and it would certainly confuse unfamiliar readers. I wish there was a better way to acknowledge the narrator at that point. Otherwise, you are going to love them all- Tory, Hi, the rest of the pack, even scary Whitney! And when you get to the end, you will be delighted to find out there most certainly HAS to be another book!

Can You Break the Code?

The Virals are not immune to trouble and adventure. In fact, both trouble and adventure seem to hunt them down and find them. In the third Virals novel Code, by Kathy and Brendan Reichs, we see how the superhuman pack reacts to a game that loses its "fun" appeal with the first bomb.

Tory Brennan is no stranger to adventure. After she and her three best guy friends, all of whom are the children of the scientists on the very island where they were exposed to a mad scientists experiment that turned them into a superhuman wolf pack, solved a crazy pirate's treasure hunt to find enough gold doubloons to save the island and LIRI, the lab, they became fairly legendary. Unfortunately, legendary still doesn't earn them any friends at the snooty private school that pegs them as "scholarship brats". But Tory and her friends Hi, Shelton, and Ben are too interested in their lives as Virals and the next adventure to care much about typical teen drama. 

When Hi starts geocaching, he is delighted to find a first time cache on Loggerhead Island, the very place where the research laboratory is located. Although his friends think geocaching is silly, when he finds an ornate Japanese puzzle box with a bizarre clue inside, they can't help but be intrigued by the thrill of the hunt. It takes them a while to break the clue, but their Flare doesn't let them down. While it might be invasive to be able to read one another's thoughts and act like a pack, they can't scoff at the benefits. But when they find the second clue, it seems they have stumbled upon a sick joke left by an even more disturbing individual who calls himself the Gamemaker. Now they must solve the clues int he time the Gamemaker gives them or they will be responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people. But the Gamemaker didn't plan on one very important detail when he targeted the Virals- a pack never gives up and never loses. 

This is such a fun, entertaining series. It really is perfect, good, clean fun for any reader, boy or girl, middle reader or young adult. Even adults would enjoy this fun series that keeps them guessing and trying to solve the mystery. I think the language is simple enough for lower skilled students, but the appeal is really in the fast-paced entertainment. You will be hard-pressed to find a reader who wasn't hanging on every situation the Virals found themselves in. The protagonist is fairly young, 14, so it might seem a little too young for a more mature reader, but I imagine they will quickly get sucked up into the excitement pretty quickly!

My one sticky wicket with this story was the final reveal at the end. I just didn't like it the way I have liked the big reveal of the evil mastermind behind the badness in the other books. This one was far less satisfying, but I still enjoyed the story. In fact, I am really looking forward to the next book. These books are so fast that I feel like I just devour them. Can't wait to devour the next! 

Fast Paced Action Will Seize You

When we think of "accidentally walked into an experiment and was infected" we think of Peter Parker and crazy Spidey Senses, right? Well what if they were just kids who wanted to save some animals who ended up becoming part animal themselves? When Tory and her friends were infected in Kathy Reichs first novel in the series, Virals, they gained wolf senses. Now they have super hearing, sight, smell, taste, and sometimes even telepathy. But that doesn't keep them out of trouble in Seizure.

Tory and the other three in the "pack" get to live in island paradise of the Carolinas because their parents all work at the laboratory on one of the islands. Thanks to the bad press surrounding the animal testing a crazy scientist was conducting that the wolf pack unearthed (and subsequently gained their wolf-ish-ness), the lab is closing and the island is being sold. The three boys are ready to give up, but Tory won't let the pack get broken up, especially if selling the island endangers the wolves and monkeys and other animals on the island. She has a plan to save the island but no one, not even the rest of the pack, can really imagine it working out.

The plan involves Anne Bonney, the famous female pirate who was supposed to have buried her treasure in Charleston. Tory is convinced they, especially with their super super senses, can find the treasure and have enough money to buy the island and keep them all together. Whether it be stealing a treasured map from a local museum, swindling a pawn broker, escaping thugs, discovering centuries-old pirate booby traps, breaking out their crazy former classmate from the loony bin, or deciphering clues left by shifty pirates, the pack can't seem to give up with Tory at the helm. She just knows the treasure is still out there and nothing will stop her from saving the island... not even endangering the lives of the entire pack!

This was a really fun story with a lot of action to keep you hooked. I am not sure how we went from science experiments to pirates in this series, but I didn't mind! It was something like Pirates of the Caribbean meets National Treasure, complete with deadly booby traps and tricky clues. But Tory is a fun, headstrong character who won't give up when she sets her mind to something. The boys in the pack don't really know what they get themselves into until it is too late, and they make hilarious supporting characters.

The story is long but fast-paced and clean enough for any middle school through high school student. Anyone who is a fan of the Bones series would most likely enjoy this series (and Temperance Brennan even makes a couple of brief appearances). They are kind of goofy at times, but there is nothing wrong with that! I couldn't put the book down! The action was a lot of fun and kept you wondering what was around the next corner. And trust me... you won't see anything coming!

A Virus You Don't Want to Avoid

OK, I must admit I LOVE the television show "Bones". And no, it isn't just because David Boreanaz is adorable (although that might have something to do with it)! I love the character Temperance Brennen in all her awkward, scientific loveliness. The supporting characters are hilarious, and the cases they all solve are so interesting. Kathy Reichs writes the books the television show is based off of, but I have never read them. So when she delved into the YA genre with a story about Temperance Brennen's niece Tory, I couldn't resist. Now that I have read (and loved) Virals, I might have to pick up the dozen or so other books Reichs has written!

Tory had to move in with her father (who she never knew existed) after her mother was killed. She found out she was the niece of the famous Temperance Brennen, which explains a lot about her! Her father is also a scientist, and along with a few other families, they live on a small island outside Charleston. The only people who live on the island are the scientists who work on a nearby private island and their families. The island itself is quite unique with monkeys running free and a pack of canines with a wolf mother, a German Shepard father, and two wolfdog pups. While it is off limits to the general public, families of the scientists are welcome to visit as long as they don't roam to far.

Tory and her misfit band of friends (all their parents work on the island) are always finding themselves in some sticky situation, but when one of the wolfdog pups is missing, the same pup Tory saved once, they want to get to the bottom of the disappearance. The rest of the pack has been terrifying the lab, so they go to the island to investigate. While their, they are assaulted by the monkeys who hurl something at them (along with other projectiles)- a dog tag. The dog tag is seriously weathered and damaged, so to read the information on it, they must get into the labs where they are never supposed to be. When they sneak into the labs and clean the dog tag with the lab equipment, they hear a dog in a nearby, sealed off lab. It turns out to be the missing pup who Tory and the boys rescue and hide in their hidden bunker on the beach. What they don't know is the parvovirus the pup was infected with is a new, super strain that can pass to humans. It also comes with side-effects they could never have imagined.

Now the foursome find themselves dodging bullets, digging up bodies, suffering strange symptoms, surviving horrible illnesses, and trying to get to the bottom of a decades old murder someone doesn't want them to solve. Meanwhile, the virus they were exposed to has made them different, changed them down to their DNA... made them VIRALS!

Virals is just as I would have hoped it would be. Exciting, great characters, and tons of twists and turns. Think you have the mystery all solved? Guess again! You will never figure out how everything fits together, and when it is all revealed, you will slap your head for not seeing it earlier! The story is fun, action packed, and never ceases to keep you guessing. This is the start of a great new series that Reichs had better look like pumping out quickly, because I can't wait for the next book!

The writing is fairly simple, but the size of the book might make it more appropriate for an older crowd or a younger student who has the stamina to keep going (although the story doesn't really give you a chance to stop reading, so that might not be a problem!). The story is very clean, and just full of exciting mystery. Reichs is a genius and, like other adult authors, has finally realized the young adult genre is much more fun than those stuffy adult books they have been writing! More and more they keep trickling over to the young adult books. Pretty soon no one will be writing adult books anymore. But do you blame them? Young Adult readers rock!