Virals by Kathy Reichs

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Tory moves to a remote island to live with her dad near the research facility where he works. There are other teens on the island and they become friends. After Tory saves a wild wolf dog from an experiment, she and her friends are infected with a virus that gives them heightened senses and reflexes. The virus turns them into Virals. Now they are similar to the wolf dogs that the infection came from; they are a pack. They use their new abilities to try and solve a murder.


This book never took off for me. I read it and kept waiting for the exciting part to happen, but it never did. The beginning was slow, and there was a lot of background and build up about the relationship of the group. Once they were infected and started to have the special abilities, it was still slow. On the front cover James Patterson gives the book an endorsement. I think the book is trying to appeal to fans of the Maximum Ride series, but the book lacks the fast action and believable friendship in the group of teens. It reads less like a teen book, and more like what an adult thinks being a teen is like. This was not the book for me, but it might be for you. Let me know what you thought.