Books like The Naturals
What should you read after Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Jennifer Lynn Barnes
- 2013
- Young adult thriller
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after The Naturals
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchOne of Us is Lying
Karen M. McManus
Five teenagers, one body, and everyone reading everyone else for tells. The same pleasure of watching clever kids work a case that includes them.
- Reading people like evidence
- Cliffhangers every few pages
- A house full of rival talents
- No FBI, no profiling
Great matchThe Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken
Gifted teenagers gathered and managed by adults with an agenda, forming alliances they cannot fully trust. Barnes's house, on the run.
- A house full of rival talents
- An FBI programme off the books
- Dystopian, not procedural
Best for the psychic-adjacent giftThe Body Finder
Kimberly Derting
A girl who can sense where murder victims are, chasing a serial killer through her own town. Cassie's talent, made literal and more supernatural.
- Teenagers profiling killers
- Chapters written from the killer
- A love triangle in close quarters
- Paranormal, not deduction
Best for the killer's mindI Hunt Killers
Barry Lyga
The son of a famous serial killer uses what his father taught him to catch another one. Darker than Barnes and much better on why the gift is a problem.
- Teenagers profiling killers
- Reading people like evidence
- Chapters written from the killer
- Genuinely graphic
Worth a look — with a warningAll In
Nell Stark
Catalogued here as the third Naturals volume, where the cold-case format gives way to a Vegas serial-killer plot. The record's author field points elsewhere.
- An FBI programme off the books
- Teenagers profiling killers
- A love triangle in close quarters
- Author recorded incorrectly
Great matchThe Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Michelle Hodkin
A girl whose memory of a fatal accident will not resolve, narrating her way toward something she may have done. Barnes's twistiness with more dread.
- Cliffhangers every few pages
- A mother's unsolved murder
- Paranormal turn late
Worth a look — with a warningThe Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
The adult version of a young outsider who reads people better than any professional and works a decades-cold case. Slower start, far heavier content.
- Reading people like evidence
- A mother's unsolved murder
- An FBI programme off the books
- Graphic sexual violence
Great matchThe Raven Boys
Maggie Stiefvater
A group of gifted teenagers in a house of their own making, each with a talent and a secret. Read it for the ensemble rather than the case.
- A house full of rival talents
- A love triangle in close quarters
- Quest plot, not crime
Great matchThe Name of the Star
Maureen Johnson
A teenager who can see what others cannot joins an unofficial unit hunting a copycat Ripper. Barnes's setup with London fog and jokes.
- An FBI programme off the books
- Teenagers profiling killers
- Ghosts do the heavy lifting
Worth a look — with a warningThe Cellar
Natasha Preston
A kidnapping told partly from the kidnapper's point of view, which is the device Barnes uses between chapters, sustained for a whole novel.
- Chapters written from the killer
- Teenagers profiling killers
- Crude prose
Best for the twistShutter Island
Dennis Lehane
Two investigators, an institution that will not answer questions, and a case that turns out to be about one of them. Barnes's structural trick, expertly done.
- Reading people like evidence
- A mother's unsolved murder
- Adults, 1950s setting
Worth a look — with a warningThe Maze Runner
James Dashner
Teenagers held by an organisation that tests them and explains nothing. Shares Barnes's institutional creepiness and none of her interest in character.
- Cliffhangers every few pages
- An FBI programme off the books
- No crime element
Great matchThe 5th Wave
Rick Yancey
Gifted recruits trained and deployed by adults who are lying about the mission, with alternating viewpoints and a strong central voice.
- An FBI programme off the books
- A house full of rival talents
- A love triangle in close quarters
- Science fiction premise
What should you read after The Naturals?
The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus — five teenagers, one body, and everyone reading everyone else for tells. The same pleasure of watching clever kids work a case that includes them.
If what stayed with you was a house full of rival talents, read The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken instead: gifted teenagers gathered and managed by adults with an agenda, forming alliances they cannot fully trust. Barnes's house, on the run. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting is the other strong option — a girl who can sense where murder victims are, chasing a serial killer through her own town. Cassie's talent, made literal and more supernatural.
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