Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
The Supernaturalist
Fiction
For ages 14 and up
Hyperion, 2004 ISBN: 978-0786851485
Cosmo Hill is an “unsponsored” orphan. He was found on the streets when he was a baby and when the authorities determined that he had no family living they took him to an orphanage where he has spent the last fourteen years. The orphanage is a terrible place. It raises its own funds by letting companies use the orphans to test their products and as a result the average life expectancy of the orphans is fifteen. Cosmo knows that he only has a year or so left before the items he is forced to test end up killing him. There is only one thing to do – he has to escape.
By sheer luck Cosmo is able to do this though he is terribly injured in the process. He is taken in by a group of young people who call themselves Supernaturalists. It would appear that all three of the young people can see strange beings which no one else can see – blue beings which apparently suck the life force out of injured humans. Most extraordinary of all, Cosmo is just like them, he too can see the creatures and because of this he ends up joining their “family.”
The leader of the group Stefan Bashkir is determined to find a way to destroy every single one of the “parasites” and soon Cosmo is going out at night to help his new friends wipe out as many of the parasites as they can.
It is only after they have found and eradicated a whole nest full of the creatures that Cosmo, Stefan, and the others learn that the creatures are not what they thought they were at all.
