The Supernaturalist

Another book by Eoin Colfer, The Supernaturalist (or as one character mistakenly thinks, the Naturists) has a very interesting plot and cast. The story was full to the brim with out-of-the-box adventure and fighting scenes, as well as backstabbers, moody teenagers, and creatures made of gobs of blue. This book took on a more serious tone than Artemis Fowl, although Colfer seemed to still have a blast with heaps of sci-fi futuristic...stuff. The Supernaturalist was pretty much made of equal parts action, extraterrestrial life, and the consequences and reasons of misunderstanding.

For fourteen torture-filled years, Cosmonaut Hill has been recruited to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Clarissa Frayne is an orphanage, a medical testing laboratory, and above all, a horrid place where the "caretakers", or marshals, get to vent their considerable anger at the working kids. So one day, when the vehicle they were being transported in was in an accident, Cosmo and his friend escape. Except...he, too, almost died in an accident involving rooftops, a broken nose, and a very, very angry marshal. And as Cosmo feels the life leaving him, he sees a small blue figure sucking the life out of him. Cosmo would've died, if it weren't for a raggedy group of three people armed with lightning rods, who blasted the little blue guys into smithereens. When the strange group realize Cosmo's potential, they decide to adopt him and introduce Cosmo to a behind-the-scenes world of real risks. And...Pigmobiles...?

Related links:
• Author's website