Accidental genetic mutation. That is the driving factor in Virals, the first book in the series of the same name, by authors Kathy Reichs and Brendan Reichs. This book is the first adventure of young Tory Brennan, great-niece to Temperance Brennan. It opens on her and a group of friends being curious and getting into trouble, more specifically they are exploring the wilderness areas of the island housing the Loggerhead research institute where their parents all work. While doing so they discover a random military dog tag that dates from Vietnam when there was no military on the island. Tory and her friends, Hi, Ben, and Shelton, sneak into the research facility during their investigation only to find a small wolf-dog pup being experimented on. Naturally they decide to rescue the pup from the experimental parvovirus and this is where things start to get weird. The dog tag leads them to a grave and murder of a young girl from several decades ago while the puppy, Cooper, leads them to illegal experimentation in the institute. As these two seemingly different things start to link the four friends start to experience an array of unusual symptoms. These include random bursts of strength, super hearing, and super smelling, amongst others as well.
I have only read a handful of Reichs’ adult works but I was impressed so I decided to try her young adult series and I have to admit I was even more impressed. The book combined the mystery elements Reichs is known for along with the new science-fiction elements necessary for this kind of work. It did so incredibly well. Not only that but it did a great job of tailoring the language for a younger audience which was probably not easy for an author used to writing for adults. In terms of the actual story, the plot was incredibly detailed and thought out with great plot development. It wasn’t too fast or too slow and had just the right balance of new reveals and new questions which isn’t always easy to achieve. On top of that it had two simultaneous mysteries going on, something which has occurred in some of Reichs’ previous works. In this case, it was the murder of the young woman and the illegal puppy experimentation. While they do end up being related it is not until way late in the story that it reveals how they are connected. This means that most of the book has to be a balancing act between the two plots. It also has to carefully interweave the development of the enhanced powers the teenagers gain to make sure that it doesn’t interfere too much with the rest of the plotlines. And that is just the plot as the book also has some pretty well developed characters as well. Tory Brennan is pretty well fleshed out for only the one book as she shows a lot of depth to her character in this book. I really feel like I know her as a person, which is rather weird to say after only one book. This isn’t necessarily the same with her three friends though as they do not show the same levels of character development. However, the story is also not told from their perspective so it makes sense that Tory is drastically more fleshed out than they are. I do hope to learn more about the other three characters in the subsequent books in the series. Overall, a great start to a new series and one that I can definitely see myself enjoying as I greatly enjoyed this book. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
This book is a young adult science-fiction book so it probably holds the most appeal to young adult readers who enjoy science-fiction. However, I can also see it holding considerable appeal to older readers as well if they happen to enjoy that genre. I am not sure it would appeal to older readers who don’t enjoy science-fiction. Kathy Reichs also wrote an adult mystery series, the Temperance Brennan series, but there are a lot of differences between that series and this one so I am not sure how well readers of that series will enjoy this one. I think it would still hold at least some appeal but the appeal may be lessened due to the difference in genre. I would not recommend the Virals series to younger readers though as it does deal with some semi-mature themes, such as the murder, that may make it inappropriate for readers who are younger than their teens. Either way it was a good book and one that I enjoyed. If you decide to try it feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.