Darwin's Children by Natasha Larry

Title: Darwin's Children
Author: Natasha Larry
Series: Darwin's Children, #1
Source: Author for Review
Publisher: Penumbra Publishing
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
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Life can get pretty complicated for any seventeen-year-old girl, but for a home-schooled telepathic black girl trying to survive in a prestigious private school in small-town Jonesborough, Tennessee, it can be maddening – especially when her telepathic father keeps eavesdropping on her thoughts!

Jaycie Lerner’s family isn’t the usual mom-dad-kid setup. Jaycie’s mom’s MIA, but Allison, her personal live-in ‘trainer,’ is more than a mom, with her own special abilities, like being able to lift cars and run incredibly fast. And Jaycie’s godfather John is more than persuasive – he can literally convince anyone to do anything.

As far as the rest of the world’s concerned, Jaycie’s on the outside looking in. The townsfolk love Jaycie’s pediatrician father, but she doesn’t fit in with ‘normal’ kids, and she doesn’t really want to. Most of her free time is spent training to keep her telekinetic and telepathic powers under control. But there’s one thing she can’t control – and that’s her feelings, especially when her best friend Matt is nearby. If only he knew what she was truly capable of…

Everything seems to be status quo for Jaycie until she receives a cryptic message from a stranger and meets a very unusual girl new to Jonesborough. Then all hell breaks loose!

 

I think that my problems with this book are probably pretty juvenile, but I'll start with this one: I don't believe in evolution. I'm a southern baptist kind of girl, so evolution just does not sit well for me. But for the sake of this review, I won't focus on that part. I'll focus on my other problems.

The writing and dialogue were very choppy in the beginning. Towards the end it started to get better and was a lot less choppy, but it was really hard not to correct all of the "choppiness". Also, every one of the characters refer to themselves in the third person. Points of view changed in the MIDDLE of paragraphs, and that honestly confused the HECK out of me...

All of the adults treat Jaycie like she's a little kid. Like her every problem and every want should be attended to immediately. And I honestly don't like that. She behaves like a little kid sometimes, so it is understandable, but still.

Matt and Jaycie's relationship seemed really...I don't know. Forced, maybe? In the beginning, Matt seemed like a total sweetheart, but after he and Jaycie get together they're off picking stupid fights over silly stuff (i.e., Jaycie's not going to college), and then they make up way too quickly. Also, I don't know where I picked this up, but when a guy calls a girl "baby" all the time, it makes me think that he doesn't want to slip up and call her the wrong name. Call me crazy, y'all, but that's what I think when I hear "baby".

I did like Allison, but her being the only real bright spot in the story doesn't bode well for me. Also, for argument's sake, you could say that another issue I had was the philosophy. I love philosophy, in a weird kind of way. But I couldn't help but argue with all the philosophy presented by this book. Just couldn't help it, because that's the way I am.

All in all, I didn't enjoy Darwin's Children. It simply wasn't for me, but you never know what you might enjoy!