"The Supernaturalists"

So, I know I made some sort of promise about doing four YA books and two adult books a week. I'm going to have to break that one.
Here is one more post to bring our total this week to three YA and one Adult. In the future, just look for two YA and one Adult a week.

"The Supernaturalists"
Eoin Colfer
Scholastic Inc., 2004
ISBN: 0-439-70182-1

Cosmo Hill, non-sponser and orphan in the middle of the falling-apart Satellite City, manages to escape from the Clarissa Frayne Institute and fall into the hands of the Supernaturalists. This misfit band of vigilants fight a war against the mysterious Non-Specs, which suck the very life out of the injured. When they get caught up in the politics of the failing city, will they be in over their heads? And when will their battle against the Non-Specs end?

I always recommend this book before I recommend Colfer's moderately successful "Artemis Fowl" series for two reasons.
1.) It isn't plagued by the burden of a massive series.
and 2.) Cosmo Hill is a likeable and sympathetic main character. A bit more likeable than Artemis Fowl.

Although I do really like the Artemis Fowl books, I think that Colfer lost a bit of the magic around the fourth book. The Supernaturalists, however, keeps it fresh with just one book. The action starts and stops a lot, but there is enough of a plot to keep you invested in the characters. And the cast is very likeable. Besides hero/orphan Cosmo Hill, there's the snappy ex-gang member Mona, the revenge-bent Stefan, and Ditto, a Bertoli Baby who looks four but is really twenty-eight. Each voice is distinct and interesting, with just enough history on each of them for a decent backstory without suffocating you with details. And, like other Colfer books, the writing flows. The futuristic setting is in interesting, if a little bit bleak. It's not quite a dystopia, but it makes the fight against the non-specs that much more interesting. Cosmo Hill is a much more thoughtful and likeable character than Artemis, who seemed a little too glib and sharp for a kid his age. I know that's part of the premise of the Artemis Fowl books, but I found myself identifying and sympathizing with Cosmo, the strangeness of the world he finds himself in, and the way he fights through truth and lies in Satellite City.