Book Cover Image School for Psychics by K. C. Archer
" data-orig-size="267,400" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" aperture="aperture" />BOTTOM LINE: So much fun
Genre: Suspense; Thriller
Publication Date: 3 April 2018
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Synopsis from the Publisher:
“Teddy Cannon isn’t your typical twenty-something woman. She’s resourceful. She’s bright. She’s scrappy. She can also read people with uncanny precision. What she doesn’t realize: she’s actually psychic.
When a series of bad decisions leads Teddy to a run-in with the police, a mysterious stranger intervenes. He invites her to apply to the School for Psychics, a facility hidden off the coast of San Francisco where students are trained like Delta Force operatives: it’s competitive, cutthroat, and highly secretive. They’ll learn telepathy, telekinesis, investigative skills, and SWAT tactics. And if students survive their training, they go on to serve at the highest levels of government, using their skills to protect America, and the world.
In class, Teddy befriends Lucas, a rebel without a cause who can start and manipulate fire; Jillian, a hipster who can mediate communication between animals and humans; and Molly, a hacker who can apprehend the emotional state of another individual. But just as Teddy feels like she’s found where she might belong, strange things begin to happen: break-ins, missing students, and more. It leads Teddy to accept a dangerous mission that will ultimately cause her to question everything—her teachers, her friends, her family, and even herself.”
My Thoughts: You go into every book you read hoping that it is going to be an engrossing read. It does not have to become your most favorite book ever, but you have certain expectations that the book is going to capture your attention and whisk you off to a different world. A good book leaves you satisfied. A really good book leaves you feeling like you won the book lottery. For me, School for Psychics had me feeling like it was written just for me.
Take any boarding school novel, add adult students, throw in a mystery, a government conspiracy, missing people, military training, and psychic powers and that is School for Psychics. It is so unbelievably fun. Because all of the students are over twenty, there is none of the teen angst that typically fills boarding school novels. The whole thing has a freshness about it specifically because the characters are adults and over the legal drinking age. Sex and alcohol are not the forbidden temptations they are for the underage crowd; no one is experimenting in any capacity outside of their psychic abilities. It is refreshing to be able to put aside my parenting hat and enjoy the characters.
The psychic abilities the students each exhibit are enviable, but Archer makes sure to show the downsides of superpowers. These are adults first and superheros after that, so we still have plenty of human drama to ratchet tension. Plus, as the first novel in a series, there are plenty of unanswered questions to keep you guessing. Only one of the questions left unanswered is just what the government has in mind for its psychic school graduates. (For the record, I envision a Buffy-esque type scenario like the one in Season One, Episode Eleven “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” where we last see the invisible girl in a classroom with other invisible students getting ready to learn the art of assassination and infiltration courtesy of the FBI.)
School for Psychics pretty much has everything I like in one novel and nothing I don’t like. Intrigue and drama? Check. Strong female characters? Check. Decent writing? Check. A mystery and potential cover-up? Check. Superpowers? Check. I tore through this novel in one sitting and am already scouring the Internet for the release date of the second book. Objectively I know that this is not a novel that is going to be popular nor is it one I would recommend to everyone. However, if you are looking for a little fun, action-packed paranormal adventure/boarding school mystery, then this is the novel for you.
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