Review: The Predicteds by Catherine Seifert

Title: The Predicteds

Author: Catherine Seifert

Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Publication Date: 9.1.2011

Pages: 320

Genre: Sci-Fi, Dystopian, Contemporary

Series: No

Source:  Finished copy from publisher

Rating: B+

Summary (from Goodreads):

Daphne is the new girl in town and is having trouble fitting in. At least she has Jesse... sort of. He wants to be more than "just friends," but there's something he's not telling her about his past. Something dangerous. When a female student is brutally attacked, police turn to PROFILE, a new program that can predict a student's capacity for drug use, pregnancy, and violent behavior, to solve the case. As the witch hunt ensues, Daphne is forced to question her feelings for Jesse-and what she will do if her first love turns out to be a killer.

Review:

This book is a delicious blend of Sci-Fi and contemporary that I’ve yet to see rivaled.  It took me a few chapters to get into this book, but I was so glad I stuck with it. Catherine Seifert has come up with a plot so ingenious, I couldn’t help but be amazed. It’s fresh and original in every aspect.

Honestly I think the initial problem was that I found the first few chapters somewhat erratic and a bit frustrating because I wanted more detail. I felt like Seifert was bypassing the characters’ backgrounds in order to get to the meat of the story. But once I got past that and Seifert really started digging in and getting into what PROFILE was, I was hooked. Maybe the most powerful part was I could see PROFILE becoming a very real possibility – monitoring the brain and making educated guesses as to how a person will behave. It’s something out of a conspiracy theorists handbook.

Daphne, as the lead character, was a good narrator. She had me scratching my head several times in the beginning, but there was something charming about her snark and wit that made me keep reading. By the middle of the book I truly warmed to her and by the end I adored her. Jesse, on the other hand, I fell for almost immediately. He’s a guy I would love to know in real life, and the way Seifert writes them together is golden. They’re real and magical all at once.

I went into this book thinking I was getting a dystopian (because doesn’t that seem to be the trend nowadays?), and was pleasantly surprised when this book wasn’t that cut and dried. It kinda of caught me off guard—in a good way. There are several twists and turns that literally made my jaw drop. Seifert came up with a dynamite plot and backed it up with fun, vibrant characters. I recommend Sci-Fi fans, dystopian fans, and contemporary fans check this one out ASAP.

Buy: Amazon