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The Supernaturalist

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 12,845 ratings · 692 reviews

In the future, in a place called Satelite City, fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill enters the world, unwanted by his parents. He's sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, Freight class.

At Clarissa Frayne, the boys are put to work by the state, testing highly dangerous products. At the end of most days, they are covered with burns, bruises, and sore...more

Paperback, 267 pages

Published January 1st 2004 by Puffin

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May 21, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 04, 2010 Mitchel Broussard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia, paranormal-and-supernatural, sci-fi, thriller-suspense, ya-fiction, mind-equals-blown, ahh-childhood

Time to review another oldie:D

This is one of those books that I absolutely LOVE but am terrified to re-read and find out it's not as great as my 12 year old naive mind remembers it.

But, anyway, it is epic, with great stories, lovably mean characters, cool sci fi/cyberpunk elements and an AMAZING finale (it's on this giant floating weather baloon/space station thing, i really dont remember much just that i was drooling all over myself). I swear the first thing i remember thinking upon finishing t...more

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Jun 18, 2007 Ave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, youth-children

Satellite city is a place in our future it has everything the body needs and nothing what the soul wants. Steel builings, high tec for everything, multibillion corporation terror, polluted air - the list goes on.

The main character is 14 year old Cosmo Hill, named by the place where he was found in, escaped "prisoner" from the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Escaped and saved from the blue creatures who seem to be sucking the life out of you by a group called The Supern...more

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Feb 04, 2008 Kathy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book takes place in a fairly near future that is completely polluted, high tech and uncaring. So uncaring that orphans are actually kept in brutal conditions and used for product testing. Our hero is one of those orphans who makes his escape and finds he can see parasitic creatures that feed off the energy of dying people. He then joins a team that works outside the system to destroy the creatures.

It was a decent book though a tad bit too juvenile for me even with some relatively mature sub...more

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Jan 14, 2011 Qing rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

Brief premise: Cosmo Hill, an orphan and no-sponsor, lives in the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys - an institute that uses the no-sponsor kids as lab rats for product testings.^^^^Cosmo escapes the institute and death during a vehicle accident. He gets taken in by the Supernaturalists: a small group of people who can see these strange blue creatures with huge black eyes and siphons injured people's life force.^^^^Their objective is to kill these creatures to protect thei...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Von Fritz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy

The second Eoin Colfer book I read. It costs around 300 pesos at NBS. When I saw a copy worth 50 pesos at Lopues East, I bought it.

The Supernaturalist is kinda weird to me at first. The book got no summary at the back and reading it is like entering to another world where you got no idea about. The only clue is the picture on the cover.

Okay...so what it's all about? The future. Imagine a world with the sun deteriorated and the only thing that supplies energy to earth is a montrous mechanical sph...more

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Feb 17, 2013 Maythavee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Eoin Colfer has done it again! He made me fall in love with another one of his books without any warning :P

What I really like about the plot was all the twists and turns. Some of them may be predictable but not may are, and all of them are exhilarating. Eoin Colfer is truly amazing at this kind of things :P Another thing that I thought was a really good idea but slightly disturbing was how orphans or 'no-sponsors' are taken to be subjects of scientific experiments like guinea pigs.... It was jus...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Tanja rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: chn-science-fiction

I had wanted to read more science fiction this year and this is a recommendation from my fifth graders helping me to achieve my goal. So glad I got my hands on this action-packed adventure! Science fiction will still not become a favorite genre of mine but reading this title has shown me that there is much to gain from including science fiction in my selection from time to time. The science stuff in the story is totally intriguing and I guess that's what makes a really good science fiction: the...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Marcos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

one day in the future,a little kid called cosmo hill who's a pretty smart intelligent kid despite never going to school.living in satalite city at an orphanage finally gets his chance to escape when the marshal a dumb bully with a reputation bigger than his stomach(wich isn't small)makes a couple of mistakes,He takes it.Circumstances forced a friend of his to die and cosmo himself had a near death experience in wich meets his first parasite.The experience changed his life. while lying almost de...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Kevin Zhang rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This super storm Sandy has caused my house to lose electricity, gas and water all the necessities for life. Since I couldn't go outside and exercise due to the fact that I had no water , I decided to read a book that I didn't know I even had in the house. This book takes place many many years from now in a place called Satelite City where this 14 year old kid has entered the world and his parents don't want him. I've always thought about the benefits of having no parents and doing whatever you...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Johnny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story of four special human beings fighting to save peoples lives because of their own experiences is The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer. The main characters were united by their abilities of being able to see creatures they call “parasites” which are little blue monsters that seem to feed off of humans close to death. Each of the characters gained this power, which they have called being a spotter, by in a near death experience; like Cosmo’s, the main character, of almost being killed in an...more The story of four special human beings fighting to save peoples lives because of their own experiences is The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer. The main characters were united by their abilities of being able to see creatures they call “parasites” which are little blue monsters that seem to feed off of humans close to death. Each of the characters gained this power, which they have called being a spotter, by in a near death experience; like Cosmo’s, the main character, of almost being killed in an attempt to escape from the Parentally Challenged Institute that he lived at. The group uses their ability to try and kill as many of the creatures as they can with stun guns that seem to make the parasites bodies to disperse into the air.
The story starts off with the group of “Spotters” rescuing Cosmo before he dies after his escape attempt. After he is accepted into the group after helping save one of the other spotters they bring him along to hunt for the parasites at sites where accidents happen/ happened. Cosmo and Stefan, another spotter, are captured at one of these sites, and told that their method of killing the parasites is actually helping to reproduce them unless they contaminate their hive. So off the group goes to find the hive,and destroy it in Satellite City.
Eoin Colfer is a great author of fictional literature. All of his books that he has written have been incredibly creative. He thinks of plots, settings, and characters like no other authors; and this book is no exception. He creates picture by weaving the words to describe each of the characters past experiences, while using emotion to describe how they feel while its happening. The author is great at creating a picture in the readers mind as if it was a movie playing in front of you; a sci-fi/ fantasy movie playing through your mind in the comfort of your chair.
I would recommend this book to any reader who likes fictional books or any of the authors other books. He creates an interesting storyline just by basing it on the creatures, and how the characters learn about them. So if anyone likes books with action, or with some emotional content then this is the book for you. (less)

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Oct 10, 2012 Brick Andreasen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english356sec2-1-12

In the future, things seem to have only gotten worse. Though society's technology allows incredible organization, it's morals and lawful structure has incredibly deflated, following only the barest resemblance of Law. Over the planet hangs the Myishi Corporation satellite, which controls traffic, television, and most other aspects of technology, watched over by not only the police, but also militant Lawyers and Paralegals. Cosmo Hill, an orphan named after Cosmonaut Hill on which he was discover...more

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May 11, 2012 05JoshA rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I personally liked this book a lot. It's mostly for teens, I'd say, because there is some bad language in it.

It's set in Satellite City, a futuristic place run completely by a giant satellite made by Myishi Corporation. It sounds great, until you hear that the satellite is slowly being overloaded, and it's falling. Also, the pollution is so bad, it literally mutates them. Orphans have products tested on them like guinea pigs.

Cosmo Hill is an orphan at a place where they test tons of stuff on t...more

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May 06, 2012 Gage Grubbs rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was about a 14 year old named Cosmo Hill. This boy was locked up in an orphanage in a place called satellite city. This book takes place in the future (quite some time ahead of us). In this book the future is described as a place that's cruel and not very easy to live in. Cosmo hill is subject to all kinds of medical testing and other harmful thing while in the orphanage and he realizes that if he doesn't escape he won't be living for much more than another year. When he does escape he...more

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May 01, 2012 Jennifer H rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Apr 09, 2012 Fred Vargus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the New York Times' best selling books, The Supernaturalist, is a very suspenseful and intense book. It was written by one of the New York Times' best selling authors, Eoin Colfer, as well. This fiction book is about a boy in the future named Cosmo Hill, the books main character and protagonist. He grew up in the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, Freight class, in Satellite city; a future city that it has everything the body needs and nothing what the soul wants; S...more One of the New York Times' best selling books, The Supernaturalist, is a very suspenseful and intense book. It was written by one of the New York Times' best selling authors, Eoin Colfer, as well. This fiction book is about a boy in the future named Cosmo Hill, the books main character and protagonist. He grew up in the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, Freight class, in Satellite city; a future city that it has everything the body needs and nothing what the soul wants; Steel buildings, advanced technology for everything, multibillion corporation terror, and polluted air. Basically, Clarissa Frayne is a futuristic orphanage. At Clarissa Frayne, the boys are put to work by the state. They test highly dangerous products. At the end of most days, they are covered with burns, bruises, and sores. Cosmo soon realizes that if he doesn't escape Clarissa Frayne as soon as possible, he will die from all of the testing they do.
Eventually, he seizes his chance and breaks out of the institute with a friend of his, however, he dies in the endeavor, when he gets thrown off the edge of a building by an electric shock while being chased by the marshals from the institute. Cosmo and his friend, Ziplock, then lay on the ground, speechless. Cosmo then sees two blue creatures. One cradles itself around Ziplock and the other stares at him. It looked as if the creature was killing Ziplock. Then, the Supernaturalists stepped in and blasted the creatures and took Cosmo with them. These Supernaturalists are a group of kids who all have the same special ability as Cosmo-they can see supernatural Parasites, creatures that feed on the life force of humans, and the same creatures Cosmo saw on top of his friend before he died.
Led by Stefan an 18 year old ex-cop, assisted by ex-gang member Mona and former doctor called Ditto who could easily pass off as a 6 year old but actually is almost 5 times the age, due to being an experiment of a man known as Dr. Bartoli. The Supernaturalists patrol the city at night, hunting the Parasites down in order to save the rest of Satellite City. Cosmo joins this group and hunts down the parasites. However, as the story progresses the group soon comes into contact with a former friend of Stefan, the leader of the group. This character is known as Ellen Faustino. She says that she also wants to help get rid of the parasites, so she sets up the Supernaturalists. She gives them a bomb to plant in the nest of the parasites, to basically render the parasites useless.
This convinces Stefan, Cosmo, and their group that it will kill them off. Nonetheless, there is always a twist. In fact, Ellen Faustino plans on using the parasites as a source of energy for her network of satellites. It will cause less pollution, and, essentially, be cost-free. Also, the parasites are not even evil. Actually, they relieve pain from people, and they made Ziplock's death easier by removing the pain he experienced from the electric shock. Cosmo and the Supernaturalists are outraged by this and stop Ellen Faustino. With no worries about the parasites, and Ellen Faustino out of their way, the young group of kids no longer have an objective, so they then try and live normal lives.
This book was full of suspense on every single page. From being in the testing rooms of the Clarissa Frayne institute, to being in the nest of the parasites, there was no way to predict what would happen next, making the plot even more exciting. Cosmo goes from testing dangerous products, to blasting parasites, to taking down a major, billionaire evil mastermind, there was no stopping him. He took on every challenge with his friends, and beat each one. This book was very interesting and easy to read, mainly because I was always eager to know what would occur on the next page. Moreover, Eoin Colfer did an amazing job in writing this book. It grabbed my attention from the first sentence on the first page. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in action-filled, suspenseful books.
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Feb 06, 2012 Martin Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Despite the lack of compelling characters or compelling ideas, I found myself unable to stop reading it until I was done. The ending was a little unsatisfactory though, as the central conflict was resolved, but the peripheral conflict was not and was left wide open.

Characters: Meh. The main character, an orphan, didn't even pull on my heartstrings that much. Maybe I'm a cold-hearted jerk. The dialogue for each character fits with their backstory, but they all talk the same, except for the obviou...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Zinzan Zhao rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i chose this book because someone gifted it to me.

this fits under the category on my bingo board 'a science fiction book'

the supernaturalist is about a boy called cosmo who is an orphan that is turning 14, an age when no kid will be adopted and cosmo knows that he can not continue living in this run down orphanage any longer so he tries to escape and is the first person to ever succeed but when he does, he almost dies in doing so. while he is half conscious and on the brink of dying, he sees the...more

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Oct 30, 2011 MJ rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great Sci-fi to help turn teen reader into an adult reader.

I was torn between 4 and 5 stars, let's call it 4.5; being an author I fully support rounding up.

This book seems to be heavily influenced by Snow Crash (which it just happens I am also reading now)--not the story, just the world. Then again, Snow Crash was influenced by other dystopian novels.

The book is about a band of characters, most teens, who are fighting creatures that only they can see. The MC has just escaped certain death at a l...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Boyu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Genre: Mystery/Supernatural
Title: The Supernaturalist
Author: Eoin Colfer
Rated: T
ISBN: 078685148-1
Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children
Number of pages 267
April 2011

Who said your life would flash in front of your eyes before you die? According to Eoin Colfer, little blue monsters that no one can see come and suck the remaining life out of you.

And that's where they come in. The Supernaturalists. Out hunting the little blue monsters every night. Killing them off one by one.

Until a simple truth dest...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Jonah A. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What if you found out that everything you had been doing for your entire life was wrong? My book is a science fiction book. This means that the book has science aspects to it but it isn’t true. It takes place in the future and shows issues in society. The way I know my book has all of these traits is because during some parts it talks about new lenses and science terminology, but there is no way that this could ever really happen in real life, because it has magical creatures that suck the pain...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Eli M rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Imagine falling off a roof and having gooey creatures feed on your body? Then being found by three very strange people in all of Satellite City? Science fiction is a genre in literature that usually takes place in the future and deals with futuristic inventions or creatures. In Eoin Colfer’s latest science fiction book, The Supernaturalist, a 14-year-old boy with special abilities, who is unwanted by his parents, must find these supernatural creatures and stop them from feeding on the life force...more Imagine falling off a roof and having gooey creatures feed on your body? Then being found by three very strange people in all of Satellite City? Science fiction is a genre in literature that usually takes place in the future and deals with futuristic inventions or creatures. In Eoin Colfer’s latest science fiction book, The Supernaturalist, a 14-year-old boy with special abilities, who is unwanted by his parents, must find these supernatural creatures and stop them from feeding on the life force of humans. His job is not small; he must save the human race.
In Satellite City, a child’s parents are known as sponsors. A boy named Cosmo is born, and his parents put him in the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. Cosmo dreams of one day getting out of this hellhole. One day he escapes with his friend Ziplock, and they are chased by one of the chief counselors at the Institute. They are cornered on a rooftop and jump in an effort to get away from Marshall Redwood. Cosmo survives by falling on Ziplock, who dies. Three special inhabitants of Satellite City find Cosmo. They are the Supernaturalists, and it is their job to kill the parasites. Why? They are the only people who can actually see these supernatural parasites. It is lucky that they saved him because as it turns out, he has special abilities too: he can also see the creatures.
The Supernaturalists and Cosmo risk their lives by patrolling Satellite City at night and killing these invisible blue creatures that are attracted to accidents and violence. This is what they think. Unfortunately nothing is as they think. Soon they find themselves in a much more complicated situation when they discover a mean corporation is running the city. They learn something so horrible, a really terrible secret, and they must now save the city as fast as they can. Later in the book, they find something else out that could change their lives forever and break them up as a team.
I would recommend this book to anyone who really enjoys science fiction and people who like to read about books with a lot of action. The characters are very fascinating and complicated, especially the Supernaturalists. I liked that they were all kids who had to save the world. They took their mission seriously and wanted the world to be a better place. One theme in the book is about corporate control of society and how these companies really don’t care about mankind. This theme is what really makes the main characters as likeable as they are and shows how much they care about the people who live in Satellite City.
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Jan 17, 2011 J rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-school-fiction, high-school-fiction, science-fiction

Eoin Colfer has a fabulous imagination for science fiction. This is a fast-action story about an orphan who escapes from a certain death sentence (his orphanage does product testing on the orphans until their bodies give out) to a life with a small band of vigilantes. These crusaders (aka supernaturalists) are fighting millions of blue parasites that suck the life out of humans who are in pain or have been wounded. Cosmo, our hero, can see the parasites because he had a near-death experience, an...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Katherine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult

Colfer is better-known for his Artemis Fowl books, but I feel he does better when he steps away from the best-selling series and lets himself explore the rest of his imagination.

The Supernaturalist takes place in a well-realized dystopian future, yet has some of Colfer's trademark fantasy elements (can't help but think the inclusion of the creatures seen in fantasy comes from his Irish upbringing, but that may be an American stereotype of the Irish). The science fiction elements work, as the re...more

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Jan 19, 2012 NCPL Teenzone rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, book-clubs

How do you imagine the "City of the Future"? For me, it is a place where we've figured out how to stop harming ourselves, our environment, and each other. But knowing how far technology has come in such a short time and how it has dominated all our lives, it isn't hard to imagine a world like Satellite City, a super city of 25 million. The Satellite controls everything from news, traffic, to rotating the location of buildings. But the Satellite is going haywire and creating chaos.
In this future...more

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Mar 14, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Colfer is best known for his humorous fantasies -- like the Artemis Fowl series -- and I expected this to be more of the same. Although this has some humour interspersed, especially early on, in fact it's a pretty dour -- and really fairly damn' fine -- piece of science fiction. In a future dystopian city, young Cosmo escapes from the sadistic clutches of those who run the orphanage in which he's been incarcerated and used as a guinea pig for various potentially lethal drugs and allies himself w...more

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Oct 09, 2010 Maninee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, science-fiction

the book was good though not really the best of colfer's works. even the wish list was better, here are the reasons why i thought that the book could have been better.:

1) sense of humour(or rather the lack of it): i know that many people will disagree but having read the artemis fowl series and the wish list, i must say that eoin colfer has a much much better a sense of humour. i really miss those witty dialogues that filled every page of the fowl series.

2) the plot: fighting the parasites was...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Elyse Bradley rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-420

Genre: Science Fiction/Orphans/Supernatural

Colfer sets this novel in the distant future where technology and society have advanced beyond the imagination. The story follows 14 year old Cosmo Hill who escapes from an abusive orphanges only to be adopted into a vigilante group of supernatural crimefighters. Hunting down blue beings that supposedly suck the life force out of dying individuals, Cosmo and his friends realize that they have been fighting the wrong enemy all along. This novel was way o...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Austin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Supernaturalist by Eloin Colfer is a science fiction novel set in a city run by a corporation’s satellite, and orphans are used as test subjects on various and usually harmful products. The protagonist is an orphan, Cosmo Hill, who manages to escape Clarissa Frayne, the institution holding the orphans. This results in a near death experience which allows him to see “Parasites”, which are small blue creatures only visible to people who have had a near death experience. He is taken in by a gro...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Freshmens at high school and younger (unless you really like sci-fi)

Shelves: action-and-or-adventure, science-fiction

Truly, this was a disappointment to me... I expected as much originality as his Artimus Fowl series. To me this resonated as more the same digusting/dark future tale with just a different mystery about it. However, I do not discourage people younger than I (17yrs) to read it. This is Eoin Colfer who wrote this so he knows how to write gripping action scenes and interesting characters. I think at this point, I was just too old for this book.

This is a very cliched science-fictiony book, it is...more

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About Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer (pronounced Owen) was born in Wexford on the South-East coast of Ireland in 1965, where he and his four brothers were brought up by his father and mother, who were both educators.

He received his degree from Dublin University and began teaching primary school in Wexford. He has lived and worked all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Italy. After the publication of the A...more

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