Seizure by Kathy Reichs (Tory Brennan series #2)

The Virals' home on Loggerhead Island is under threat, and only one thing can save it: a lot of money. A 300-year-old legend. Rumour has it that notorious pirate Anne Bonny hid her treasure somewhere in Charleston in 1720. No-one knows where, but Tory Brennan - great-niece of famous forensic anthropologist Dr Tempe Brennan - is certain that the Virals can work out Bonny's cryptic clues. A deadly path. It isn't long before the Virals are on the right track. But they aren't the only ones searching for the treasure.Someone is following them, and will stop at nothing to get their hands on it. Dead bodies litter the trail. Time is running out before the island will be sold. Will the Virals' special powers be enough to save them?

Seizure is the second book in the Virals series. Virals is a Young-Adult oriented series written by the acclaimed author Kathy Reichs, offering to some degree a bit of a spin-off from the hit series Bones but for a younger audience. Mentioning that I was looking for new YA genres I stumbled on the first book and Virals and rated it high, it was perfectly written and offered a fresh new introduction in this genre, combining several elements that I enjoy and that will appeal to many younger readers as well. The ending of Virals left a lot of open directions and I must say that I did not expect a story like Seizure to be the sequel.

Seizures start off with a scene from the past, pirates. Now this is something that I really did not expect, of course I read the synopsis first but I expected something different from the start. However sticking to her excellent writing Kathy Reichs immediately sets the right setting, and putting you right there in front of Anne Bonny as you see her being chased down and organizing her treasure then and there. An aspect that does leave you in the dark to the very ending is that there is no mention of what the treasure exactly is so I was pretty much guessing right till the end what it might be.

This scene is directly followed by a re-introduction of the 4 characters that became Viral and made a pack in the first book. They are led by Tory Brennan, who also tells the story through her own I persona. The others of the pack are Hiram (Hi), Ben and Shelton. Now there hasn’t passed that much time between book one and book two, and the 4 Virals still have it in their stomach of what actually happened to them and how they acquired their special powers. Just to mention it briefly, a science experiment, which is actually quite cleverly thought-up, altered the 4 friends into something different and they now have the ability to, as they refer to it “flare”. Giving them enhanced senses like: smell, sight, hearing and agility to name a few. In Seizure, one part of the story and a recurring theme is that they are afraid that their secret will be discovered and that they are trying to find out how dangerous it actually might be. This caution was neatly upheld in the book and they did not, on most occasion while in the presence of strangers “flare”. It just gave to notice that the actions of each character were controlled and that though it was cool to see their powers, Kathy Reichs did not portray Tory, Ben, Hi and Shelton as ever being invincible.

The main storyline of Seizure is that the group of friends are bound to fall apart due to the fact that the funding for Loggerhead will be put to a stop and all the parents have to search for new jobs. In trying to stop this, Tory finds out that there maybe a treasure belonging to Anne Bonny a she-pirate is buried somewhere near. She and the rest of the Virals are putting everything together to find this treasure and hope save Loggerhead. In this search they make new friends and enemies a like. It is quite a dash through the town and you see more variation than you had in Virals itself, the friends travel a lot to different islands, bad part in town and even in the dungeons. And as eager as they are they do manage to get themselves in quite a few precarious situations. Just to get a bit back on the friend and enemies, you actually get to meet all the parties that have a eye on the treasure. And when you first read about them I made up my mind but later when they were shown in their true nature it was something that I had not expected at all most of the people completely switched side. But Seizure is not only about clearing 300 year booby-traps and finding the treasure.

Another note that I could find was that of Tory Brennan herself and how she is actually growing in the books so far, and now I do not know if this is the case but it feels like Kathy Reichs is trying to use Tory as well to get a message across to the younger audience. Tory is quite a leader when it comes down to the small “pack” of Hi, Shelton and Ben. But in public and in other things she is actually quite the opposite, being bullied around and just saying yes. However half-way she changes, and from this point on there is a new Tory born, more confident, saying exactly what's on her mind and most important of all standing up for yourself. Now again I do not know if this was planned but its still a great message.

Seizure is truly an adventurous story cleverly written towards the younger readers (but also enjoyable for oldies alike). Where Virals focussed on a more scientific lay-out, Seizure becomes more and more gripping and adventurous, Indiana Jones/National Treasure style, by the page. This was for me nicely done, I did like the science part with the DNA and genetics since I am a lab tech, but Seizure did show on how you can use a great backbone produced in Virals and using that the plot an amazing sequel. If you have a son or daughter who is not likely to pick up a book, get this series and I reckon you will have them glued to the pages in no time.

9/10 An adventurous story cleverly written.