For someone who bills themselves as a human lie detector, Teddy Cannon sure struggles when it comes to deciding who to trust or not in K.C. Archer’s thrilling School for Psychics. She first used her ability to figure out when people are bluffing to win loads of money playing poker in Las Vegas. But when that blows up in her face, she is recruited to the eponymous school, where psychics are trained to work for law enforcement. With every chapter, Teddy gets deeper and deeper into a decades-old conspiracy. There are double-crosses and betrayals, lies and deceptions, with Teddy caught right in the middle. If her lie detecting skills had been a little better, Teddy might have been able to avoid a lot of heartache (but then we would have had a much less entertaining book).
After her recruitment, Teddy finds herself at the Whitfield Institute among two distinct groups of students. On one side are the young men and women dubbed the Alphas. They are psychic but also very much straight arrows. They’re fit. They’re smart. They have their shit together…unlike the other group of students, who call themselves Misfits. Like Teddy, these students have struggled with their various abilities: death warnings, talking to animals, starting fires, etc. Teddy might be the most powerful among them. This might have helped her to get ahead at Whitfield if it weren’t for the fact that something sinister is clearly going on.
School for Psychics reminded me of the Harry Potter novels with a lot less whimsy. Teddy struggles with her powers and her course work while at the same time trying to figure out why her blood was stolen from the school lab and what really happened to her biological parents. Since Teddy and her classmates are legally adults, there is more drinking and sex, though. (Hilariously, Teddy and the pyrokinetic set off the smoke detectors when they spend the night together.) By the time graduation rolls around, Teddy and her ragtag band of friends are ready to take on the baddie.
It might sound dismissive to say that School for Psychics is like Harry Potter, but I don’t want to give the impression that this book is derivative or unoriginal. I was hugely entertained by this book. I could hardly put it down because it’s a great blend of science fiction and thriller. This characters are great and the constant question of who was telling the truth kept me guessing right along with Teddy until the end. This really was a fun read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 3 April 2018.