This book tells the story of four children, Violaine, Arthur, Nicolas and Claire, who are endowed with supernatural powers. Their parents have abandoned them at the Clinique du Lac in Geneva, because they see them as abnormal and in need of mental health intervention. Only one doctor seems to treat them with respect, and does not just see them as crazy. When he disappears the four friends go in search of him armed with the start of a series of clues from his notebook, but very aware of the dangerous people behind the kidnapping.
This is a young adult story with a treasure hunt/chase theme. In some ways it took the reader in familiar directions, but it was a novel idea to have children who are, to all intents and purposes, mentally ill as the lead characters, and allowed some deeper thinking about the nature of mental illness.
It was also a supernatural thriller of course, with Violaine who sees dragons that seem to represent people's souls; Arthur who remembers every detail of absolutely everything and can only find relief by shutting himself away and drawing monkeys on the walls; Claire who can, particularly when frightened, move so fast that no one can see her; and Nicolas who has thermal vision and thus always wears sunglasses. Children with special powers always makes a good story, but this one also leads towards a much bigger conspiracy theory which leaves an interesting cliff hanger at the end of the book.
The cliff hanger is not a bad one though. This is a book that wraps up its first story, but leads into a trilogy nicely. This is not one of those books that stops mid story to make you keep reading.
I am not sure when I will continue the series as this one took me a while to read, but I would like to continue with it in time.