Running on Instinct is a perplexing book. Its premise, that an extremely powerful, deeply disturbed psychic is culling 'imperfect' paranormals from the human herd is interesting, and potentially compelling. Unfortunately, Luiken has a somewhat fragmentary writing style that creates unnecessary confusion and interferes with an otherwise effective story.

The focus of the tale is a group of people who are related through paranormal parents. Over time, all of them had been adopted by normal families and now are unaware of each other. Many of the older children had become members of the KithKin Club, an association of psychics created to protect themselves from a previous effort at extermination. These children and young adults, the Carver family, as well as their closest relations and loved ones, make up most of the cast of the book.

KithKinners have many talents. Most important, and the ones that drive the book are the abilities to sense danger and 'shine,' which allows the possessor to influence the people around him or her. Then there are seers, illusionists, telepaths and even those who can sense the deaths of those they love. The Carvers, unaware of their relationships have suddenly all come under attack wherever there are, and will need every one of these talents to escape intact.

The villain of the piece is The Selector, a psychotic with exceptional mental powers who can invade dreams and steal control of lesser humans. As a result, not only are the Carvers' at risk from within themselves, they are also subject to attack from unsuspected sources. The Selector seems to be able to move and strike at will. He also has the ability to trap a human's consciousness in the recesses of his mind. If the purpose behind his hunting of the Carvers comes clear only gradually, the horror that follows his victories becomes apparent right from the first page.

The flaw in this concoction is that every character gets equal time without warning. As a result the reader is left the task of trying to integrate eight separate stories into a coherent whole. Most of us will fail to some degree, and feel confusion as the story switches from viewpoint to viewpoint like a slide projector gone awry. The sense of chaos never quite goes away and even the end is fragmentary.

Characterization also suffers for the same reason. The book is readable, but never seems to develop a coherent rhythm. I kept getting the feeling that it would make a better film than it would a book, probably since the additional visual information would have better differentiated the characters.

Luiken shows writing talent but needs more disciplined editing. I have read several worse lately, so I'm inclined to be a bit generous and find enough positive value to give it three stars. The author also writes books for young adults as Nicole Luiken, so perhaps what is lacked is simply the difference between the young adult reader and grumpy old reviewers such as I.

--Marc Ruby