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Nick Gautier is your typical high school freshman. Okay, typical in some respects, like full of sarcastic wit, worried about bullies, and fully aware of girls. On the other hand, he's not so typical in that his mom dances at a strip club on Bourbon Street to pay for Nick's tuition to a private school. High test scores and a partial scholarship got him started at the elite institution, but it's his mom's hard work and faith in him that keeps him at a rich kid's school where everyone else constantly reminds that he doesn't belong.

Nick also has one more secret, one that he doesn't even know himself -- he's not quite human. It is never fully revealed as to what he is, but it is powerful. His father, who is in prison, holds the secret to what Nick is and what Nick could become.

On one particularly frustrating day, Nick fights back against taunting bullies and is suspended from school. Then, going from bad to worse, he runs into some "friends" who say that if he stands lookout while they pull a job, they'll pay him two hundred dollars. Nick agrees, thinking how much this will help his miniscule college fund. But when the friends proceed to rob some tourists at gunpoint, Nick helps the tourists escape and then gets beaten up and shot by his so-called friends.

This turn of events is witnessed by Kyrian, who turns out to be a Dark Hunter. And this is where the story neatly syncs up with the author's Dark Hunter series. Sherrilyn Kenyon has written numerous books about the Dark Hunters -- supernatural beings who protect humanity by destroying entities that prey upon humans. This book is the first in a series in which Kenyon writes for a younger audience. The nice thing is that as readers mature, they can move on to the adult series, which recounts the adventures of Nick and the Dark Hunters when Nick is older. But for young listeners, this first installment in The Chronicles of Nick is a story full of fun, thrills, zombie chases, crazy rednecks, and very strange supernatural beings of all sorts.

Kyrian takes Nick on as an assistant in order to help him stay on the right path, and it's not long before Nick discovers Kyrian and his many friends are demons or other types of supernatural beings. He also discovers that some demons love to eat humans with barbecue sauce, the football team is made up of shape shifters, and the world is not what it seems. Then again, this all takes place in New Orleans, and New Orleans has never really been what it seems.

The narrator of this audiobook, Holter Graham, does a superb job of interpreting the story. He captures Nick perfectly, with all his sarcasm, angst and surprising discoveries. He is equally adept with the other unique characters, from the redneck zombie hunter, Bubba, to the extremely wealthy, upper-class bearing of Kyrian. Some of you old-schoolers may recognize the name Holter Graham as the kid from the Stephen King movie, Maximum Overdrive. He has grown up and honed his talent to become a great voice actor who brings this fun novel to life.

If you are a fan of the Dark Hunter series and would like to share the series with your younger friends and family, or if you just want to know the early history of Nick, then put this one on your list. If you like reading supernatural fiction, no matter what your age, I highly recommend you give it a listen. The second book in this series, Invincible, is scheduled for release in March, 2011.

Gil T. has spent a quarter of a century working in radio and has lots of spare time on his hands and reading or listening to books takes up all that time. Check out his blog to find out what he's up to at any given moment.