Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (born October 19, 1984) is an American writer of young adult novels. She is best known for writing the Inheritance Games Saga and The Naturals.

Personal life Jennifer "Jen" Lynn Barnes was born on October 19, 1984, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

She graduated from high school in 2002, then attended Yale University, where she studied cognitive science.

She is married and has three sons.

Career Barnes wrote her first novel at age nineteen and sold five books while completing university. In 2019, she received the university's Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation Presidential Professorship. Recently, she has also been studying the psychology of fandom. It was nominated for the Edgar Award for Young Adult, the Goodreads Choice Award for Young Adult, and YALSA's Teen's Top Ten, and was selected for YALSA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and Best Fiction for Young Adults and Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2020.

The Final Gambit won the 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction.

The Inheritance Games Spin-offs The Brothers Hawthorne, a spin-off book portrayed after the events of The Inheritance Games released on August 29, 2023. The Brothers Hawthorne was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction in 2023.

The Grandest Game is the first book in a new spin-off series from The Inheritance Games, released on July 30, 2024.

Glorious Rivals is the second book in the spin-off series from The Inheritance Games, which was released on July 29, 2025.

Debutantes (2018–2019)

Debutantes is a young adult mystery novel series published by Freeform. The series consists of two books: Little White Lies (2018) and Deadly Little Scandals (2019).

The Fixer (2015–2016)

The Fixer is a young adult mystery novel series published by Bloomsbury Children's Books. The series consists of two books: The Fixer (2015) and The Long Game (2016).

The first book in the series, The Fixer, was nominated for the South Carolina Book Award for Young Adult (2018) and the Missouri Truman Readers Award (2018).

The Naturals (2013–2026)

The Naturals is a young adult novel series published by Disney-Hyperion. The series consists of six books: The Naturals (2013), Killer Instinct (2014), All In (2015), Bad Blood (2016), Twelve the novella (2017), Dangerous Impulses (2026).

The first book in the series, The Naturals, was nominated for the Lincoln Award and the Missouri Gateway Readers Award in 2018 and was a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults selection in 2014.

Publications