She graduated from high school in 2002, then attended Yale University, where she studied cognitive science.[3] She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the university in 2006 and a Ph.D. in 2012.[3][4]
Barnes wrote her first novel at age nineteen[6] and sold five books while completing university.[4]
After receiving her Ph. D. from Yale University, she conducted autism research at the University of Cambridge.[3][4] She now serves as an Associate Professor of both Psychology and Professional Writing at the University of Oklahoma.[4][7] In 2019, she received the university's Robert Glenn Rapp Foundation Presidential Professorship.[8][6]
The Brothers Hawthorne, a spin-off book portrayed after the events of The Inheritance Games released on August 29, 2023.[17]The Brothers Hawthorne was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction in 2023.[18]
The Grandest Game is the first book in a new spin-off series from The Inheritance Games, released on July 30, 2024.[19]
Debutantes is a young adult mystery novel series published by Freeform. The series consist of two books: Little White Lies (2018) and Deadly Little Scandals (2019).
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).[20]
The Naturals is a young adult novel series published by Disney-Hyperion. The series consists of five books: The Naturals (2013), Killer Instinct (2014), All In (2015), Bad Blood (2016), and Twelve (2017).
The first book in the series, The Naturals, was nominated for the Lincoln Award and the Missouri Gateway Readers Award in 2018[21] and was a YALSABest Fiction for Young Adults selection in 2014.[22]
