It’s been a super long time since I’ve reviewed a book. That said, I’m also 9 books ahead of schedule in my 50 in 2013 goal. I take that with a grain of salt because the YA trilogies I’ve read recently seem like they should have been squished into two books or even one epic book. I think we all know when a trilogy shouldn’t be a trilogy. Peter Jackson, I’m also looking at you, sir.
It’s been a ‘meh’ start to the year of new books. I’ve devoured stories to entertain myself, but let’s not kid ourselves. I’m just waiting for the next Mercy Thompson installment by Patricia Briggs to come out as well as a new Kate Daniels book by Ilona Andrews. Everything else has a high standard to meet.
Mind Games (The Disillusionists #1) by Carolyn Crane
Cut to Mind Games by Carolyn Crane. This is not your typical PN story. It is and it isn’t. The world is present-day UF/PN; it reminds me of a cross section between Kate Daniels’ and Gin Blanco’s worlds. There are humans and then ‘super’ humans with mental ‘powers.’ They call ‘em highcaps. There are no weres, shifters, vamps, witches, etc. Just humans and ‘super’ humans.
Crane sets up our protagonist, Justine, as a super hypochondriac. THAT is her superpower. Hehe! She runs into a gang of vigilantes who use their phobias, fears, losing streaks and they fling that energy to their victims, disillusioning them. (They’re Disillusionists.) I enjoyed reading about the supporting characters and their respective schticks. Packard, their leader, is the puppetmaster, sending them off on assignments, basically disillusioning criminals, breaking them, and mentally these criminals turn over a new leaf.
The world-building is pretty neat and thorough. Of course there’s a love interest. After reading so many insta-love YA books, this back and forth is refreshing. There are some things you have to overlook, like Justine’s instant trust of Packard and his gang. WTH? You don’t just go into a place and say “YES, cure me!” to a bunch of strangers. I’d do some vetting first. Therein lies another issue for Justine to deal with near the middle of the book and the rest of the series, I’m sure.
Honestly I’m not sure I’d put Justine in the Varsity team as Kate, Mercy, Sabina or Elena, but she’s up there on the JV team. Gin was on the Varsity team until the author decided to copy and paste passages in every book. Sheesh.
I’m interested to see what else happens in this series and how the characters are going to play out. I’d like to see a happy ending, but it would pretty awesome (and devastating) if the author turned it on its head.
Grade: A
Buy or Borrow: I bought it, so I say buy! (Or email me and I’ll lend it to you via my Kindle.)
