Review: Mind Games by Kiersten White

Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.
Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.
In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

Published February 19th 2013 by HarperTeen
I received my ebook copy from NetGalley, thanks to Harper Collins.

My Review

[caption id="attachment_2053" align="aligncenter" width="304"]vanilla-rating-3-stars actual rating: 2.5[/caption]

I'm not very sure what I was exactly expecting when I started this book, but I received a totally different thing from what I imagined. Firstly, the book has two main characters - the sisters - and we get to read the story from both of their perspective... in a double first person narrative. Some chapters are from Fia's point of view, others from Annie's. It sounds confusing, and it is... at first. It took me around a third of the book to get used to this way of telling the story.

Fia's mind... I found it tricky to understand. I initially thought the tap tap tapping and word word word repeating were just the author's way of writing. It was annoying and hard to enjoy, but after that third of the book, I understood it was just Fia's way of thinking. Her mind is confusing and her thoughts are sometimes inconsistent because she is trying very hard not to let anyone read her mind and anticipate her plans. Because that's what the book is actually about. It's a mind game with Readers, Feelers and Seers - and whatever Fia is, as nobody knows that yet. I'm not very sure I bought the fact that you can hide and alter your feelings and thoughts completely all the time though.

Annie's mind is more relaxed, more focused, but also depressing. I found the crossing from one sister's point of view to the other's too abrupt. It was also tiring to keep reading how they are blaming themselves for a tragedy they couldn't have stopped from happening. I understand their guilt is natural, but there was no reason to keep mentioning it so often.

The romance was present, but not as you would expect it. Fia is in love with the son of the school's founder (aka the one who ruined her life), so she keeps fighting against her feelings, but she always ends up in his arms somehow (don't they always do that?). At the same time she wants to have a normal life and be with Adam, whose life she saves, but she doesn't allow herself to have him because she has done some "terrible things".

The story itself turned out to be enjoyable after all. There was a moment when I thought of dropping it and starting another book, but I got back to it and finished it and I don't regret my decision one tiny bit. As I mentioned, after getting past one third of the book, I got used to the writing style, the characters and the plot, and from that moment, it was a somewhat entertaining ride. The book had the potential to be something amazing, although the concept that started it wasn't unheard of. If it wasn't for Fia's incoherent thoughts (which made the book to be incoherent too), I know I would've loved it for sure. I will probably read the sequel too, in hope to see an improvement, and hopefully character development.

semnaturar

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