Mind Games by Carolyn Cane[/caption]★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
I chose to read Mind Games because I’m a fan of supernatural/suspense novels and the reviews seemed positive. Plus, as a person with hypochondriac tendencies, I wanted to see how Crane would put together a superhero whose "power" was her disorder. The plot is a little hard to explain (and the synopsis on Amazon and Goodreads didn't do a great job either), but here it goes:
Justine Jones is a hypochondriac and convinced she has vein-star syndrome. She has her reasons – the disease killed her mother – but aside from that she has no real symptoms. Of course, when you’re a hypochondriac, fear and anxiety can do a damn good job at impersonating them.
Between the panic attacks landing her in the ER, Justine desperately wants a “normal” life – a plan which includes her perfectly vanilla boyfriend, Cubby. (Really? Cubby? What kind of name is that? I kept picturing him as a Carebear .).
Her quest for the bland hits a snag when she meets the mysterious Packard. He recognizes her disorder as a gift and teaches her how she can “zing” (actual term) her neurosis into others through some sort of energy exchange. Zinging allows Justine to be free of her disorder (for a while) as it is pushed into the other person. Packard enlists her into his squad of “disillusionists” – sort of for-hire crime fighting team zinging all sorts of neurosis into the bad guys.
Barely into her new "career," Justine begins to question whether pushing her disorder into other people -- no matter how bad they might be -- is right. More importantly, she doesn't trust Packard. And she wants a way out.
Really, that’s as far as I think I need to go with the plot. The story is more-or-less establishing the beginning of Justine Jones: Dissilussionist. Not to say there isn't a subplot, but it seems to play second fiddle to Justine's internal struggle.
Crane could’ve done a much better job at providing a background for this story – especially since it was the first book in the series. It began almost assuming I already knew what the author was talking about. The setting is “Midcity” but I didn’t know the year. The city is under siege by criminals, namely an invisible assailant slinging bricks at people’s heads (to the point the kids go outside with helmets). Bricks? Yes, really. The charismatic police chief Otto Sanchez says the brick thrower is using some sort of catapult to launch his projectiles at citizens, but rumor on the street the suspect is a Highcap.
What’s a Highcap? Good question. As far as I could tell, it meant they were somehow special (like telekinetic or dream walkers), but there wasn’t really any explanation of who they were or how they were that way until much later in the book. Packard was identified as a Highcap. There are other Highcaps, apparently. Yet, some people say they don’t exist. How mythical are Highcaps? I mean, are we talking conspiracy theory UFO/Bigfoot type of skepticism, or are we talking about being a Salt Lake City gay. Sort of a don’t ask-don’t tell policy?
Not a biggie. Mind Games isn’t meant to be an infallible work of pure genius. It’s a fun read and for that it doesn’t need to cross every I and dot every T (just most of them). It wasn’t exactly a stay-up-late page turner, but it kept me interested.
The biggest ding (or should I say zing?) to my overall rating, however, was because of the unlikable, flat, underdeveloped or otherwise awful characters. The story was littered with so many random minor people I never felt like I could relate or understand any of them. The superficial interactions that tried to imply a greater story or insight never went anywhere. For example, Packard was written to be enigmatic, but his vague and mysterious “plans” and peculiar behavior never really led to any big revelations about who he was or unlocked a deeper understanding into his character. He just acted like a total douche canoe.
But the brunt of my disappointment and frustration was with Justine. When it came to being the female lead, Justine had the strength of a wet noodle. It was such an interesting and unique concept – the hypochondriac heroine – but she spent more time riding her high horse with a holier-than-thou attitude than learning how to use her disorder/gift. I’m not sure she ever applied logic or reason to any of her opinions. To her, everything Packard did was bad. He could’ve told her to save a baby from a burning building and she would’ve found some way to turn him into the villain. What if the baby was really a superpowerful Highcap destined to destroy the world and this is all part of Packard’s evil plan! And then she’d start making out with Packard and stop halfway through. And then become furious, and blame him for making her cheat on Cubby. Really?
Despite the criticisms, it was a breakout novel and it’s normal for a writer to have a few bumps along the road to finding their groove. I considered reading Double Cross (the second book in the series), but browsing through the first few pages in the sample it seemed like the characters hadn't changed much and I just couldn't get into it.
You should check it out if... you dabble in sci-fi crossover novels and don't read too much into a plot. It will also help if you don't get incredible annoyed at self-righteous main characters and overly drawn out, random, explicit sex scenes.
Skip if... you read between the lines and expect more than meets the eye or are incredibly judgmental on the portrayal of female main characters (guilty).
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