Review: Mind Games by Kiersten White

Mind Games

Author: Kiersten White
Series: Mind Games #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: Hardcover, 237 pages
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Source: Mid-Columbia Libraries
Add to Goodreads
Buy the Book 

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

My Review:

My head is still spinning. In a super good way. Mind games really did play mind games with you. Haha, I’m hilarious… not really… Anyway… This book was super complex. It was a lot to take in and you really had to focus to make sure you understood everything. Normally that bothers me, but the plot and the characters were both so well-written and developed that I didn’t mind.

What do I mean when I say you had to pay attention? The book is written in dual POV: from our main character Fia and then from her sister Annie. But not only is the POV switching, the time frame is as well. We will have a couple chapters that take place during present time and then the next chapter will jump to five years ago. At first I was unsure, but then I realized what the author was doing and I decided that I really liked it. The chapters set in the past slowly worked their way up and met with the present time. It was an interesting way for an author to build her backstory and I enjoyed it.

You want to know what the story is about? Okay. There are certain women born with special abilities. Some see the future, others can read your mind, and others can feel your emotions: Seers, Readers, and Feelers. Fia is unique. She can’t do any of those things, but she has perfect instincts. Imagine never questioning a decision you made. Always knowing if it was the right thing to do. Fia always knows what to do: down to what shoes she should wear to go dancing. Wouldn’t it be nice? But of course because of this ability she is wanted by a ruthless man named Keane who runs a school for girls like her and her sister Annie, training them to be spies.

Annie is blind, but she is also a Seer. She is the older sister. She is supposed to protect Fia, but Fia is constantly protecting her. Annie is the one who got them into the school, into captivity. I wasn’t a huge fan of Annie. I found her selfish and annoying. She knows that Fia doesn’t want to attend the school, but she guilts her into it. Then, she knows that Fia is miserable in the school, but she refuses to try and leave. I don’t know. Her character just annoyed me. It was Fia who truly had my heart.

Fia is messed up. Seriously messed up from the stuff that Keane (owner of the school) makes her do. Her mental state reminded me of Juliette from Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Her mind is so twisted and broken. I felt for her. She despises the school and what she’s doing, but she does it all for Annie, to protect Annie. I wanted Fia to make a decision for herself for once. I wanted her to do something because she wanted to. Over the course of the book, Fia developed, but she still has a long way to go. Anyone would with what she has gone through. But even though she is mentally unstable, I loved her. She was brilliant and beautiful and strong. Fia’s emotional turmoil hurt my heart. 

“And I screwed up, again, always, and now she’s in danger and she didn’t want me to not kill him. How can she be disappointed in me for making the right choice for the first time in years?” –Fia

The plot of the book was intriguing. I was constantly trying to guess what was going on and why Keane had such a strong interest in Fia. We still don’t know what his ultimate plan is so of course, I am dying for the second one. Some of the things the school made Fia do jolted me. I would be reading and literally gasp out loud because I just don’t understand how a human being can do things like that to a teenage girl.

I didn’t like Fia’s relationship with James, Keane’s son. I didn’t trust him and I’m not sure if I do even after reading the end. I feel like the relationship was wrong. There is another boy, Adam, who was introduced in the first chapter and I really thought that was going to be her love interest, but he wasn’t. Damn. I liked him much better than James. I think that James uses Fia for his best interests just like his father does. James needs to really change or Fia needs to become mentally strong enough to walk away from him. Right now, I would prefer walking away. We’ll see how I feel later on in the series.

Overall I loved this book! It was amazing. The characters were real, relatable, and believable. Fia was horribly flawed, yet still beautiful. I didn’t like the romance, but it didn’t make me hate the book. There was enough other stuff going on that I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Being in Fia’s head was difficult in the best way. You felt what she felt and I loved that I could connect with her so well. The prose was beautiful and Fia’s voice was very distinctive. I am very excited to read the second book, Perfect Lies, which comes out next year. Happy reading all!