ARC Review: Mind Games (Mind Games #1) 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. ~ Goodreads

Review:
Mind Games is told in the alternating POV's of two orphaned sisters, Fia and Annie, in this tense psychological/super heroes thriller.

This was a hard book for me to get into at first. I love alternating POV's so that wasn't the problem but add in flashbacks and a heroine (Fia) that is almost completely unhinged and I had problems warming up to the story.

Fia is forced to follow her sister Annie to a school that is supposed to help girls with special powers. Annie has the gift of sight, (which is ironic because she's blind). It turns out that it Fia might be the girl the school is really after as the sisters are used as collateral against each other to force Fia to do their bidding based on her unique gift.

The one big drawback is the lack of knowledge for what is facilitating all these actions. Mind Games is less of a mind f*ck and more of a mind puzzle. Each chapter giving one more piece….one more clue. Unfortunately the puzzle pieces are handed to you out of order and sometimes very late in the game so you're often left feeling confused.

Kiersten White takes chances with her writing here. Not everything is successful. She waits to explain character traits and background that would have been better introduced earlier but I felt that the intensity and rawness she was aiming for really came together in the second half of the book. Unfortunately, I think readers might give up early because of the chaotic and scattered plot which would be too bad.

For example, the same nervous ticks that annoyed me about Fia (tap tap tap - and repeated phrases) in the first half of the book had me glued to the pages in the second half once I was given an explanation.

There is a touch of romance but it's played out so well and in a fascinating way that it just adds another layer to the story rather than overpowering the plot line or getting mushy. I ended up loving Fia, although Annie's character felt a little flat this time around. I have a feeling she'll be better developed in the next book from the series so I'm not too worried about it.

At it's core this is a story about the sisters. The things they've sacrificed for each others happiness that didn't have the outcome they had hoped for and trying to decide where do they go from there.
Loyalties are tested, morality is not black and white but a murky shade of grey making for deliciously complex characters.

Rating: 3 out of 4 While it took me a little longer to get hooked, once I was I couldn't let go. I was riveted. 

Author: website | twitter
Publisher: Harper Teen
Source: Amazon Vine program for my honest review
Buy the Book! Mind Games Release date – February 19th, 2013