Mind Games by Teri TerryPublished: March 5th 2015 by Orchard Books
Pages: 448
Luna is a no-hoper with a secret: in a world of illusion, she can see what is real. But can she see the truth before it is too late?
Luna has always been able to exist in virtual and real worlds at the same time, a secret she is warned to keep. She hides her ability by being a Refuser: excluded by choice from the virtual spheres others inhabit. But when she is singled out for testing, she can’t hide any longer.
The safest thing to do would be to fail, to go back to a dead-end life, no future. But Luna is starting to hope for something better, and hope is a dangerous thing...
"Five minutes of Realtime, and it is nearly two hours before I stop being sick. That's a pretty good reason to be a Refuser, isn't it?"Thank you Orchard Books for providing me with an advanced reading copy for review.
DNF at 50 %
I wonder if I was fooled by the gorgeous cover, or the premise of Mind Games. As with so many books these days, a synopsis can be either exactly what you think it is, or turn out to be something entirely different. It's sad to say that Teri Terry's novel falls into the last category.
Throughout my reading experience, it was required to read this book with all the attention and focus I could get. Most of the times it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I didn't like how Mind Games played with my mind. I had to read every single word with care and attention, in order to follow along and understand both the story and the world building. Nonetheless, I still got very confused along the way. Mind you, I don't hold a single grudge against being thrown into the world of a book without any explanations. It's mostly a lot of fun because I have to figure out what is going on all on my own, but not in this case.
There was an overload of unknown terms, combined with such little explanation. The only choice I had was to continue anyway and hope that I would be less confused as I go on. None of that happened. Once I started to get a hold of the story, so many other aspects turned my knowledge into chaos. A lot of that had to do with Terry's futuristic world full of technology. This is where a certain aspect I adored jumps in: the virtual reality. It was my ultimate main reason for requesting the book in the first place, and also what made the book so fascinating. It was so different from any other dystopian I've read before. How could I not be excited about that? However, things started to take a turn when I that aspect fell flat. In my opinion, there wasn't much world building to be found. I felt like a lot was just thrown in my face, and I had to deal with it. I couldn't connect to anything and because of the lack of world building, I never understood how it all worked or how some things were even possible.
The vague plot dragged immensely, and at some point I had no desire whatsoever in picking it up again, ultimately resulting in a DNF. As sad as I am to admit it, Mind Games was all in all, a boring read which could have been so much more.
