Mind Games is very much unlike most of today’s urban fantasy fiction. The lack of fight scenes, hideous monsters, miraculous magic, and a hard and true but bitter protagonist with the heart of gold, may cause some potential readers to move on to other, more action-packed titles. Justine Jones is a hypochondriac. She knows it, accepts it, and has lived her life around it – losing jobs and boyfriends with ease. When she discovers that she could possibly cause that medical anxiety to go away and be doing good at the same time – she is skeptical. But, similar to most people, her desire to be normal overrides her skepticism, and she begins a new phase in her life.
The book’s title, Mind Games, is very much a statement to the reader. The main protagonist plays mind games with herself and causes irrational anxiety that colors her life. The author plays mind games with the reader, keeping the action of all the characters as grey as possible: who are the good guys, and who are the bad guys? The plot surrounds the main characters playing mind games with those deemed the bad guys in order to “rehabilitate” them out of their criminal mindset. The plot is relatively simple, as there are two possible black hats – the police chief who is attempting to control an 8-year-long high crime wave but has suspicious friends, or the former criminal mastermind who has been trapped inside a restaurant for those same 8 years. As Justine works her way through murky outlines of the plot, not much else is going on. With minimal exposition the author moves time along so fast that by the time the reader understands that many months have gone by, a few more have passed.
While I found the book interesting enough to keep on until the end, and thought that it had some unusual features for a book of its type, I also felt that there were quite a few flaws that should have been addressed. The time movement, as noted above, was a tad jarring in several places and made me feel a bit disconnected from the story. Additionally there were some descriptions of violence that seemed detached from reality – like the characters were reacting as they felt they should to perform their roles, but it didn’t fit on their characters all that well. I also felt that in one scene during which the protagonist should have been in fear for her life, she acted as if she were an actor playing a role. There was some explanation for this, but it just did not work for me…but I suppose that could be just my gut reaction.
This book gets definite high marks for going at fantasy from a unique new angle and for not needing to have fight scenes every chapter to keep the story moving. I feel that as this is the author’s first novel, we are going to see more good things from her as her craft improves. I would definitely recommend this book for hypochondriacs and urban fantasy fans looking for interesting new angles.
