Mind Games by Teri Terry
Genre: Techno-fantasy, girl vs government
Published by: Orchard Books
Pages: 448
Format: ARC E-Book
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

If I was going to compare this book to any other, it would be Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve, because of the similarities in world-building. So, if you like your fantasy books to have a more technological feel, then this is the book for you. And if you’re read Slated by Teri Terry, you’ll be able to recognise similarities between the main characters.

‘Mind Games’ is all about a girl called Luna, (a name that seems to be so linked to Harry Potter, you have to basically credit J.K.Rowling to use it) and her life in a world that’s slowly becoming consumed by technology. Luna is a ‘Rejector’, meaning that she doesn’t participate in the technological universe via implant. There is lots of terminology throughout this book to do with the world, so hold tight.

Luna is especially gifted, however, in the techno-universe, despite refusing to go there. So, she’s recruited by the government figures, Pare-Co, to come for testing and eventually to work for them. She find out that her gift has a name and it turns out her skills were inherited from her mother.

Although this book falls heavily into the fantasy genre, I thought that the world building was slightly lacking. I lost myself at the beginning, trying to navigate around all this terminology and the purpose of the implants. However, once the plot progressed and we learnt about Luna’s powers, I found a clearer direction. So many different things happened in ‘Mind Games’, it felt 1000 pages long.

That’s not to say I didn’t absolutely love what was going on. Because of the intense variety of action, I couldn’t put the book down. I had to know what happened next as I couldn’t guess! I really enjoyed the romance aspect of the book, but was disappointed at the disappearance of Gecko, the love interest, for quite a long period of time. He and Luna did reunite, but Gecko was a really great character, and I missed him.

When Luna was taken to the training island, some freaky stuff started to happen. The plot can only be compared to ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, when Ralph is jumping between video games. It was kind of like Luna was moving through a mind palace of settings, even the setting from Teri Terry’s previous series, ‘Slated’. (An amusing cameo.)

Overall, I’d give this book 4 stars. The terminology really helps to immerse you in the world, even if I was confused to begin with. I felt very satisfied at the end of the book with where it finished and what had happened, everything just came together. Now I can’t wait to read the rest of Teri Terry’s works!