Mind Games

There are so many things I love worked into this story. If I told you everything I loved this review would go on forever and you’d hate me for revealing some major spoilers (Unless you’re like Sarah Rees Brennan and you love spoilers. If so, I don’t trust you people!) Fear not! I will not subject you to either of those things. Instead, here are some highlights of things I loved:

• Sisters: I have a sister. I love my sister. My sister is one of my very favorite people in the whole wide world. I would go to great lengths for my sister. But Fia and Annie? Their relationship is something entirely different. What would I do if my sister and I were in the same situation? I loved thinking along these lines. (Also, I really liked using the word sister so much!)
• Dual Narrators: I am a HUGE fan of multiple narrators. Usually we see the main character and their love interest (or perhaps the main character, their love interest, and some other character.) In Mind Games we get to hear from both Fia and Annie. Oh how I enjoyed having narrators who love each other in a nonromantic way! It was everything I loved about multiple narrators (More sides of the story! Different voices! More history!) but it felt new and exciting.
• Time Jumps: I was going to write “flashbacks” but I feel like that makes it seem like the character starts staring off in to space and remembers something from before. In Mind Games it’s more like we jump back to scenes or events that add to the story for the reader. It’s not that Annie or Fia is consciously thinking back and telling the reader about it. We are in that previous time. I like. I like it muy much.
• Voice: I really felt like I was in Fia’s head during her chapters. Annie is a great character as well but Fia’s voice really spoke to me. I loved that we got to see the random little thoughts that flit through her brain as well as the “big” pressing issues. Fia and Annie are so very different from me yetI felt like I could relate to them. Well done! 
• Repetition: Kiersten does a great job of using repetition to enhance the story, particularly Fia’s character. We see this in both words and actions. (For those of you who’ve read it… tap tap tap.)
• Choices: I’m going to have to be pretty vague here but I loved how this book got me thinking about choices. We all have choices. Sometimes there are multiple options that can be “right.” Is there always one that is “more right” than the others? How do we know? Would I have the strength to choose the rougher path? Can a seemingly right choice be wrong or a seemingly wrong choice be right?
• Pacing: This is a fast paced book. It flew by. Between the spacing, switching narrators, and the layout it’s actually a fairly short book. I really loved this. This is kind of weird to say but it felt like reading a psychological thriller movie. I mean that in a good way… we jump from scene to scene to scene piecing together the different parts of the story. My students are going to eat this up!

Oh man. Didn’t I tell you this review wouldn’t go on forever?!? Sorry! But seriously. Those aren’t even all the things I loved! I cannot wait until February so I can talk about all of the things with you guys! You all have to read it so we can discuss, okay? Great. Thanks.