Book Review: Mind Games

The Story: This is the new standalone novel from Teri Terry author of the phenomenal, award winning Slated series. It centres around Luna, who is what is called a Refuser in a dystopian world, where the majority of citizens now prefer to live their lives in virtual worlds by plugging into their PIP’s, thanks to Pareco, an international company who have created and monopolised online gameplay and virtual spheres. Luna is looked upon as a second class citizen because she refuses to be online for most of her waking hours, especially by her headmistress at school. But Luna has a secret which she can’t share with anybody and is the reason why she can’t plug in for any great length of time. It is because of this secret that her world starts to become unstable, frightening and confusing as she finds that she does not know who to trust.

The Characters: Luna is smart, unique and looked down upon because of her status as a Refuser. She has lost touch with most of her childhood friends who now prefer to spend their time in virtual worlds and she is seen as weird and strange by pretty much everybody. Her Mother is famous and dead and her Father is plugged in so much that he rarely interacts with his family. Her Stepmother is tolerable but not Luna’s favourite person to be around and her Brother Jason is starting to become increasingly more hooked by virtual worlds with his new implant chip. Her Nanna, strange though her behaviour is, helps Luna a lot and constantly tries to warn her about the dangers of the virtual worlds.

Gecko is a boy Luna meets when she goes to the test centre and they become friends. Gecko is my favourite character as he is so cool and smart. Luna’s friend Hex, a virtual hacker, is also a big part of her story.

What I loved about this book: From the first page I found the story to be original and interesting. The clear, engagingly readable writing style that I loved so much in the Slated series comes through sharply in Mind Games and is what makes the book fast-paced and gripping. I was so intrigued by Luna’s family situation and how she has more interaction with her Father online than she does face to face which made me feel sorry for her because she really loves him. I was hoping to find out more about Luna’s Mother Astra as she is mentioned a lot in online chatrooms and revered by online gamers and hackers as the story unfolds and I wasn’t disappointed. This book gripped me all the way through and I was absolutely satisfied by the ending. I would really love to read Astra or Gecko’s story as I think they were the characters who drew me into the story the most.

I would recommend this book to fans of Slated obviously, but also to anybody who loves dystopian worlds, Sci-Fi or thrillers.