Twisting Minds by Tessonja Odette
Sci-fi/Dystopian. 236 Pages. 5 Stars
Summary:
How can you trust your heart when you can’t trust your mind?
In a future where social status is determined by wealth, debt is punishable by law. Seventeen-year-old Claire Harper lives on the lowest rungs of society. Once an Elite, she’s now a probationary citizen who’s lost everything–her rights, her family, her privacy.
She has one goal. Work her way back to the top. Even if it kills her.
Then she meets Darren.
Darren turns her world upside down. He shows her there’s more to life than working herself to the bone. And she’s falling for him. Hard.
But what good is losing her heart if her sanity goes with it?
When tragedy strikes, her reality shifts. She can no longer tell what’s real and what’s not. Is Darren who she thinks he is? Is she who she thinks she is?
In a dangerous game she doesn’t know she’s playing, her only hope is to make it out alive.
One part futuristic thriller, one part dystopian romance, Twisting Minds is a psychological thrill ride that will leave you questioning the power of love, technology, and the human mind.
My Review:
I stumbled upon Tessonja when she was writing her fantasy trilogy and read them as she released them. I quite enjoyed the Lela trilogy and so figured I’d stick around and see what she pursued next. Boy am I glad I did! This was one hum-dinger of a story!
It was a short little novel, but it packed quite a punch. The story was suspenseful and full of tension. I found myself glued to the pages and struggling to put the book down. The story kept up a fairly quick pace and certainly drew me in. I was fascinated by the world, but Claire’s plight got more and more interesting the deeper into the story we got.
The story is set in a post WWIII society in what used to be Seattle. The people are broken into a caste system and treated very well, just okay, or very poorly based on their status. Their level of debt or wealth is what sorts them into their respective categories. This, I thought, was a really interesting concept and though the caste system was heavily dependent upon it–the types of jobs people could get, curfews, food, reputability with the law enforcement, etc.–I was kind of curious and hoping to dive into this debt/wealth concept deeper. I mean, it set the stage perfectly for the story, so it did it’s job, but I’m always kind of fascinated with world development and we saw little of the governmental structure outside of the caste divisions, which were still intriguing in their own right and well fleshed out.
We had a few central characters that we sort of rotated between and a few side characters that peppered the story. Our MC Claire has had it rough for the last few years and, having recently lost her mother, incurred quite a bit of debt. And in this society, that’s basically a death sentence. Claire is demoted to less than a citizen and put in a program to work off her debt with the vague hope of moving up the societal ladder. Meanwhile, she bumps into Darren, a fellow probationary working in this mundane world to “pay off his debt and move up the ladder.” Throw in a dash of the puzzling Sheila and the closed-off Dr. Grand, whom I very much liked–and you’ve got the makings of a very twisted tale. Darren and Claire set out on a journey together and face the dank dystopian world they’ve been born into. And I’ll leave the rest to you! But I’ll tell you this, as the mystery unfolded, I found myself more and more deeply invested and questioning many elements in this psycho-thriller. And that ending! Guys, it did not disappoint!
There weren’t really any loose ends, so to speak, but I was curious and wish we’d seen more of the outlands and the rest of the nation. And, like I mentioned earlier, I do wish we’d seen more of the governmental structure higher up. And I wondered whatever happened to Molly. And the Mitchell plot line left me with some questions about how far he was involved, but I mean, everything had an answer regarding the plot. It was all tied up in the end. I just wanted to dig in a little deeper and explore a little more. That said! I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would recommend it, with some qualifications, of course.
Content: There are a handful of foul words spread throughout the book, but Tessonja doesn’t use them as a crutch for poor dialogue. They’re exclamations of surprise or anger and there were less than ten of them throughout the story if I remember correctly. There isn’t any graphic violence, though there are characters who deal with loss, grief, and trauma. Plus, the story takes place in a society that systematically discriminates and mistreats its citizens based on their caste. There is romance in the story, a few kisses, and one fade to black sex scene. The scene is referenced a few times, but it was not explicit. I’d probably recommend to 17+.