Mind Games (The Disillusionists, #1) in Readers Unbound

May 08, 2022 John rated it liked it

Shelves: donated

Three stars means "I liked it" according to 欧宝娱乐, and I did enjoy reading this book enough in the main for three stars, though I had some problems with it along the way, especially in the first half. Towards the end, I couldn't put it down and stayed up late to finish it.

The publisher's blurb, reprinted in full at the top of this 欧宝娱乐 page, is startlingly accurate for the first part of this unusual story, but the cover belongs on a very different book. The main character, Justine, doe Three stars means "I liked it" according to 欧宝娱乐, and I did enjoy reading this book enough in the main for three stars, though I had some problems with it along the way, especially in the first half. Towards the end, I couldn't put it down and stayed up late to finish it.

The publisher's blurb, reprinted in full at the top of this 欧宝娱乐 page, is startlingly accurate for the first part of this unusual story, but the cover belongs on a very different book. The main character, Justine, does think for herself but otherwise she is nothing like the cover model and never wields a knife or other weapon (except to defend herself with a stun gun in one scene). Read the blurb, ignore the cover!

Justine is the first-person narrator, and her thoughts and feelings predominate over the action (in spite of a narrow escape or two). She's a painfully self-aware hypochondriac whose intense fear of death by the same rare malady that killed her mother conflicts with her determination to do the right thing in every situation, even the really scary ones. She repeatedly does something while thinking this is the wrong thing to do. That internal battle rages on and on as she undertakes a new life as a disillusionist.

This is urban fantasy free from critters--no vampires, werewolves, fae, or the like. The paranormal part is that there are two special kinds of people in the story, highcaps and disillusionists.

"Do you understand how the highcap mutation works? How different highcaps get different powers?"
"No."
"The mutation involves a kind of wildcard DNA that's blank until you tell it what to do, like stem cells. That's why it's impossible to test for. The highcap baby who first wants a toy from across the room...becomes a telekinetic. A different highcap child might try to divine its mother's thoughts, so its mutation would take the form of telepathy. Another might strive to interact with its napping father. That one turns into a dream invader. The impulse to hide the truth creates a revisionist."

The blurb says, "...Packard peers into Justine's soul..." --that's his special power-- "...and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team." That team is called the disillusionists, people with mental illnesses or very negative mindsets whom Packard has trained to "zing" his chosen targets with their particular problem.

Mostly they don't work alone; Packard will assign two to four disillusionists to take down a given target in a carefully orchestrated series of zings based on Packard's understanding of the target's psychology. The final zing will hopefully bring the target to rock bottom:

"Like rebooting computer. ...Disillusionment crashes and reboots people."

The targets are evildoers who've gotten away with murder and/or other crimes (either they can't be touched by law or they were acquitted on a technicality), and Packard's understanding of their psychology leads him to believe disillusionment will rehabilitate them to become valuable members of society. He admits it doesn't always work, often because the team has to bring off a long con game to get close enough to the target to perform the right zings at the right time. There is a lot of that sort of detail in chapter after chapter.

So when Justine zings someone, she transmits her hypochondria to that person and is temporarily free from it herself; over weeks, it comes back, and she needs to zing again. She partners up with several of the other disillusionists, especially Shelby, who zings the impossibility of happiness; some of the others are Vesuvius, who destroys self-esteem; Helmut, dread for the world; Jay, addiction to alcohol.

Only four targets are portrayed, and it takes many scenes for the disillusionists to get their personal relationships with the targets to the right level, so it feels like chapter after chapter with nothing much happening, sometimes just Justine's wondering what to do. Not mentioned in the blurb, though, is an overarching issue among highcaps that develops gradually until it governs Justine's choices of action.

And then the action heats up, and it takes us to an ending that is quite unlike the conclusion of any other urban fantasy I can think of. I have to admit, though, that it was foreshadowed in all those chapters where nothing definite seemed to be going on.

Trigger warning: some pretty important plot points are embedded in graphic sex scenes. Zing! ...more

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May 08, 2022 Keli rated it liked it

Shelves: enjoyed-quite-a-bit, fun-and-engaging-main-character, 3-5-stars, vwf-lottery-choices, ru2022, upgraded-after-digestion

Synopsis- Justine knows she's going to die. Any second now.

Justine Jones has a secret. A hardcore hypochondriac, she鈥檚 convinced a blood vessel is about to burst in her brain. Then, out of the blue, a startlingly handsome man named Packard peers into Justine鈥檚 soul and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team. It鈥檚 a once-in-a-lifetime deal. With a little of Packard鈥檚 hands-on training, Justine can weaponize her neurosis, turning it outward on Midcity鈥檚 worst criminals, and finally ge ...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Melindeeloo rated it really liked it

It's hard to warm up to the heroine at the start of the story, with the journey into her hypochondrianism, but the idea of neuroises as a super power makes this a really original offering and I liked the ending alot. ...more

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