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Mind Games

Disillusionists, Book 1

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Mind Games

By: Carolyn Crane
Narrated by: Rebecca Wisocky
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Justine knows she's going to die. Any second now.

Justine Jones has a secret. A hardcore hypochondriac, she’s 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’s soul and invites her to join his private crime-fighting team. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

With a little of Packard’s hands-on training, Justine can weaponize her neurosis, turning it outward on Midcity’s worst criminals, and finally get the freedom from fear she’s always craved. End of problem. Or is it?

In Midcity, a dashing police chief is fighting a unique breed of outlaw with more than human powers. And while Justine’s first missions, including one against a nymphomaniac husband-killer, are thrilling successes, there is more to Packard than meets the eye. Soon, while battling her attraction to two very different men, Justine is plunging deeper into a world of wizardry, eroticism, and cosmic secrets. With Packard’s help, Justine has freed herself from her madness - only to discover a reality more frightening than anyone’s worst fears.

©2010 Carolyn Crane (P)2011 Audible, Inc. Classics Fantasy Paranormal Emotionally Gripping
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Critic reviews

"Mind Games is a violent U-Turn in a fresh direction, signaling the dynamic and welcome arrival of both Carolyn Crane and the most unique urban fantasy heroine I’ve seen on page in a long while, Justine Jones. And like Justine, Midcity is brightly imagined, beautifully dangerous, and perfectly flawed. Flashy and stylish, this is urban fantasy’s new shot-in-the-arm." (Vicki Pettersson, The New York Times)
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I don’t think I have read a book like this before & it was such a brilliant change of pace for me, I loved the insight into Justine’s head & learning about the other people & near the end was great as well, but I will not say more as I would give to much information if I did.
A great listen/read

Unique story, I Loved it

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predictable but great fun. Had no idea it was a 'steamy' novel though lol... beware where you listen, it gets pretty raunchy!

Good fun

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Games: Disillusionists, Book 1 by Carolyn Crane narrated by Rebecca Wisocky. Great original idea but only average performance and story telling 3/5 for both. The good is that I loved the concept of this book. Justine Jones has debilitating hypochondria which is destroying her life and may eventually lead to the loss of everything she cares for. Then a stranger in a bar offers her not only salvation but salvation in a form that will turn her weakness into a weapon and allow her to help others. Now she just has to figure out how to live with the consequences. The plot alone kept me interested for the first part of the book as Justine is such an unlikely but likable heroine but the storytelling really lets it down and by halfway through the book I found myself completely unconvinced about any of it. The narrator does a great job getting us into Justin's mind and neuroses but the accents she uses for some on the men are just so over-blown, it became really annoying. Not one I'd bother coming back to or buying any more books from this author.

Original idea, average storytelling.

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I was very surprised at how funny this was and I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t impressed with the narrator’s male voices. It made them not as likeable

Very entertaining

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I adored this trilogy, my favourite fantasy of its type.



The premise is tenuous, but unusual enough that I didn't mind. A woman with massive, crippling health anxiety is recruited to join a band of vigilantes (or, "reverse emotional vampires" according to Simon) who, taught by their enigmatic leader, channel their destructive emotions into criminals, working as a team to disillusion the target. Essentially, they are hired as a psychological hit squad, to mentally break a target. In reality, this would probably just cause massive longterm psychological damage, but in Mind Games this process causes the target to 'reboot' back to factory settings, filled with newfound empathy for their victims and remorse for their criminal behaviour. That's the tenuous part.



It's more superhero fantasy than magic fantasy, as the other fantasy element is "highcap" high capacity humans; humans with mutated mental powers beyond the norm. Telepaths, telekinetics, dream-invaders, and the like. There are some new ideas I haven't seen before in the genre, unusual powers which have some fun, inventive applications.



I think the reason I liked this it so much, though, was because I identified so strongly with the heroine. I suffer from social anxiety rather than health anxiety, but I felt that the subject was treated seriously and handled sensitively, and I found myself really liking the heroine.



She really struck me as a realistic person, instead of the kicking-ass-and-taking-names alpha-bitch type heroine in so many books of this genre. It's written in 1st person and Justine has a very strong voice in the prose, and her wry sense of humour as well as mad panic is conveyed absolutely perfectly by Wisocky, who captures the voice and keeps up with the book's fast pace.



The whole trilogy is a perfect meeting of great book and great audio performance. Absolutely worth five stars.

Wonderfully entertaining, original & witty.

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