Mind Games

By: Shana Silver

Narrated by: Rachel L. Jacobs

A teen programmer at a school for geniuses must join forces with a boy she can't remember to stop a hacker from deleting their memories in Shana Silver’s action-packed YA debut, Mind Games.

Arden sells memories. Whether it’s becoming homecoming queen or studying for that all important test, Arden can hack into a classmate’s memories and upload the experience for you just as if you’d lived it yourself. Business is great, right up until the day Arden whites out, losing 15 minutes of her life and all her memories of the boy across the school yard. The boy her friends assure her she’s had a crush on for years.

Arden realizes that her own memories have been hacked, but they haven’t just been stolen and shared...they’ve been removed. And she’s not the only one: Her mysterious crush, Sebastian, has lost ALL of his memories. But how can they find someone who has the power to make them forget everything they’ve learned?

Praise from the Swoon Reads community:

“An absolute roller coaster ride.... I loved it. I absolutely loved it!” (Pamela Delupio)

“An awesome concept and a gripping mystery...a wild ride from beginning to end.” (T. K. Yeager)

©2019 Shana Silver (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

I finished this book

which is more than I sometimes do. I read this book because NPR gave it a pretty rave review. Many parts of the story were very well-written. At times it is reminiscent of great time-traveling stories or compelling movies, like Memento.

But it falls into a lot of YA tropes that I'm not fond of. Even as the story draws you along, it was only because the many stages of the story reveal very few of the secrets. Unfortunately, these secrets are not so hidden: most of the finale was clear from very early in the story.