Open Minds by: Susan Kaye Quinn

Open Minds by: Susan Kaye Quinn
Published: November 1, 2011
Publisher: Self-Published
Page Count: 326
Format: Signed paperback
Series: #1 in Mindjack series
Buy the Book: Amazon

Summary from Goodreads:

 When everyone reads minds, a secret is a dangerous thing to keep.

Sixteen-year-old Kira Moore is a zero, someone who can’t read thoughts or be read by others. Zeros are outcasts who can’t be trusted, leaving her no chance with Raf, a regular mindreader and the best friend she secretly loves. When she accidentally controls Raf’s mind and nearly kills him, Kira tries to hide her frightening new ability from her family and an increasingly suspicious Raf. But lies tangle around her, and she’s dragged deep into a hidden world of mindjackers, where having to mind control everyone she loves is just the beginning of the deadly choices before her.

“Quinn has created an intensely dangerous world both inside the minds of her characters and outside–a world that left me asking myself questions I would never have asked before. When you can literally control the thoughts of others, how far will you go?” — Michelle Davidson Argyle, Author of Monarch and Cinders

My Review:

      Before I begin, let me thank Susan Quinn for giving away a copy of her book and Amanda at Letters Inside Out for hosting the giveaway. It was the first giveaway I won as a book blogger!
      This book was probably one of the most impressive displays of world building I have ever experienced. The book was set in Chicago New Metro, which seemed to me to be the futuristic version of the Chicago we know now. There were a lot of elements that had been changed, which,  being a lover of dystopian, I enjoyed reading a lot. For example, people drove hydro cars that had to be charged instead of gassed. All of that futuristic stuff really helped me visualize this new version of the world we know.
     I've read a couple books about people who can read minds being separated from society for that, so a book about everyone who can read minds except for one girl, Kira, was quite an amazing new take on things.
    As Kira goes through the process of realizing she is a jacker, I began to really admire her character because once she finds out about the Clan and their plans, she instantly thinks about all the people she would be hurting if she told anyone that she is a jacker. She has limitless care for everyone she cares about and sometimes people she hardly knows.
   Kira goes through such a transformation in such a short time, I had to wonder if her head would just explode right there! She discovers so many things about herself and uncovers truths about her family. Beyond being a dystopian story, it was kind of contemporary in the sense that she grew to become not neccesarily the person she wanted to, but a person her parents and she can be proud of. She shows remarkable courage at the end, however, and with the great first person point of view, I was really able to get into her head and connect with her as a reader.