Book Review: Mindspeak by Heather Sunseri

Since I was a little stuck for a blog topic this week, I figured I'd post another of my old book reviews. This week's book is one I read last year, and it's one I have mixed feelings about.

First, let's have some stats!

Book Title: Mindspeak
Series: Mindspeak (Book 1)
Author: Heather Sunseri
Age Category: Young Adult
Genre: Sci-fi
Number of Pages (According to Amazon): 396
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Right off the bat, I felt really connected to this book for two reasons. 1: I'm a competitive swimmer (the protagonist and many of her friends are on the school swim team), and 2: I'm a homeschooler (the male love interest is/was homeschooled). Maybe I just haven't been reading the right kinds of books, but I can't recall ever reading a book about swimmers OR homeschoolers. So having both in the same story was awesome.

Secondly, I loved the themes throughout the book. Genetic mutation and superpowers and cloning and mystery and intrigue and playing God and oh-my-gosh-I-can't-wait-to-see-what-happens-next ... Yes PLEASE.

So why am I rating Mindspeak only 3.5 stars? Well, there's a few reasons.

First of all, I found Lexi (the MC) a bit bland. Not a Mary Sue, exactly -- she has flaws -- but she doesn't have much personality. I would have liked her to have a more unique and memorable character.

Secondly, the writing is a little clunky at times. It's certainly not bad enough to be a major flaw, but it's enough to make me notice, so I just thought I'd point it out.

Finally, I felt like several chunks of this book could have been cut out without impacting the story at all. There seemed to be a lot of conversations rehashing old discoveries, when I was dying to hear about new developments.

Overall, if you're not that bothered about fine writing and you don't get bored easily, I definitely recommend this book. For myself, I liked it enough that I think I'll buy the sequel at some point.

You can buy your copy of Mindspeak here.