The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford

Series: stand alone (for now)Rating: 3.75/5
Date of Publishing: June 18th 2019Genre: fantasy, superhero, sci-fi, mystery
Publisher: OrbitAvailable: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Number of pages: 496Author’s website: N/A

 

Quote of the Book*

“I couldn’t be more different to Annie. You know how some club bouncers have huge muscles and a shit-ton of tattoos and piercings? You know how people still fuck with them, starting fights and smashing bottles? Annie is like that one bouncer with zero tattoos, standing in the corner with her arms folded and a scowl that could sour milk. The bouncer no one fucks with because the last person who did ended up scattered over a six-mile radius. We might not see eye to eye on music—or on anything, because she’s taller than me—but I’m still very glad she’s on my side.”

*excerpt from review copy, may change at time of publishing.

 

Blurb

For Teagan Frost, sh*t just got real.

Teagan Frost is having a hard time keeping it together. Sure, she’s got telekinetic powers—a skill that the government is all too happy to make use of, sending her on secret break-in missions that no ordinary human could carry out. But all she really wants to do is kick back, have a beer, and pretend she’s normal for once.

But then a body turns up at the site of her last job—murdered in a way that only someone like Teagan could have pulled off. She’s got 24 hours to clear her name—and it’s not just her life at stake. If she can’t unravel the conspiracy in time, her hometown of Los Angeles will be in the crosshairs of an underground battle that’s on the brink of exploding…

Full of imagination, wit and random sh*t flying through the air, this insane adventure from an irreverent new voice will blow your tiny mind.

 

Personal notes

A special thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review.


Song of the Book

This book just called for something fun.

I have respect for The Black-Eyed Peas after seeing them in concert. There was a very young audience in attendance when I took our teen daughter to see them, which will.i.am, noted and the group toned it down to radio friendly language for that reason. I was suitably impressed with them as a group and they were so much fun to watch on top of it.

 

Review

This opens with a bang, befitting the title but it’s weird bang – kind of like small town fireworks with the reload time between the bursts of color, as this stops mid-action to give us a bit of catch-up. Once we are caught up though, it’s go-time, and the rest of the book is an easy, quick, and fun read.

Teagan works for the government using her psychokinesis skillset accomplishing jobs in ways that aren’t exactly legal. With so many misdeeds between them, Teagan, along with a ragtag of misfits for a crew, have a lot to lose if things go south and there’s no guarantees of backing by their employer if they get themselves into too much trouble.

So, when someone turns up dead after a job gone south, and in a way only a telekinetic could do, Teagan – the only telekinetic around, has less than a day to clear her name before she is hauled back to a facility where there is zero chance of ever seeing the light of day again.

I have been finding the first and third person mixed POV a lot in books lately. I have varied feelings on this – sometimes it’s very noticeable, and sometimes it works really well. At first it was noticeable here (maybe only because it is uncommon) but later especially towards the end, I was grateful for it.

I was a bit worried at the beginning that this was going to be one of those insert here: female lead, kick-ass, snarky-girl, the millionth-edition. Though she starts off a bit snarky, Teagan is nowhere near kick ass. She’s a bit impetuous and pretty funny at times, but I am glad to say the snark leveled off to a good mix of self-awareness and a wryness of tone, topped with some nice characterization – I really enjoyed her.
As the story goes and we learn more about her and her love of good food, we start to realize a lot of Teagan’s big dreams are her trying to grab on to the happiness she remembered from before her world fell apart, back when she still had a family around her, and wasn’t considered a freakshow because of her PK abilities.

We meet the crew and some acquaintances through Teagan’s POV and they proved to be just as interesting as Teagan – we don’t get all of them fleshed-out but we do get enough to really feel personalities through her interactions and I’m looking forward to more of them (if there is a sequel).

The relationship threads at the end of the book, felt a little long to wrap up though, especially the stuff with Nic. I can’t complain too much about this point, because I did appreciate not being left wondering about personal comments, and thoughts that Teagan had previously about ex’s, or about why certain people did what they did – the answers to the important stuff were given. In other words – small threads are in place for a sequel, without leaving this book feeling unfinished.

The use of third person for Jake’s parts, filled in so much of the story that would have been left unanswered otherwise with only Teagan’s limited POV, just because of the fact that Jake’s character events were so isolated up until they actually meet. For that reason, this POV change worked really well for me.

The city plays a big part in the setting, especially with the wildfires raging in the background and in some ways it was easier for me to picture skid row and the colorful flavor of the mixed community, than if it had been just a regular every person’s neighborhood. You don’t forget the backdrop here for that reason.

I can’t say too much about the plot without spoilers except that I loved how it kept you on your toes wondering the reason behind the murders, and that even having the POV of  Jake doesn’t answer that question to almost the very end. Great pacing, plotting and use of the POVs.

Also, bravo to the one reveal that surprised the heck out of me, and by doing so, also cleared up a couple of complaints story-wise that I was having. I had been leaning towards an idea of what I thought was up, but other than the person, I wasn’t even close. It’s hard to surprise me anymore and this earned itself all kinds of brownie points for doing just that.

Action packed and just as fun as the title suggests!

This review was written by Jen (BunnyReads)