Review: This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis

This Darkness MineThe Dem
Author: Cinda 
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: October 10th 2017
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

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Sasha Stone knows her place—first-chair clarinet, top of her class, and at the side of her oxford-wearing boyfriend. She’s worked her entire life to ensure that her path to Oberlin Conservatory as a star musician is perfectly paved.

But suddenly there’s a fork in the road, in the shape of Isaac Harver. Her body shifts toward him when he walks by, her skin misses his touch even though she’s never known it, and she relishes the smell of him—smoke, beer, and trouble—all the things she’s avoided to get where she is. Even worse, every time he’s near Sasha, her heart stops, literally. Why does he know her so well—too well—and she doesn’t know him at all?

Sasha discovers that her by-the-book life began by ending another’s: the twin sister she absorbed in the womb. But that doesn’t explain the gaps of missing time in her practice schedule or the memories she has of things she certainly never did with Isaac. As Sasha loses her much-cherished control, her life—and heart—become more entangled with Isaac. Armed with the knowledge that her heart might not be hers alone, Sasha must decide what she’s willing to do—and who she’s willing to hurt—to take it back.

Edgar Award–winning author Mindy McGinnis delivers a dark and gripping psychological thriller about a girl at war with herself, and what it really means to be good or bad.

This Darkness Mine is a Young Adult psychological thriller, quite dark and has an unreliable main character.

Sasha is a 17 year-old girl, in her senior year of high school, she´s the valedictorian, is the first clarinet in her school and her goal is to enter the Oberlin Conservatory, so she practises her clarinet for hours every day, in addition to having the perfect boyfriend to match her image, but everything changes when Sasha starts to not remember some periods of time and Isaac a rebellious classmate begins to talk to her as if they know each other and he makes comments of things that can not be possible. Besides her heart accelerates every time he´s close and she knows things about him that she shouldn´t know. And the things in her life become stranger when she discovers that she had a twin who died in the womb and that she absorbed her (vanishing twin syndrome) and Sasha begins to doubt that her twin sister has completely disappeared and that she´s a part of Sasha.

This is the fifth book of the author that I´ve read, so I already have an idea about what to expect, since her books are typically raw and dark. Where the main character isn´t necessarily a nice and likeable person, but usually they´re strong, intriguing and malicious when necessary, they do everything to survive, something that I enjoyed in her books, but it can be a little shocking for those who are not accustomed to her way of telling stories.

Overall, it´s an interesting, intriguing, dark and twisted story that hook me and couldn´t put down. I read it relatively fast, since I had to know what was going to happen with the main character and when I finished reading I did not know if I liked it or not ... It´s a weird story and I had to process it. In the last chapters there are several shocking twist and has an interesting ending.
And due to certain scenes I recommend it to mature Young Adult.

Review: A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis

Title: A Madness So Discreet
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: October 6th 2015
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3.5/5

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Grace Mae knows madness.

She keeps it locked away, along with her voice, trapped deep inside a brilliant mind that cannot forget horrific family secrets. Those secrets, along with the bulge in her belly, land her in a Boston insane asylum.

When her voice returns in a burst of violence, Grace is banished to the dark cellars, where her mind is discovered by a visiting doctor who dabbles in the new study of criminal psychology. With her keen eyes and sharp memory, Grace will make the perfect assistant at crime scenes. Escaping from Boston to the safety of an ethical Ohio asylum, Grace finds friendship and hope, hints of a life she should have had. But gruesome nights bring Grace and the doctor into the circle of a killer who stalks young women. Grace, continuing to operate under the cloak of madness, must hunt a murderer while she confronts the demons in her own past.

In this beautifully twisted historical thriller, Mindy McGinnis, acclaimed author of Not a Drop to Drink and In a Handful of Dust, explores the fine line between sanity and insanity, good and evil—and the madness that exists in all of us. 

A Madness So Discreet is a historical murder mystery novel that takes place within an insane asylum and begins with Grace Mae as a mental patient and the reason of why she´s there is because she´s a daughter of respectable family and is pregnant, so to hide the fact her parents admitted her to the asylum for the duration of her pregnancy. But it is there in the asylum, despite the treatment and care she receives as a mental patient, where she feels safer than at home, so with the help of Doctor Thornhollow, she manages to escape the Boston asylum and moves to the Ohio asylum, where she have a more humane treatment as a patient.

Dr. Thornhollow, is a young doctor, who is obsessed with criminal minds, and he´s studying murders and trying to determine the profile of the murderer according to details of the crime scenes and where there were committed. When he meets Grace, he decides to help her due to her good memory and her gift of observation to detail, so she becomes his assistant and together they watched crime scenes trying to make profiles of murderers (much like the TV show Criminal Minds, but when science was in its infancy), but only as observers with the permission of the police. And it´s by means of their nocturnal visits to various crime scenes that both the Doctor Thornhollow and Grace conclude that there is a serial killer in their city that targets young women and that the police are not making the connection..

The first part of this book takes place at the Boston asylum and is very disturbing, due to the methods the asylum use in their patients and the doctors and staff are horrible. This part is very dark and raw.

The second part of the book takes place when Grace is at the Ohio asylum, which has a better staff, and the doctor who is in charge is Thornhollow and patients have a little more freedom and humane treatment, this part was less dark. And is in this part where the mystery begins and we get to know more about Grace.

On the third part of the book, the plot changes and Grace´s problems are more personal and is where she confronts her demons.

Overall, A Madness So Discreet it was a good read, it´s a very interesting, dark, raw historical thriller. My favorite part is the part where the Doctor and Grace are doing profiles of potential murderers. As this is the third book I´ve read written by Mindy, I already had the idea that there would be romance and I was right, plus it was not necessary. It was an interesting read, that speaks a lot about the beginnings of criminal psychology.

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Review: In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Title: In a Handful of Dust (Not a Drop to Drink #2)
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: September 23rd 2014
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3/5

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You can read my review of Not a Drop to Drink - here

The only thing bigger than the world is fear.

Lucy’s life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy’s childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy’s future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach.

When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what’s killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn’s mind, and the prospect of a “normal” life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever, only to disappear in a handful of dust.

In this companion to Not a Drop to Drink, Mindy McGinnis thrillingly combines the heart-swelling hope of a journey, the challenges of establishing your own place in the world, and the gripping physical danger of nature in a futuristic frontier.

In a Handful of Dust begins about ten years after the events of the first book, and we see a sixteen years old Lucy and twenty-six years old Lynn facing a new threat to their peaceful life, as their community gets a disease which they weren´t prepared and for some event, Lynn and Lucy are forced to leave their home and family for the first time in their life, with the intention of going to California in search of a town where there is supposedly a desalinization plant and the town has clean water.

So this book is mostly about the journey they undertake from Ohio with the intention of going to California and all obstacles that they get on the way, the people they meet, the places they know and what they need to do to survive in the world in which they lived and the Lucy´s dreams of something different, of something more.

This book is told from the point of view of Lucy, now a teenager, she has been sheltered and to some extent have had an easy life since she came to live with Lynn ten years ago, she´s kind and has no malice and she doesn´t know how the world is outside of her community, which is a dangerous and bigger than she thought it would. She´s totally dependent of Lynn, she need her protection, need her to feed her and to get her water for most of the trip. Lynn meanwhile is a hard, strong, intelligent woman, she distrusts everyone, is willing to do anything to gets her "daughter" Lucy to California healthy and in one piece.

What I liked about the story is that we get to see Lynn (she was the main character of the first book) and how her life has been in the last ten years and despite living a quiet life so far, she remains tough, showing only her good side to her people and isn´t afraid to use violence when the situation needs it ... she still a good heroine (with her flaws, but very good).

What I didn´t like was that in parts of the trip felt monotonous and like nothing was happening. Besides there is a part in the story that I could not believe the way Lucy react toward Lynn, I felt it a bit excessive.

And what can I say about the ending ... like the previous book is not a completely happy ending, but full of hope for a better future. Overall I enjoyed In a Handful of Dust but I didn´t love it.

Review: Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

Title: Not a Drop to Drink
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release date: September 24th 2013
Source: Edelweiss
Format: egalley

Rating: 3.5/5

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Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own.

Not a Drop to Drink is a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place after that there was a shortage of water and the remainder of drinkable water is guarded at all costs. Lynn has lived all her life with her mother only, she has never interacted with other people and spends her days with her mother on the roof of their house with a rifle in hand guarding the pond at their property and shooting at any human that approaches them.

Because Lynn knows no other life, only what her mother has told her, she´s suspicious of everyone, has hard feelings at the beginning of the story and all the people outside of their little family are considered enemies, so they shoot first and investigate later.

It's easy to become emotionally attached to the character of Lynn, because during the course of story, she will open up to new people, she´ll grow up and begin to make her own decisions and even go against everything her mother taught her. And Lynn's mother is a really tough woman, she´s practical, blunt and willing to do anything to stay alive, but there is a part that left me speechless...this is the quote:

“Just know that there's bad men in the world, and dying fast by your mother is a better way than theirs.” 

And this is what her mother tells her since she was 9 years old.

“Do you want to die like this?" Mother had asked, that night and every night since then.
Lynn's answer never changed. "No."
And Mother's response, their evening prayer. "Then you will have to kill.” 

Not a Drop to Drink is a story of survival, of constant struggle that touches several issues of what happens when the human is desperate to survive, to what the human is that is capable to do to stay alive and how important is family. The only details that I found in this book is that it has several parts that are slow, I was just waiting for something to happen and the ending is very bittersweet (I´m still in denial).

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange of an honest review.

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