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Csr: Story Discussion For State Of Mind

Cia

Entry posted by Cia in CSR- Can't Stop Reading

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Today we're featuring a review of Libby's story, State of Mind. She graciously gave out eBook copies, and members could read it on the site, of course. Fishwings accepted my request and wrote up an excellent review to entice you to read the story, just in case you haven't already. Bear in mind, however, there *are* some spoilers. Read ahead at your own risk!

 

Fishwing's Review:

 


First of all, I'd like to thank Cia for letting me write this review. She knows that I'm a huge fan of Libby Drew and I am honoured to be able to review one of my favourite stories on this site.

 

“A State of Mind” was actually the first Libby Drew novel that I read, after which I became an instant fan. I still remember staying up at four in the morning on a school night, loathing myself because I simply couldn’t summon enough willpower to put it aside for later!

 

The story follows the Organization, a secret agency consisting of "gifted" men and women with paranormal, psychic powers of persuasion and telekinesis. "A State of Mind" thrives on several strengths, including a riveting plot and a clever concept that is an entertaining nod towards other secret agent and superhuman novels. However, I think its biggest strength lies in its amazingly well-developed characters.

 

One such character is Nicolas – one of my favourites. He is an egotistical brat, a jealous bitch, with borderline ambiguous motives, but at the same time remained a reliable friend. I thought this combination of flaws and strengths really humanized him to the point that I felt sorry for him being third-wheeled. Both protagonists were similarly well-fleshed out. Grier is a brooding, cynical, at times socially awkward, wisened, deadly warrior with a sad childhood who eventually becomes quite devoted to Alec. Alec is archetypically blond and stubborn to the point of irritation, but he’s also quick witted, reserved yet flirty, with enough loyalty and good heart to make him both a relatable and an admirable character.

 

Another thing that I enjoyed is how Libby balances the romance with the action. It was simply perfect. The unresolved sexual tension keeps on growing and doesn’t get in the way of their pulse-racing escapes, nor does the action subvert the chemistry between them – it enhances it. Libby builds up their relationship through several sweet (and life-threatening) moments until that one, explosively huge, satisfying bedroom scene. I usually skip over sex scenes in novels, or I observe them with the detached manner comparative to how an entomologist might regard the dissection of an insect specimen, but this scene worked for me because of how well it was planned. I remember screaming into the air:

 

“Well ABOUT F*CKING TIME!” (pun intended)

 

Now regarding the action. Libby’s prose is vivid, without a touch of purple, and she knows how to structure her sentences to amp up the adrenaline. The most memorable scene of the entire novel I thought would have to be Alec and Grier’s confrontation with Kay at the restaurant. I was hanging on every single bloody word, and the way the situation was resolved I thought was very clever. Libby’s characters were proactive, and their autonomous thinking/actions impressed me on numerous occasions.

 

One area that I wasn’t entirely convinced was regarding the villains. In contrast to the protagonists, I felt that they weren’t very well developed and were rather stereotyped. In particular, the way Kay dismissed Alec’s friendship was unrealistically abrasive, and she quickly faded from being a source of intrigue. I thought if she had suffered from more ambiguity it would have humanized the antagonists a little more and made them more interesting. Another thing that I noticed is that Libby sometimes uses the mirror technique to describe character appearances, which kind of makes me go “oh I see what you did there…”

 

… and now I’m just being nitpicky.

 

Although I can’t seem to think of any deep-rooted themes that correlate to this book, I honestly don’t really care. "State of Mind’s" primordial purpose was to entertain, and it more than delivered. I laughed, bit my knuckles in anticipation, fell in love with Alec, with Grier, with Nicolas, pumped my fist in the air when Kay fell to her death, and didn’t regret going to school the next day feeling like death because I had stayed up all night reading.

 

And typing up this review.

 

Overall, I loved "State of Mind." Thank you so much Libby Drew for writing it and allowing it to be hosted on this site (and for kindly PMing members free copies of your book), and for just existing in general. Keep doing your thing, you amazing writer, you.

 

So what did YOU think? Leave your comments on the section below, BUT don’t forget to post a review on Libby’s story as well! Authors thrive on feedback.

 


Thank you, Fishwings, for the excellent review! Now on to more thoughts from readers! Comment below with your thoughts of the story. Don't forget to suggest a story for next month, between 20-90k, completed! After today we'll have had 3 months of CSR's book club. The last 2 months have netted some great reads and thoughts for the authors chosen. How about some feedback for the blog itself? You can pm me or post here, but I'd like to know if we're going along great or if there are any features/suggestions you might have!

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Percy

Great review Fishwings!

 

I first read this book a couple years ago and skimmed back through it to review here.  It was the first book of Libby Drew’s that I read, and I was immediately hooked as a fan. 

 

State of Mind falls solidly in the paranormal action/adventure genre with a nice side of m/m romance.  As FW indicated in his review, the primary characters of the book are well rounded and the supporting characters are well-treated too.  Drew has a real gift for writing dialogue.  What’s more, she writes it convincingly for a variety of characters.  It’s crisp, witty and doesn’t slow you down when the action is really moving along and you just want to keep turning the pages.

 

I would classify this as a good summer read (but don't wait until summer).  It’s the type of book you want to pick up if you’re sitting on the beach, if you’ve just completed a draining project at work and want to be carried away, or to cap off a demanding semester of study.  Great escapist reading.

 

I did have a couple quibbles with the plot as I never fully grasped what the Organization did or how they did it.  Who hired them?  Or did they arbitrarily decide what the world needed in terms of mission? If that’s the case, how was the organization funded?  How did they come to exist?  And why the lie about the effect of disassociating the monitors from the gifted?  How did they manage to keep that lie from being revealed if all of the monitors knew the truth?

 

I kept reading and thinking that all these things would be answered at the end of the book.  Either they weren’t or I missed the explanation (and someone here can clear the questions up for me).  :P

 

Either way, Drew created an interesting alternate world and it would be great to see her come out with a prequel or sequel to State of Mind.

 

Next Month Suggestions:

 

Carl Holiday’s Josh’s Blog

Carringtonrj’s Paradise

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Fishwings

I would classify this as a good summer read (but don't wait until summer).  It’s the type of book you want to pick up if you’re sitting on the beach, if you’ve just completed a draining project at work and want to be carried away, or to cap off a demanding semester of study.  Great escapist reading.

 

I did have a couple quibbles with the plot as I never fully grasped what the Organization did or how they did it.  Who hired them?  Or did they arbitrarily decide what the world needed in terms of mission? If that’s the case, how was the organization funded?  How did they come to exist?  And why the lie about the effect of disassociating the monitors from the gifted?  How did they manage to keep that lie from being revealed if all of the monitors knew the truth?

 

I kept reading and thinking that all these things would be answered at the end of the book.  Either they weren’t or I missed the explanation (and someone here can clear the questions up for me).  :P

 

Next Month Suggestions:

 

Carl Holiday’s Josh’s Blog

Carringtonrj’s Paradise

 

Yeah, I felt like State of Mind would have also made an excellent movie, and it leaves plenty of potential for a sequel :P I don't remember a lot of those things that were answered either. The novel wasn't particularly long.

 

I've heard a lot about "Josh's Blog" so I'm actually very intrigued to read it. What I've read from RJ so far is very exceptional so can't go wrong with that either :P

 

 

 

 

In response to Cia's questions, I'm actually really loving the GA author blogs. They're one of the highlights of my sleepy mornings. A lot of effort has been exhibited by admins, mods, people of the blog team and others who have volunteered to keep our tri-weekly digest up and running.

 

As for the book club, I have a few suggestions:

 

a ) Somehow pinning the monthly CSR selections so they stay more relevant

b ) Picking stories of different lengths, I have a few novellas/shorts that I wanna suggest but are within to 12K - 19K lengths. Likewise, I like some stories that are 160K ish too.

c ) Posting our comments as reviews to the featured story -- or else all of the discussion becomes buried and becomes irrelevant within a week and the story doesn't benefit with regards to exposure as much.

      - Maybe compiling a list of past CSR featured stories, or just past featured stories in general and having it pinned somewhere public would help with this.

 

For the Blog itself, I think it would be interesting to have a little more interactivity with the audience -- maybe introduce polls of some sort.

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Cia
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a ) There really isn't a way to pin it, though I could do a site wide announcement each month for it. However no one every pays attention to those.

 

b ) We're not doing over 90k. There are too many people who don't read that fast. I could consider doing 2-3 short stories people could pick to read from, any or all.

 

c ) Readers are more than welcome to add their reviews to the story. Even I can only do 1 review per chapter. So I can't add them. Plus it takes readers 2 more minutes to  copy/paste their own review, it'd take a lot longer for me to try and add them in some super review or something and I wouldn't be able to add new ones if people go back to comment again.

 

Basically... we do put a lot of work into the blog, and dealing with mod issues, and other projects on top of our real lives. We try to vary content and keep the site busy and interactive for members, but the more we try to do, the harder it can be and the more staff members that burn out.

 

Suggestions are great, and I appreciate them. I know we will definitely take things into consideration and apply what we can, as we can. Thanks!

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Fishwings

a ) There really isn't a way to pin it, though I could do a site wide announcement each month for it. However no one every pays attention to those.

 

b ) We're not doing over 90k. There are too many people who don't read that fast. I could consider doing 2-3 short stories people could pick to read from, any or all.

 

c ) Readers are more than welcome to add their reviews to the story. Even I can only do 1 review per chapter. So I can't add them. Plus it takes readers 2 more minutes to  copy/paste their own review, it'd take a lot longer for me to try and add them in some super review or something and I wouldn't be able to add new ones if people go back to comment again.

 

Basically... we do put a lot of work into the blog, and dealing with mod issues, and other projects on top of our real lives. We try to vary content and keep the site busy and interactive for members, but the more we try to do, the harder it can be and the more staff members that burn out.

 

Suggestions are great, and I appreciate them. I know we will definitely take things into consideration and apply what we can, as we can. Thanks!

 

 

Awesome :) It's definitely still great what you guys are doing. I find the digest highly interesting.

 

Oh and the 2-3 short story pick sounds great

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