Michele Jaffe

"When you're lost, every direction looks the same."

ooooooh. This one completely surprised me with how much I enjoyed it.
At first, I wasn't so sure about Sadie. And the general synopsis made me nervous. This could be silly fluff about a girl pining over a boy.

but before I realized it, I'd hit half way. And I was sure I was enjoying it but I wasn't sure I was loving it until...the crux of the plot hit and I realized how much I knew the characters. How I was rooting them on and hoping they show more won! This one is sneaky and has you falling for the story and the people so easily you don't notice. Definitely one I'd read again. show less

Jane's life is verging on perfect from the perspective of most teens. She's popular and is friends with two of the most powerful girls in her school. She has a boyfriend that adores her. Everyone likes her. Or so it seems. Until Jane wakes up in the hospital suffering from a multitude of injuries after attending a party on Memorial Day weekend, the apparent victim of a hit-and-run, with no memories of what happened that night. As Jane begins to piece together the events prior to the show more accident, she starts to question whether it was actually an accident or whether one of her supposed friends is trying to kill her.

This novel is fantastic! I loved absolutely every page (and the cover too). The prose is beautiful and evocative. Jane is a photographer, and the language in the novel often reflects that with its fantastic descriptions, which grab you from the first paragraph of the prologue. Jaffe also brilliantly crafts realistic teen characters who are flawed, have definite problems, and don't always understand themselves and their motivations for their actions. While Jane verges on the irritating with her naivete at times, she still feels like a real person who you just want to shake a little for taking everything at face value. But the best element of this novel is the mystery. I was so thrilled to find a YA novel where I did not figure out the mystery before the protagonist. Jaffe is a master of twists and turns, and also manages to continue to plant doubts in the reader's mind as to whether there actually is a mystery to solve. In some sections, the novel reminded me of Veronica Mars, due to the frequent flashbacks in which we piece together Jane's back story as well as the events of the night before she was hit by the car. A fabulous novel that I highly recommend. show less

All Jaz wants to do during her family vacation is lounge lazily by the pool at their Las Vegas hotel. It's not her fault that things just happen to her. Like a three-legged cat hurling itself onto her head and getting her all caught up in a celebrity mystery. Luckily her BFFs from home show up, to join in the amateur sleuthing hijinks.
My favorite part is when she dusts for fingerprints using the eyeshadow in her purse. That tells you so much about the character and this book as a whole: show more it's sassy, inventive, and fun. A thoroughly modern Nancy Drew. show less

For years, Sadie has worked with one ultimate goal in mind: being accepted into the prestigious Mind Fellowship program, a program that seeks to educate the future's best minds. She knows little about the program, but what she does know - that the it pushes boundaries, selects only the best, and is a frontrunner in technological advancement - would make it a shining achievement on her already impressive resume. Sadie learns she will undergo a process in which her mind will connect with a show more randomly selected subject's; she will see and feel everything he experiences, but he'll have no idea she's there. Sadie is expected to stay objective, to observe her subject without the bias of emotion, but she soon finds that task is much easier said than done. All she's told about her subject, Ford, is that he's on the fast track to criminality, information that immediately biases Sadie. Though privileged and sheltered, it doesn't take long for Sadie to realize that people, even those from the wrong side of the tracks and with infuriatingly annoying tendencies, are complex... and that there's always more than one side to every story. As the days she spends in Ford's mind turn to weeks, she finds herself reevaluating the way she looks at the world. Pulled into his quest to solve his brother's murder, Sadie is surprised to find herself feeling for Ford... and maybe even falling for him.

Oh, where to start with my love for this book? There's crazy, advanced science, a mystery, dark threatening forces, gorgeous, crumbling Detroit architecture, and a complicated, swoon-worthy romance.

I'm am, admittedly, a huge fan of Michele Jaffe as an author. I've yet to be disappointed by one of her novels; I've read both her adult fiction and YA. Her adult fiction is rather steamy and I love that she's able to bring that to her YA as well... The steamy scenes within MINDERS say well within PG-13 bounds, but Jaffe isn't afraid to tackle the intensity of teenage sexuality. Ford is a teenaged boy after all... a teenaged boy who has no idea that a teen girl is currently residing in his head, seeing and experiencing every sensation he does. Understandably, this makes for some very interesting situations that are both intensely awkward and unexpectedly passionate.

While MINDERS is not the first book to explore a premise in which a character is privy to another's thoughts without the other character's consent or knowledge, Jaffe gives this established trope a fresh twist. Often, this power, to breach another's mind, is achieved by supernatural or magical means... In MINDERS, it's science and technological advancements that allow Sadie and the others within the program to cross personal boundaries and invade the privacy of those who might be peers if not for their socioeconomic status. When supernatural and magical elements are involved, there's often clear divisions of good and evil. In MINDERS, right and wrong - and good and evil - aren't as easily established.

With MINDERS, Michele Jaffe demonstrates she can give readers a gripping, well-written story, no matter the genre. show less