Review: Mindful Things

Mindful Things by Mya Duong
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

DNF at pg 316/595 (53%)

I always feel crappy when I get free copies of books in exchange for reviews and then fail to finish the book. But this was just too much of a chore and the formatting errors detracted from the story so much that I found myself skipping chunks before finally resigning and sticking the DNF label on it.

So here's my thoughts on the first half of the book, with thanks to the author for my copy.

Firstly, the formatting.

The copy I had had incomplete sentences and also seemed to be missing whole scenes. It meant that I missed vital information and was left confused when things were referred to later that I hadn't actually read. Sentences stopped halfway through a word, and there were messy formatting marks in some places. I understand this will be the case for very few people but for me it just made the whole experience a lot harder.

Now, the story.

I really liked the premise. The orphan who is secretly super powerful and has to deal with the adjustment once strange things start happening is always a solid formula, even if it's been done plenty of times before. But this was so painfully slow, and heavily overshadowed by Lauren and Quinn's insta-love. It's kind of explained away but it was way too cheesy for my tastes. I rolled my eyes a lot. By the time I gave up, we'd only just learned about Lauren's secret identity. If I'm halfway through a book I'd want to have had at least a little action, not still be in the midst of setting the scene. It was such a drainer.

Also, the characters are dull and don't actually seem to act according to who they've been written to be? They're just stereotypes and cliches all smooshed together to do the same predictable things the same characters do in other books. It's all very unoriginal. There are no dynamics between the relationships, and everyone is just chill and bffs etc and BLEH. SO DULL.

As far as the writing goes, there's evident talent but it's used poorly and needs more originality. There's some creative use of figurative speech, but it tends to try too hard to make the point and so comes across as overblown and excessive. That being said, I think a lot of my issue with the writing is created by the lack of originality in the story so I'd like to see this author try her hand at something completely out of her comfort zone; something completely different to what she personally reads. There's an obvious creative spark but to me it seems like it's been tainted by the desire to follow a familiar formula.

I feel like I'm being particularly harsh on this book and I know there will be others who truly enjoy this story, but it just wasn't enough to suit my tastes. I'd probably recommend for younger readers, who will be less likely to have encountered a similar story before and so will appreciate these characters more than I.

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