Review: Open Minds and Daynight blew me away.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 30, 2014
I haven't read most of these books, but if they're anywhere near the quality of Open Minds and Daynight, you'll experience some mind-blowing concepts with plots to keep you guessing and characterization that will touch your heart.For Open Minds, I wrote the following under my personal account:  Kira might be a zero, but others are worse than zero; not all of her friends are what they seem. So hang onto your mind when you pick up this book or Simon won't let you put it down. In fact, he mindjacked me. Well, maybe the author did that. Besides great writing (and the best editing I've seen in any book for many years), there are cool gadgets and slang in a believable future world, all wrapped into a fast paced adventure that reminded me of Hunger Games with more mind games and less hunger for gore. Like Katniss, Kira is drawn against her will into a life and death struggle to change the world. Unlike Katniss, Kira doesn't take three books to get there. But there's heartbreak along the way. This book will make you cry--and cry for more. What it won't do is deny a satisfying ending. Simon says go buy it now.I wrote another review  later when I realized Open Minds was my favorite book of 2011. To summarize: it beat out over 30 books including the Twilight and Hunger Games series. Open Minds was edited better than most trade published books, and it is still one of the few about which I loved everything.Funny how both authors chose the name of Kira for their main characters. Daynight started in a very unusual manner and kept going in unexpected ways most of the book.  After traveling to Thera under traumatic circumstances, Kira was not allowed to mention any past relationships if she met someone familiar. Of course, she did--friends and boyfriends. I like books with intrigue and puzzles to solve, and daynight provided plenty. I also like books with layered meanings, and daynight had more religious symbolism than The Grapes of Wrath. In the beginning, you might think the first scene is unrelated to the next few scenes, but I had my suspicions when Kira reached Thera and began her training for a one year commitment to the Second Chance Institute to earn a scholarship. It soon became evident that her fellow recruit Blake knew more than he would tell her. Although the recruits were not allowed to believe in or speak of God, some characters were hard to miss as symbolic of deity, good and evil. Whether viewed as a modern parable or a thrill ride, Daynight was the most compelling and intense book I've read since Free Souls by Susan Kaye Quinn. I'm not a fan of cliffhanger endings, but in this case, the first book's arc completed and another started. Many mysteries were revealed, leaving another layer of mysteries and a whole new set of obstacles to overcome. Wow. 5 Theras.If I didn't have such a huge TBR pile, I'd read both again. Highly recommended with a sexual content warning on daynight for teens 15 and younger.