Review: Mesmerize by Artist Arthur

Mesmerize (Mystyx, #4)  

by Artist Arthur

Published: January 2012

Publisher: Kimani Tru

Available: Amazon

Blurb:

Starting over is nothing new to diplomat’s daughter Lindsey Yi. She’s grown up changing schools the way other girls change clothes. Still, moving to Lincoln, Connecticut, is different. Although she’s still reeling from the loss of her parents in an accident, Lindsey is finally in a place that feels like home. Because here, Lindsey’s ability to read other people’s thoughts doesn’t make her weird. It makes her one of the Mystyx.

When Dylan Murphy—hot, popular and a senior—starts to notice her, things get serious, fast. But even as she’s figuring out how she really feels, the Mystyx realize that they’re not the only supernaturals in town. There
are other gifted teens who have different motives. And they are hoping to get close enough to the Mystyx to convert them—and the world—to Darkness…

Review:

First off, this book is being added to my list of annoyingly inaccurate covers. Yes, it is a nice cover, if Lindsey weren't a young Korean girl. Why would the publisher choose to not represent the character as written? Multiculturalism should be a selling point, not something thrown in to say they're doing it, only to back off during the marketing. 


The book itself is interesting. I didn't realize it was the fourth book in a series until I started reading, and there are multiple references to previous events, but I didn't feel completely lost, which is a credit to the author.Things flowed and there was enough background information scattered throughout to make sense of what was happening. I think if I had read the previous three books in the series I would have felt a stronger connection with the characters and a more emotional reaction to some of the events that unfold.


What made this book hard to read was that Lindsey was all over the place. Lindsey is not an easy character to follow. One moment she's giving details about the horrific death of her parents and then the next she's standing at the door day dreaming about a hot guy. But don't worry because within the first fourth of the book, you'll hear it again and again. Her thoughts are completely random and it makes it hard to know what is really happening. There's even one point where Lindsay has just gone through a test and is getting ready to describe her terrifying ordeal when she starts thinking about going sledding down a hill and then acknowledges she doesn't know why she's thinking of that! It makes me think the author needed to up the word count and decided to add in random descriptions.

The ending confused me a bit and I wasn't quite sure why at the end Lindsey still felt the way she did. I won't say about what because I don't want to spoil the ending, but it really drove me nuts. I was fine with the events, I just didn't get Lindsey's thought process.

One thing I will say for Arthur is that she is not afraid to take risks and make her readers furious. As a new reader I was shocked by some of the things that happened to characters that were probably central ones in the previous books, but it worked here. This was a solid book, and although not a complete stand alone it was enjoyable. I would recommend reading the Mystyx series in order and even though I have yet to read them I'd say it would be worth the time.