The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind
The Frost Files series, Book 1
Jackson Ford
Orbit
Fiction, Action/Sci-Fi
Themes: Altered DNA, Cross-Genre, Diversity, Girl Power, Psionics, Urban Tales
***+
Description
The young woman known as Teagan Frost wants what many women her age want: a few good friends, a nice man, maybe her own restaurant. But what she has is psychokinetic abilities, courtesy of parents who just couldn't stop meddling with genomes, even in their own offspring. Turns out the government isn't too keen on that kind of thing, especially when all the testing they could throw at her gives them no clue how to do it themselves. So now she lives in Los Angeles, ostensibly a free citizen but on the leash of Moira Tanner, who could yank her back to a black site dissection table in Waco before she could blink if she steps out of line. In the meantime, Teagan has to work with a group of misfit operatives on covert missions. It's not a bad life, as living in an invisible cage goes... at least, not until a body turns up at their latest job, murdered in a way that points to psychokinesis. But Teagan Frost is the only psychokinetic in the world - or is she?
Review
Like the title, The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind is a bold, brash, down-to-earth story bursting with action and attitude and some well-placed cursing. Teagan's had a rough life, but does her best not to let anger and the past rule her - until she finds herself in over her head, accused of murder and staring down the possibility that she may not have been the only "gifted" child her late parents created. Her colleagues aren't exactly drinking buddies, all of them only working together because of Tanner's not-technically-blackmail; they may not have the threat of government ghosting and dissection waiting for them, but they all have a lot to lose and little reason to trust each other. Nevertheless, often despite themselves, they must find a way to work together or they'll all suffer. The story starts with a plunge from a skyscraper and the action hardly lets up, veering from fights to car chases to the looming threat of a wildfire about to consume the fringes of Los Angeles (which bears a particular horror for Teagan, whose parents died in a fire.) Minor breakthroughs are often balanced by major setbacks, and it's a true race against the clock as Teagan struggles to find the killer, forced to push her abilities beyond what she ever believed was possible. What dropped the book a half-star in the ratings is the tail end revelations after the main wrap-up, the hooks that are meant to lead me into the next installment in the series. Just one too many eye-rolling clichés out of the blue, enough that I don't expect I'll continue. What came before that was pretty decent, though, recommended for anyone who likes strong heroines, intense thrillers, and stuff flying through the air.