Book Review: The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind by Jackson Ford

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the concept and plot but felt overall disconnected with the characters. There is a lot of humour and wit (just like the title implies) in Jackson Ford's first book of a new series called Frost Files. However it often felt like the humour was just covering up for poor character development. Jackson Ford does, however, start off very fast in the plot department. Let's get into some details:

Leading Gal
The female main character, whom the story is told through, is a bitter sarcastic, and relatively funny 22 year old. The reader is immediately given the impression that this chick is not happy about her plight in life, her 'superpower' or the current situation she finds herself in. But she's clearly quick thinking on her feet and with her wit.
To give you an idea however of why this gal feels so shallow this is one of the opening lines of her thoughts:

"...a face that still gets her ID’d at the liquor store. Even though I’ve been able to buy my own drinks like a big girl for a whole year now.”

Sure being ID'd is annoying. But if you're only one year over the age limit I don't think you get to complain. I'm 37 and in all seriousness am constantly ID'd. Both my husband and I look about 10 years younger (or more) than we are. I'd kill to have only been ID'd for one year after I turned 18 (legal age in my province). So from the get-go I knew that this was going to be a typical Millennial girl that would annoy me. And I was right.
I should mention here that there is another POV in this story but it was so lackluster that I didn't really key in on any of its moments. This book is really all about our leading gal with the power to move stuff.

Humour
Thankfully our girl who can move sh*t with her mind is capable of being fairly amusing. This line in particular had me imaging all kinds of things:

"The only thing worse than splatting onto the sidewalk would be doing it naked."

Seems fair and true! (lol) The other characters around our lead gal are equally amusing and sarcastic. Without this wit I don't think I'd have lasted. The plot is good, a bit weak in places but overall acceptable, and the concept and 'power' given to our gal is fine; but without the amusement these characters would appear as cardboard as they are unfortunately.

Plot
There is a fair bit of plot and happenings, as one would expect, when you get into a science fiction novel like Ford has provided us. The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind has the typical super power troupes you expect like having: conspiracies, destroyed childhoods, dependencies on the bad guy and the like. Take TV Shows like: The Gifted, Supergirl, Smallville, every spy show ever, and even a splash of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and you've basically got the premise of this novel. That's okay with me I expect troupes when I read very genre geared novels and so it didn't bother me too much. The one thing I would argue is there isn't an X-Files feel here for me. This book lacks the depth X-Files had.

Overall
The saving grace of Ford's first installment, in the series Frost Files, is that the ending is strong. It's engaging and didn't feel cheap. It wasn't an 'ah-ha' or 'oh wow' moment like I prefer; but it's plausible, believable and moved me to want to read the next book.
For me a three star book isn't bad but isn't good. It's just meh. I wouldn't convince anyone to read it, or recommend it necessarily, but if someone asked me about it and was interested I wouldn't convince them to find a different novel to pick-up. My hope here is that book 2 improves and our characters are less cardboard and more flesh and bone.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Follow me on Goodreads