Mind Games by Shana Silver ~ Excerpt & Giveaway

Mind Games
Shana Silver
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: August 27th 2019
Genres: Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

A teen programmer at a school for geniuses must join forces with a boy she can’t remember to stop a hacker from deleting their memories in Shana Silver’s action-packed YA debut, Mind Games.
Arden sells memories. Whether it’s becoming homecoming queen or studying for that all important test, Arden can hack into a classmate’s memories and upload the experience for you just as if you’d lived it yourself. Business is great, right up until the day Arden whites out, losing fifteen minutes of her life and all her memories of the boy across the school yard. The boy her friends assure her she’s had a crush on for years.
Arden realizes that her own memories have been hacked, but they haven’t just been stolen and shared… they’ve been removed. And she’s not the only one: her mysterious crush, Sebastian, has lost ALL of his memories. But how can they find someone who has the power to make them forget everything they’ve learned?

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Author Bio:
Rachel Shane (writing as Shana Silver) studied creative writing at Syracuse University. She’s been a computer animator, an e-book creator for a major publisher, and now works as a Project Manager in digital and TV advertising where she enjoys telling people what to do. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, young daughter, and the characters she dreams up.

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Excerpt 

“Look. This is going to sound weird. But what exactly was our project and how will it save lives?”

Someone smacks into my shoulder, so I pull Sebastian into a nearby empty classroom and shut the door. The cacophony of the hallway dulls to the buzz of the heater. I’m still shivering from what Kimmel told us. “I don’t remember either.” I don’t remember and people could die because of it.

He gazes at me with haunting eyes that seem to be permanently set to smolder. “But the server reboot. That’s going to fix it, right?”

I shake my head, trying to keep my face as calm as Sebastian’s. It takes all my effort to keep my voice steady through gritted teeth. “Didn’t work. I just checked your mind again. You’re still missing everything before this morning.”

He steps away from me and crashes into a desk. “You looked into my head?” The words sound more like an accusation than a realization. I cringe. “You violated my privacy.”

That’s his biggest concern? Not all the people who might die because of us? “Only because I’m trying to help you.” I take a few steps toward him, hands raised in the air to prove I have no weapons. His clean soap scent instills a weird mix of familiarity and longing. “Here’s the deal,” I say, trying not to inhale. “Something weird is going on. As far as I can tell, it’s only affecting you and me. Well, maybe Kimmel too.” I’d need to search his mind to confirm. “What else do you remember?” I laugh at how stupid that sounded. “I mean, how do you know English?” His scrawled schedule pops into my mind. “How’d you know to come to this school today?”

“I don’t remember anything specific before today, but I know general things. Like how to speak English, that good hygiene requires brushing your teeth, that my bathroom is the second door on my left according to the house schematics, and that my mom is my mom even though I can’t recall any conversations we’ve had. Stuff like that.”

“Procedural memory, that makes sense.” His mouth parts, so I explain further. “You’re remembering only how-to memories, things ingrained in you, like tying your shoe or riding a bike. Actions and knowledge but not moments. That type of stuff is harder to forget.” Or more accurately: harder to delete in HiveMind because it’s not tied to a specific moment.

“Yeah, but I found out I have a test on The Illustrated Man in my creative writing elective today, and I remember the book verbatim even though I have no recollection of reading it. I can even recite what’s on the copyright page. That’s not procedural memory.”

“Weird. “Any other strange bits of knowledge?”

He thinks for a moment. “I’m not taking any graphic design classes, but I can tell your skin tone is #F8E4CC. Your eyes are #593E1A. Your hair—”

“Whoa.” I hold up a hand. “I meant any other bits of knowledge that help you”—how do I say this politely?—“function like a human? As opposed to a vegetable.”

He laughs, and then bites his lip. “Well, the word human wasn’t even used as a noun until the early sixteenth century. Before then it was an adjective meaning ‘of or belonging to man’ and originally in Latin it meant ‘earthly being’ to differentiate from gods, so . . . yes, the etymology of every word in the OED seems to help me act human, if you’re referring to its modern usage.”

I blink at him. “So you know every word ever used in the English language. Good to know.”

“Na kila lugha nyingine.” He winks. “That’s Swahili for ‘and every other language.’” I sputter-cough.

“Holy shit. That’s not normal. So just to be clear . . . you don’t remember our project. Who our mentor is. Or me?”

Sebastian rakes a hand through his dirty-blond hair. “I don’t even remember who my friends are. Or what I like to do.” He lowers his voice. “Or who I am.”

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