Every time I think I’m getting close to a better mental state, Grace and I start up the Shameful Book Club again.
We thought we were done after leaving Penelope Douglass in 2021, but when I stumbled across a random TikTok describing the upcoming series, we were forced to begin this torturous yet entertaining reading binge again.
This time, we took on the Mindf*ck series by S.T. Abby, a pseudonym for the extremely popular romance writer CM Owens, who sadly passed away this past year. The story follows Lana Myers, a serial killer getting revenge on the countless men that tragically wronged her in the past, and Logan Bennett, the FBI profiler working to track her down.
Before we continue, I will warn everyone of the many trigger warnings in this series, including violent sexual assault, murder, gore, castration, and even more murder.
SPOILER WARNING! SKIP IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS!
The Risk, the first of the five-book series, shows the beginning of Lana and Logan’s relationship. Logan has no idea that Lana is the Scarlet Slayer, the name she becomes known as later on in the series, and Lana has no idea that Logan is assigned to her case. However, they quickly fall in love. This raises suspicion from all sides, including Lana’s partner-in-crime and Logan’s team, which happens to include his ex-girlfriend.
Sidetracked continues the series, beginning with Hadley, a member of Logan’s team, uncovering parts of Lana’s past that would reveal her to be the killer. However, Lana is able to dodge these accusations. In the meantime, Logan and his team follow the Boogeyman, another serial killer who ends up hunting Lana down, leaving a cliffhanger to be picked up in the third book, Scarlet Angel. There, we see Hadley discover the serial killer in Lana (and side with her!). The team then goes to the location that started it all: Lana’s hometown. She works towards her endgame while trying not to be discovered, forced to commit a few murders way too close to the FBI.
The fourth book, All the Lies, shows Logan fighting to find the truth, more so than the killer. Lastly, Paint It All Read reveals to Logan that Lana is the Scarlet Slayer, as well as the brutal event that lead to this series of murders ten years later.
END OF SPOILERS!
Not many book titles make sense to me, but this title is exactly what this series is - a complete and total mindfuck. How can anyone come up with this? Please tell me, because I wish I had the creativity (and insanity) to have written it first.
Despite the gory nature, this was the easiest series I’ve ever read. I read the whole series in a total of 3 days, and I probably could’ve read it in less if I wasn’t working all the time. Genuinely, I ate this shit up. It was so addicting. Not to mention that every book ended on a cliffhanger, so I was like, “Oh, I might as well start the next book so I know what happens!”
Grace, the Shameful Book Club’s other co-founder, decided to weigh in on the Mindf*ck discourse, stating the following:
Mindf*ck is genuinely the most fun I’ve had in months. And that’s saying something because I’ve been in the worst depressive state of my life. Whatever was in this series was crack. The plot? Immaculate. The romance? Extraordinary. The pacing? Incredible.
Lana is the baddest bitch I’ve ever read about and I condone all of her actions. Feminism is a beautiful thing. Every man could learn a thing or two from Logan. My take is that as a society we normalize the FBI Agent to the husband of a serial killer pipeline because there is nothing more fulfilling.
As an active member of the Shameful Book Club, I give this series a solid 5 stars.
Personally, I chose not to rate Shameful Book Club reads on my Goodreads, purely to keep my honor somewhat intact. However, in my heart of hearts, Mindf*ck is a solid five stars. S.T. Abby does a brilliant job of building suspense, both predictably and unpredictably. Even if I predicted the final outcome, I was surprised by how it came about.
To conclude the first review of the first Shameful Book Club read of 2022, Mindf*ck is a highly suspenseful, somewhat spicy book about loyalty, love, lies, and, most importantly, revenge.
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