Locked Tight - Susan Kaye Quinn

Locked Tight

By Susan Kaye Quinn

  • Release Date: 2017-04-17
  • Genre: Fiction for Kids
Score: 4
4
From 123 Ratings

Description

When mindreaders run the world, being a jacker makes you a weapon. Zeph can break open the toughest minds—or lock the weakest ones—which only makes every Clan leader want to own him. He did as he was told, kept his head down, and tried to shut out the screams. But when they came after his family, he hugged his kid sister goodbye and ran away to keep them safe. For two years, he’s passed as a reader. Then his family disappears, readers start changing into super jackers, and Zeph is forced to return to a city filled with jackers who hate him. To find his family, he must trick a mindware CEO into helping him, avoid a girl who knows him too well, and spy on the most powerful jacker in the state. 

All without dying or revealing his abilities—or being caught in the firestorm of hate between jackers and readers that’s threatening to pull the world apart. 

Reviews

  • Amazing and addicting

    5
    By bassvapor
    This book was hard to put down at times. The way it captured your attention from the first introduction of the main character to the last page. I’m looking forward to reading the other 3 books in the series.
  • Locked Tight by Susan Kaye Quinn

    5
    By Proctorasshole
    Mindjack Zeph is an extremely sophisticated Syfi readers dream come true. A strong male protagonist Zeph instantly captures your attention and never lets go until you have completed the first book in this incredible journey. This talented author literally captures her audience with pure knowledge of a futuristic experience that is possible within the realm of our future technology. KSW
  • Clever

    5
    By GrandValient
    Original concept cleverly woven into a political thriller. The main character is young & heroic
  • Exceptional Series

    5
    By Vrod071948
    Susan Kaye Quinn doesnt disappoint with the continuing Mindjack series. This one is from Zeph’s perspective and is exciting, thrilling and very well planned out. As usual, her characters are well fleshed out and there are so many twists and turns you will have a hard time putting it down. Don’t miss this great series about the future. SKQ makes it well worth the investment. I have already purchased the next book.
  • Read

    5
    By RollTide1585
    Must read first 3 books in series first great story
  • Love this series!

    5
    By Susan @ The Book Bag
    I love the Mindjack series and I was so excited when I heard that Susan was writing more Mindjack stories. Everything in the series so far takes the reader on an intense, unusual adventure. Locked Tight, book #4 is more of the same. This part of the series, which will consist of 3 books total, gives us a look at Zeph's world, a world of jackers and readers. Can they get along or will they destroy each other? The very first chapter in this book grabbed me and and the whole book had me reading late into the night. This series is just so good! I loved how we see glimpses of the previous books and characters in this series incorporated into Zeph's story. Zeph's world has to deal with the fallout from what happened in the past, as the readers and jackers change and struggle with right and wrong. I love this whole series and will be waiting with baited breathe for more!
  • Yes!

    5
    By CrazyCluck
    Zeph a new character in Susan Kaye Quinn's world of mind readers with a very different perspective than Kira, who we followed in the first three books. His story is very different from Kira's and a great read! An added bonus is getting to see some of our favorite characters through Zeph's eyes and see what they are up to. If you enjoyed the first three books, Zeph's story is a must read! I was lucky enough to get an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
  • Great extension of the series

    5
    By V's Reads
    LOCKED TIGHT is the fourth book in her MindJack series where humans have evolved the ability to broadcast their thoughts--but the new wrinkle is mindreaders who can hijack your brain. These "mindjackers" are a super powerful minority, being hunted for experimentation and extermination. And Zeph, a "locksmith" mindjacker who can lock and unlock the toughest minds, will do whatever it takes to keep himself and his family safe. I've reviewed OPEN MINDS, the first book in this series on my blog, and I've read all the books/novellas out so far. It's a fantastic series, and I'm so glad to return to this amazing fictional world. Zeph left his home and family behind the day the world learned about mindjackers. He'd been recruited to one or another "clan"--a mafia of mindjackers had long existed underground--and he wasn't proud of the work he'd done for them. But if the world knew mindjackers existed, he was sure being in his home would bring trouble for his mother, father and young sister, Olivia. He fled Chicago New Metro's suburbs for the more sparsely populated Wisconsin, getting by on his wits and skill as a jacker--and keeping his more powerful abilities as a locksmith locked down tight. Eighteen months later, he's trying to find out what happened to his family. A check-in showed a home which looked hastily abandoned. Did jackers come and take them? While rescuing a mindreader from the predation of his mindjacking boss' influence, Zeph abandons his newest post on a mission to find his family. He links up with the mindreading community, taking a position as a bodyguard to the daughter of a prominent mindreader: Jeffrey Tiller. Tiller's father invented mindware tech--devices that read and interpret mindreaders' projected brainwaves to operate phones, cars, televisions, etc. Tiller is himself virulently anti-jacker, and makes no apologies for it. His daughter, Juliette, was dating a girl jacker--and he pulled her from school and put her into one where jackers aren't allowed. Zeph has to hide his jacker abilities, 24/7 to keep up the pretense he's just a reader, and hopefully Tiller will like him enough to help find his family. He's a powerful man with lots of connections--and he does promise to assist. In the meantime, Zeph takes out a jacker who assaults the minds of kids at Juliette's school, he's hailed a hero and this lands him in the spotlight he hates--he's intercepted by operatives in a confidential government agency who are "hosting" his 13 y/o sister as she trains her newly developed jacker powers. Zeph is ecstatic to find Olivia alive, but horrified that she's unwittingly being honed into a weapon. His primary objective is to get her free, even if it's against her own wishes. Zeph's life becomes even more of a shell game as he takes a new mission to get close to Julian Navarro, new senator from Illinois who is a known mindjacker--one fighting for equal rights for jackers, and peace between readers and jackers. People who've read the series know that Julian is a good and honest man, and partners with the heroine of the first three books: Kira Moore, herself an intensely powerful jacker. Supposedly, Julian may be dosing readers with drugs to spur changes into jackers--but even if Zeph doesn't buy that line of hooey, saving Olivia depends on getting close to Julian. And, that's where Zeph's whole life gets turned inside out. Expect bombings, shooting, and general destruction to dog his steps as Zeph witnesses the hate for jackers up-close and extremely personal. What few allies he makes are seemingly wiped out before his eyes, and he has to make unthinkable choices to protect Olivia from the danger she's been programmed to create. I'm not going to say more about the plot: it's intricate and articulate. Zeph is a good guy caught in every bad situation due to his jacking abilities. He's not dreamed of having a normal life since he underwent his change at 13 and gained his mindjacking ability--but now he'd give anything for "normal" and he sees how it could be possible if only the bigots would stop hunting the jackers. There's lots of tragedy in the story, with several casualties, and unexpected allies. At it's heart, the MindJack series has always been about equal rights, and the fight to gain them for all humans--readers and jackers alike. Zeph has seen enough jackers to know how evil they can be, but the depth of hate coming from readers has always been outside of his experience. Now he knows how horrible they can be, and he's dead set on finding his parents before they can be destroy--as Olivia very nearly was. I'm down a little because I feel like I lost a good friend on these pages, but I'm excited to read on.
  • Engaging and Entertaining Book!

    5
    By samray130
    In Locked Tight, Susan Kaye Quinn returns to the world of the Mindjack Series, showcasing the events through the eyes of a new protagonist whose origin story is told in the novella, The Locksmith. The world of readers and jackers has been well developed throughout this series and even though this is the fourth installment, the author still manages to illustrate that there is still so much about this world we have yet to learn as new foes with new agendas take center stage. Zeph's story takes the reader along as he tows the line between the readers and the jackers, tentatively forming a place for himself with each of the opposing groups; a hard thing to accomplish in a world where despite most of the population being an open book, there are plenty of secrets and no one is really sure who to trust or who might really be on your side. What I like about this story is that it's not often predictable. When you think that you've figured out where things are going, a character does something surprising, or an event leads things in a completely different direction. This story doesn't rush things or move at a crawl, it's a well-paced slow burn where the more events unfold, the more the plot weaves itself together, drawing people and events that appear unconnected together into a much larger narrative. This makes for a suspenseful and compelling story. What Susan Kaye Quinn does very well in this work is tell a story that is engaging and entertaining, all the while giving the reader food for thought about the deeper meaning of the narrative. It is an escape into another world that can be appreciated simply for its story-telling, but it also manages to provoke a sense of relevance as commentary on the events of our world today. This forges a personal connection for the reader to Zeph's journey, and the experiences of the other characters in this world as well. As this is the continuation of a series, the book can be enjoyed on its own, but reading the books that come before it will make the work much more enjoyable. Locked Tight is a great book and I highly recommend the entire Mindjack Series. Readers will NOT be disappointed!
  • New Perspective in Mindjack

    3
    By MerakiMiss
    I'm so excited for SKQ's new mindjack series! Locked Tight is a great start for the plot. Zeph gives us the perspective we don't see in Kira's series. He doesn't know what the Kira, Julian, and the jackers really did, just like the rest of the world. Locked Tight follows Zeph discovering the truth about jackers, and finding where he belongs. It's a pretty tumultuous journey, Zeph seems to be a magnet for trouble. I am less than impressed with the character development. Zeph gets a little bit, but he's stubborn and slow and it's hard to notice. Most of the other characters are very static, and their personalities are stale to begin with, particularly Juliette. I'd like to see a lot more character development in the next book in the series. The plot was good, albeit slow. I loved finding the little tidbits that tied into the first mindjack series, and of course, all my favorites made an appearance. I was shocked by one particular plot twist, I never thought SKQ would do such a thing! It definitely stirred up the action. But I'm worried it was only to make a way for a love interest. I'm hoping it won't happen, because it would be too cliche. As I finished this book, I was disappointed in it as a book from the technical perspective, but I'm thrilled to have more mindjack, and I look forward to improvements throughout the series.