Mind Games

The primary protagonist of Mind Games is Thea, a game designer and telepath whose psychic gift becomes both her greatest strength and most dangerous vulnerability. The novel introduces Thea at age 12, describing her as tall and lean, with black hair and strikingly blue eyes. By the novel’s conclusion, she’s a 27-year-old woman living on a small farm near her grandmother in the fictional Appalachian town of Redbud Hollow, Kentucky.

From an early age, Thea has had difficulty accepting her gift. Her mother, Cora, discourages Thea from using it, fostering a sense of guilt and secrecy in her. Although she loves her parents, Thea learns early on that sharing her visions causes conflict. This internalized anxiety worsens after Ray Riggs brutally murders Thea’s parents and she uses her abilities to locate and identify him, only to encounter disbelief and suspicion from law enforcement. Her early experiences in college reinforce her sense of alienation: After she confides about her gift to a boyfriend, he betrays her confidence, and Thea is ridiculed, ostracized, and labeled a “freak.” This creates a hardened boundary in Thea around her emotional life. While she remains warm and kind, she’s slow to trust and quick to retreat.