Antihero-Darren-The Thought Readers

The Thought Readers is an action/drama/fantasy novel by Dima Zales. It follows the life of Darren form his perspective. Darren works at a high end hedge fund making insane amounts of money, he graduated Harvard at eighteen and he makes money at the casinos in Atlantic City. He gets great accomplishment, great grades in school and makes God knows how much money, so, do you want to know his secret. (introduction to Darren)’Everyone thinks I’m a genius. Everyone is wrong. Sure, I finished Harvard at eighteen and now make crazy money at a hedge fund. But that’s not because I’m unusually smart or hardworking. It’s because I cheat.’ Darren has a unique ability to stop time around him, leave an empty shell of him where he was and is free to roam the are. He calls this place or trance or realm the Quiet. In the Quiet he can walk around, he does not get hungry, he does not get tired, his watch still works so he knows how long he splits but nothing other than that will work. He can also move people, hit people, knock them over, essentially he can move anything but when he return to normal everything return back to the way it was as if nothing happened because in real time not a single second is passed. Darren has his best friend Bert who his a tech wizard/hacker who also works at the hedge fund and always helps Darren. Darren also has his moms. Yes, moms, plural and he has no knowledge of his father or true heritage. Darren thought he was alone and that there was no one else out there like him until he met Mira and her brother Eugene. After a very complicated explanation of who each other are and their situation, Mira and Eugene manage to shed some light on things for Darren. Darren took a test to prove that he is Reader. He was told that there is an entire community of Readers, people with the ability to split into the Mind Dimension (Quiet), that’s how they call it, and they could go up to people, make contact with them and go into their minds and see their memories from their perspective. Darren have also discovered that their is another community called Pushers. People who could also split but cannot read minds. Instead they have the ability to place thought in people’s minds making them do what ever the want like puppet, completely take over their free will. Readers cannot do this like Pushers cannot Read. Something else was new to Darren, Mira and Eugene told him that there is a limit to the amount of time someone can stay in the quiet and how far they can go into someones memories. For an average Reader it is no longer than an hour, it is unknown how long he/she can stay, Mira can stay for fifteen minutes and Eugene can stay for ten. Darren said that his longest time was two whole days and maybe longer. Darren has also shown that he can go back months into people’s memories. Situations begin to escalate as the group ends up involved with the Russian mob. Darren has been given a opportunity to meet the community of Readers for help which was decline because Mira and Eugene are exiled (it is a very traditional community) but they are still helped by Julia and Caleb. The story progresses further with Darren beginning to get use to the truth, the amount of trust between everyone and his new abilities. However, Darren discovers he is capable of doing something that is impossible for either Reader or Pusher and that it might change everything and put trust and friendship to the ultimate test.

What makes Darren an antihero is that he misuses his powers for self gain. Although, he does use his abilities to help his friends and he is against using is on his family. But he use abilities on other people to see what they see for fun or try and get something out of it, he gives a whole new meaning to invasion of privacy. Darren will fight for the people he cares about but has disregard for the lives of other. However, after discovering what else he is capable of everyone is left wonder exactly how much power does he have? He exceeds the power limit of all Readers and Pushers. Darren is left with more questions than answers: will his friends still trust him? Will his parents still be there for him? What is his true heritage? While Darren is first potrayed to be an antihero, we have to see whether he picks a side or not because either way he will be hunted down. This story leaves Darren wondering what happens next and then leaving the fact whether or not he stays an antihero undetermined.