Why I wouldn't want telepathic powers like the kids in "Don't Even Think About It" by Sarah Mlynowski

Sarah Mlynowski has a new book out! I haven't read it yet, but I will very soon. It's called Don't Even Think About It, and it sounds like a lot of fun. Here is a summary, provided by the publisher:

We weren't always like this. We used to be average New York City high school sophomores. Until our homeroom went for flu shots. We were prepared for some side effects. Maybe a headache. Maybe a sore arm. We definitely didn't expect to get telepathic powers. But suddenly we could hear what everyone was thinking. Our friends. Our parents. Our crushes. Now we all know that Tess is in love with her best friend, Teddy. That Mackenzie cheated on Cooper. That, um, Nurse Carmichael used to be a stripper.

Since we've kept our freakish skill a secret, we can sit next to the class brainiac and ace our tests. We can dump our boyfriends right before they dump us. We know what our friends really think of our jeans, our breath, our new bangs. We always know what's coming.

Some of us will thrive. Some of us will crack. None of us will ever be the same. So stop obsessing about your ex. We're always listening.

To celebrate the release of Don't Even Think About It, I have been asked, along with a bunch of other bloggers, what I would do if I suddenly had telepathic powers. And I can tell you in no uncertain terms, I would hate it.

How difficult would it be just to figure out who was thinking what? If there are a bunch of people around you, the noise must be deafening. All I can think of is Mel Gibson's character in What Women Want, and he could only hear half the population. Or I think about the Noise in The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, which is full of violence and sex. No thank you.

Also, I'm not even sure I want to know what others are thinking. I don't want to risk hearing something terrible from someone I like, or whom I though was a good person. I think I would be sad a lot.

That said, it would be useful to know what, say, my husband was thinking at certain times (maybe not all the time), or any other person I'm speaking to and trying to figure out how to approach a subject.

It would also be really useful during job interviews, and I would totally use it then.

All in all, I can't say telepathy is really something I'd like to have, in its purest form. Speaking to someone in my head and being able to choose what they hear would be great, and being able to turn it on and off would be awesome, but I don't think that's the way it works.

Telekinesis, on the other hand... that is something I could totally get behind.

What would you do if you found you had telepathic powers? (And stay tuned for a giveaway for a signed copy of Don't Even Think About It, which I'll post later this week!)

Disclosure: This post is part of a blog promotion for Sarah Mlynowski's new book, Don't Even Think About It, sponsored by public relations firm Deb Shapiro & Company.