Refraction by Terry Geo

Published: October 4, 2019 by Amazon Digital Services

Buy this book at: Amazon

Synopsis:Most stories start at the beginning; this one begins at the end. At least for Maria.

Her sudden death sends shockwaves through her family and pushes her grieving mother to the very brink of insanity. After exhausting every avenue conventional medicine has to offer, Maria’s father, Henry, brings together the world’s greatest minds in the hope of carving out a new path.

Months pass, and as Henry watches his beloved Elena slowly drift away, he begins to lose faith. It is only then that a solution presents itself. A discovery so momentous, it saves Elena and reveals the most important scientific and technological breakthrough in modern history.

Silicate is founded; a privately funded facility which delves deeper into the human mind, able to discover answers to questions we are yet to ask. Securing Silicate’s secrets becomes of utmost importance; even after treating hundreds of patients, the public are still unaware of the wonders and terrifying reality Silicate has unearthed . . .
The world you know is only half the story.

Rating:

Review:

***Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!***

This book was everything I hoped for and yet nothing that I expected. I had hoped for a story about a shady company with a secret plan that stumbles onto something they didn’t expect. I got that. But I also got more than that, which I didn’t expect but I enjoyed.

This is a debut self-published novel and I must say that this was very well done. The cover is nice (anyone who’s read my reviews know how drool-y I get over good cover art), the synopsis is intriguing, it was well edited, the characters were engaging and the narrative was well paced.

I had a few complaints, mostly related to how characters behave with each other. I got a cardboard cutout feeling from a few people. I never connected with Jake, for example. I really wanted to like him, but he was just bland. Like a slice of plain toast. I wanted to like him but there was literally no personality to him. Similarly with Terrell (had to edit, somehow I confused the character and the author’s names, whoopsie!). I wanted to like him, but there was no depth to his character.

I also found it slightly annoying that everyone in Abby’s life can’t seem to use her name. In one two sentence exchange, her mother would call her “darling” at least twice. In a longer back and forth conversation, every sentence the mother uttered would include a “darling.” Now, I have a daughter. I have a lot of cutesy nicknames for my daughter, that I use a lot. And I do mean, A LOT. But not that much. I found it unnatural and irritating.

Those two points aside, I found the book wonderful. The story was well paced and gave me just the right amount of information to lead me down the merry path that the author wished me to take. That path ultimately led me to right where the author wanted me to be, not expecting the resolution at all. I can’t really call it a twist, because it wasn’t a twist. I also didn’t expect it or see it coming at all. Sometimes that would be a bad thing because it would mean that the author didn’t do a good job in hinting at his bigger story. But in this case I think the author did exactly the right job. We are supposed to see Silicate as this shadow company that is up to no good. That’s how these stories go right? Not necessarily.

On the whole, I really loved this book. It was a refreshing, imaginative story that is told very well. The author indicated that he would visit this world again in the future, I certainly hope he does because I want to know what comes next.