Refraction by Christopher Hinz Review

Let me just say that this was one of the most interesting, and well put together books I’ve read in a long time. I did put it off for a while when I was taking a break from reading, but I wish I didn’t. There wasn’t a single thing about this book that wasn’t intriguing, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I also wouldn’t change anything about it. Completely unique, I hope I can read more books this different in the future, because if you’ve read it, you just know that it’s going to be something that’s stuck in your head for a while after you finish it.

5/5 Stars 400 pages
Published November 10th 2020 by Angry Robot

Aiden has a power. It’s not anything he deems special or exciting though, because his power is that sometimes when he sleeps, he manifests a pile of slime somewhere in a ten foot radius from his body. And once he wakes up, it falls to the ground, or into whatever it’s levitating above, and hardens, usually destroying the thing in the process. It’s messy, it’s kind of gross, and his sister hates it. But it’s his life, and that’s all he’s known since he was a kid. Then one day, everything he knows is turned upside down.

After receiving a cryptic phone call from the people who bought his deceased parents house, he learns that his father has hidden a safe behind the old furnace, in the wall, and it’s addressed to him, and not only that, but if it’s tampered with or forced open by someone else, the contents will be destroyed. So he heads to their house after a fight with his sister. But what’s in the safe changes his life forever.

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This is the beginning of the longest week of Aiden’s life. He learns that he was adopted, and that the first eighteen months of his life, him and six other babies were basically science experiments until the project was forced to shut down, and they were adopted out. Six other people who can do what he does, and maybe more. And he needs to get to the bottom of it. But what he finds at the bottom, and frankly, on the way to the bottom, is really crazy and almost unbelievable if it wasn’t happening in real time. He almost gets killed many, many times, makes some interesting friends, and has the adventure of a lifetime. And I couldn’t put it down.

I would say that this is probably one of my new favourite books. When I was describing the events to people I know, it all seemed so crazy. And it really is. That’s just what I loved about it the most.. I think it’s something you just have to experience to really understand it. I highly recommend it to everyone reading this. Even if you think it wouldn’t be for you, just give it a shot. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

If you’d like to grab a copy, you can do so here, through my Amazon Associates link.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe, and enjoying insane books like this.

Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez Review

5/5 Stars 368 pages
Published September 15th 2020 by Algonquin Young Readers

Something you don’t know that you need a book until you read it. This is that book for me. Though I’m usually into paranormal and scifi books, sometimes I just need a good real life book that makes you feel good. It takes you through heartaches and the happy times, and just all the ups and downs of real life. It feels good to take a break from everything and read something like that, with a happy ending, when things don’t always feel like they’ll have a happy ending.

Following a seventeen year old girl named Camila, and her life in a small town in Argentina, it shows her life as she hides what she really wants in life, to play soccer. At home, she’s smothered by her abusive father, shell of a mother, and soccer star brother. She just wants to carve her own path in a life that’s been planned out for her. Known on the soccer fields as Furia, she does exactly that.

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Through the story we see her ups and downs. Reuniting with a now celebrity first and really only love. Dealing with her father. Getting a job teaching English to children at a church. Growing distant with her best friend. Things like that, and much more. It’s real, it’s raw, and it’s just what I never knew I needed. Sometimes it’s just nice to escape your own life, and get to live through someone else, even if they’re fictional.

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This is a story of persevering through whatever life throws at you. It’s about following your dreams, no matter how hard it might be to reach them. I honestly think everyone should read this book, because it’s just uplifting even when it gets hard. I’m so glad I got the chance to check it out, and I highly, highly recommend it. It was a much needed break from all the supernatural things I read, a really down to earth book and I hope that you like it as much as I did.

If you’d like a copy, you can grab one here.

Here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, if you’d like to keep up with them.

Thanks for reading! Hope you’re doing well and staying safe. Lets chat about this book in the comments!

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans Review

The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans 5/5 Stars 272 Pages Published March 5th 2019 by Carolrhoda Lab

Where do I even begin with this book? I know it’s early in the year, but this has to be one of my favourite’s that I’ve read this year. It has a good message, it’s completely unique, I loved the characters, and I just felt so good reading it that I spread it out as long as I could, which is something that I don’t often do.

 

Tropetown is a town where fictional cliché and stereotypical characters live when they’re not working in the stories, different from where the main characters live, and a lot different than where the readers live. Following the last remaining Manic Pixie Dream Boy in town, Riley, it shows his life in first person as he goes through the hardest part of this short life so far, first beginning group therapy and then facing retirement because of what he is. I was immediately interested in his character, not because of his stereotype fully, but because he’s such a thoughtful person, and he really tries hard to carve out his own life, to be different and to make himself happy. And I think that’s something that I really needed to learn from someone else. Riley is that someone else.

 

After accidentally bumping into a girl named Zelda, another Manic Pixie but a Dream Girl, he knows she’s someone he wants in his life. Though she does send mixed signals, she’s most of what he thinks aout, and even more once he realizes that they’re in the same Manic Pixie Group Therapy. The characters in the therapy group really grow together, and I loved (almost) every one.

 

I think that this book is really about finding yourself within your stereotype, not being ashamed of it, but making it your own completely. I loved how good this book made me feel, even at the low points, because even though the world and the characters were fictional, they were really relatable and easy to love. The way they acted and the people they were seems like something to strive for, and I would love to take bits of their personality and add it into my own. My favourite character, of course, is Riley for all of those reasons.

 

Overall, I know I loved this book because of how long I stretched out reading it for. Even though I have so many books that I need to read, I made this last all weekend, and I wish there was more I could know about it. It’s something I just need for my bookshelf, and I know it’s something that I would read again. No matter what kind of books you read, I think that you should check this one out.

 

The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter.

Thanks for reading!