Biohack Review

Title: Biohack | Series: The Gender War Thriller Book One | Author: J.D. Lasica | Publisher: Best of Indie Publishing | Pub. Date: May 16, 2018| ASIN: B07D3S966G | Genre: Science Fiction | Language: English | Triggers: Sexual assault referenced | Rating: 3 | Source: I received a copy of this book from publicist for review consideration.

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Biohack

What would you give for a second chance? Valerie Ramirez, a special ed teacher haunted by her toddler’s drowning accident, faces a fateful decision when she’s admitted into a secretive program run by a biotech company.

Kaden Baker, an elite hacker who dabbles in covert ops, finds her life turned upside down when she discovers her parents were imposters. Where does she come from? Who’s been financing her high-stakes secret missions?

The answers lead back to the same mysterious biotech firm. As Kaden and Valerie become allies, they make one startling discovery after another about the company’s dark intentions. But each step closer to the truth puts their lives at greater risk.

The stakes couldn’t be higher—for Kaden’s freedom, for Valerie’s fate, and for the future direction of humanity itself.

Biohack REVIEW

Biohack laid the foundation for a riveting science fiction thriller but failed to deliver. A few more rounds of edits would have elevated this book to it’s full potential.

This book contains twenty-nine characters. Twenty-nine voices. Most of them get their own point-of-view chapter. Keeping track of these characters became work and it wasn’t until the end of the book, when I flipped to the through the Acknowledgments, that I discovered a character list. This list was literally the last page of the book, hidden away from the reader when it should have been located after the dedication.

Because so many characters exist, and because there are too many chapters between point-of-views, it’s hard to remember what everyone’s up to. It’s also difficult to emotionally connect to all of them, which is vital in creating sympathy between a reader and protagonist. Although, in this book, I’m not sure who the protagonist was meant to be. I could make the argument that Kaden and Valerie are not the most significant storylines, despite being the two characters described on the back cover. And between the two, I’d say Kaden is less significant than Valerie, even though it’s Kaden’s picture on the book’s cover. In my opinion, the most interesting characters were the head of the lab and the billionaire who financed it. There stories seemed to be the driving force of the novel.

Also, this book is a described as a Gender Wars Thriller. Kaden questions her sexuality and we get an informational chapter about the various types of gender classification, but other than her identifying as non-binary, there is little to suggest any conflict between male and females, whether internally or externally. Where is the gender war?

But keep in mind this is only Book One of the series, so perhaps the war is coming. The second book follows Kaden as she goes on more adventures, but I’m not sure Kaden has enough stamina as a character to support an entire series.

But there were some impressive parts of this book. The science was thorough and well explained without coming across dull or textbook. The characters tapped into many moral questions about nature versus nurture which would make for interesting book club discussions. The action scenes, while not always believable, packed punches and I found myself skimming in hopes of getting to these intense scenes quicker, and the ending wrapped everything up making this book not only part of a series, but could easily work as a stand-alone. For these reasons, I give it a three rating.

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