Illuminae-Book Review

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
By Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
Recommended Ages: 18+

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

The Gist

If you’re worried or prejudice against reading books not laid out in novel format (like I was), throw that aside for this book because it’s AMAZING. I was nervous when I started it (for previously mentioned reasons), but I was hooked from the beginning. The authors managed to let the character’s personalities shine through interview transcripts and chat messages. And the plot never lost pace or interest as the tension built and the stakes grew. How they did that with memos and lines of text floating through space is beyond me, but they did it. And it’s phenomenal.

What I Liked:

So much. So so much. I can’t think of one spot where it was slow or I wanted to put it down and never pick it up. The plot was interesting and fast paced. You always knew how much was at stake and that made it exciting. This was where I worried the format would get me, that i wouldn’t feel a sense of urgency through chat room transcripts and reports. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The reports had just as much personality as the characters. And they kept the story moving well, enough that I stayed up later than I should have cause I had to read just a little bit more to see what happened next.

And the characters were so vibrant and different and FUNNY. I literally laughed out loud a few times at Kady’s sassiness. She’s the best. And Ezra was her perfect counterpart. He had his own snarky sense of humor but he also grounded her in my opinion. The dialogue between the characters allowed for moments of light-hearted brevity in a rather intense situation.

And I don’t want to reveal anything, but I was so into the end and hearing bits and pieces from that particular point of view. It was so different from anything I’ve read. And guys, there’s a twist at the end that had my mouth hanging open.