Review: Illuminae | The Most Unique Book I’ve Ever Read

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: Illuminae Files #1
Published by Random House Children's Books ISBN: 9780553499131
on October 20th 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Love & Romance
Pages: 608
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis

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 evacuate with an enemy warship in hot pursuit. But their problems are just getting started. A 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 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. Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

 

 

 

We can all agree that Illuminae, has been heavily marketed these last few months, so cleverly, so beautifully, that it’s had the bookish community hungering for its release date like starved hounds. High expectations everywhere. Not all books are for everyone, so I had some doubts when everything I heard about this book were good things.

To be honest, I couldn’t find a single significant flaw that could warrant giving Illuminae less than 5 stars. #sorrynotsorry

The thing is, I’ve never been much into sci-fi books. Movies, I adore, but books… I have my reservations. With books, I’ve always thought they’re just too complicated, and full of techie references for me to understand. I’m much more inclined to the fantasy side of things, and sometimes, even a mix of the two. But maybe reading about spaceships isn’t so boring after all 🙂

Make no mistake, the fear of getting bored or not understanding anything at all was there, but A KAUFMAN-KRISTOFF COLLAB?! No way was I going to pass that one up.

Illuminae’s most outstanding characteristic may be the design of the book, the pages, and the way the story is told. It may sound repetitive, after all the other glowing reviews you must have read, but yes, the interviews, the audio transcripts, and emails do suit this awesome masterpiece.

I really don’t think it’d have had the same effect if they’d gone with normal narrative. Of course, this means a certain period of wondering what the hell is happening, but then it all becomes clearer.

 

The Characters

I think what I liked the most about Ezra and Kady is that their interactions sounded very real. Typical teenagers speaking, and the authors deserve kudos for that.

Also, the swearing XD. Swear words are censored, but come on, they may as well been written in neon, so it’s really not a problem, and it doesn’t hinder the flow of the story at all.

As for the rest of the characters, it was a nice change that adults were present in the story, and they weren’t this evil people that were complete idiots.

The Plot

Illuminae is a BIG BOOK. And it reads the part. There is a certain kind of plot propelling the story forward for the first part, and then it seems like they won, everything is okay, but of course, we’re only halfway through and another super awesome event happens that has everyone like WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON? (in the book, I mean. Because it’s pretty clear what’s happening and it’s so AWESOME.)

I’m not so much of a sci-fi geek, so maybe I’m not the best person to say that I couldn’t find any plotholes. But well, I didn’t!

 

The World-Building

Set mostly in the space, everyone acts like it. Techy terms. Ones and zeroes. All this, and the very design of the book contribute to a fantastic world-building. OMG the space battle scenes are the best! True, I’d have liked some more details about what’s the world outside the story like. What happens in the other parts of the universe, the non-Kerenza planets? I’m hoping we can get to see some of that in the other books.

 

So, in a nutshell, I’ve decided that this was one of those hyped books that do deserve the hype, and some sci-fi books can be understood even by tech dummies like me!  So, if the other glowing reviews haven’t yet convinced you of reading this, GO DO IT NOW!

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