13 Jan 2017

The space awesomness that is called Illuminae | review

Author: Amie, Kaufman, Jay Kristoff | Genre: YA, sci-fi | Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers in 2015 | Goodreads: 4, 33

So I finally read Illuminae. What a book it was. I went into it without any expectations and I was totally blown away. If you don’t know what Illuminae is about, it’s about a planet Kerenza which is attacked by a corporation. Kady and Ezra, the two main characters, as well as some other people are lucky to escape and now they’re refugees on spaceships running away from their enemy. Of course, this is not their only problem, because if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Now, I’m here to help you decide whether to read this book or not (which you definitely should) or if you’ve read it, to fangirl over this marvelous story. 

Ezra Mason and Kady Grant… and well, other characters. I love Ezra with every fiber in my body. He’s funny, extremely cute and just straight up perfect. Kady was awesome as well and to prove it here are some reasons why you should love her too: 
  1. She’s a strong female character who doesn’t sit around but is proactive and she wants to know what’s really happening on the ships while all the others are just trembling in the corner or give nonsensical orders. Which, I think, is a good approach because when you’re running from your enemy and there are weird things happening around, you want to know what exactly is behind it, right? 
  2. She’s got pink hair.
  3. Sarcasm is her last name.  
  4. She can kick ass but she still has her feelings because there’s no worse thing when the female character loses her humanity throughout the “save the world” phase. 
  5. She’s a killer hacker. Not the best, but one of the reaaaly good ones. She can outwit everybody and she’s silent as a mouse which means she can get anywhere. Guys, is there at least someone competent? Teenager is getting through your system and you don’t even know about it. 

Oooooh and let me talk about the lovely bromance between Ezra and McNulty. I shipped them sooo hard. Honestly, they were bickering like an old married couple and I would gladly read a book just about the two of them. Oh, how I miss them. 
The space. I probably should warn you that I know basically nothing about the space. Okay, I know what’s the Milk Way and how many planets are in the solar system (don’t worry Pluto, I’m still counting you in) but other than that… nothing. I don’t know what black holes are or how it functions, I only know that it looks pretty. Well, these two authors taught me a lot about it, so next time when I’ll find myself on a spaceship, I won’t be so useless. I like to imagine myself running around and shouting orders at everyone. “Lower the pressure in the hermetic compressor, Jane!” (I’m going to pretend like I know what hermetic compressor is. It might not even be in the spaceship for all I know) The setting was just stunning and dangerous at the same time, so guys, show the space some respect. 

I also loved all the mysteries and secrets surrounding the spaceships. Yes, it would be easier if the people talked to each other and if they were straightforward with each other and it would be so much less complicated buuuut it wouldn’t be so much fun. Although I was getting a little bit mad because of general Torrence. I think that man made every bad decision he could make. 
Another thing adding to the overall awesomeness of the book is that it made me cry. When do you know the book is good? When it makes me cry. Ok, that’s not entirely true because I cry easily but I swear I wasn’t expecting it and it hit me hard. To be honest, I kind of like when book makes me cry and feel every possible emotion because than I really know that I was invested in the story and I completely enjoyed it even though it may not seem like it. 

Let’s talk about the format of the book. Forget about boring chapters or different POVs. No, this story is told through files. The book is full of emails, military files, medical reports, basically the book is evidence of what happened on the spaceships and I think it’s the coolest idea I’ve ever seen. I was a little bit scared when I saw it because I had no idea whether I’m going to like it, but it was awesome. Also, the book may seem a little thick, but you fly through it, really. Most of the time you won’t want to leave it. 
Ehm, nothing really. No, wait I’ve got something. 
It could be a little bit longer because it ended really quickly. 
There could be more scenes between Ezra and McNulty. 
And I’d like to know more about the AI. 
But these are not really negatives, just my wishes. 

Have you read the Illuminae? If so, what did you think about it? Do you even read sci-fi? 

2 comments :

  1. I love how you're still counting Pluto as a scene hahahaha. BUT OMG HOW GOOD IS ILLUMINAE? Now you have to read Gemina quick-stat :) And yesss the AI was so intriguing, I'd honestly read a whole book about it.

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    1. I can't wait for Gemina so much that I'm considering buying it English and not waiting for the translation. :D

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