Illuminae

Illuminae 

author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

published: October 20th 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

pages: 599

my rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

 

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.

To be honest, I was a bit scared going into this book. It’s been hyped so much and I just wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it. Spoiler alert: I did. People seemed to either really, really love this book or not really like it at all.

Another thing that scared me was the formatting. The story is told through emails, messages, reports and such and although that’s what drew me into the book in the first place it also scared me a little in the beginning. I’ve heard some people say that this kind of format bothered them while reading and prevented them from really getting to know the characters and I was really glad when that wasn’t the case for me. Although it did take some getting used to, I immediately felt like I knew the characters and could understand their thoughts and actions even though I didn’t really read about their thoughts at all. I also think it’s this formatting that pulled me out of my reading slump that ruined my life for a while. The second I started reading I was hooked and stayed up all night to finish it.

Since it is told in a report-style thing I thought I knew how this story would go. I wasn’t really sure how a six month travel through space could be all that interesting and that nothing to bad could possible happen because everything is still documented. I was wrong. There where some major plot twists, that I didn’t expect at all and really shook me. I also didn’t expected it to be this intense, it’s pretty gruesome and terrifying in some parts and after a while I’d completely changed my mind on the “they have to survive” part and didn’t know what to expect.

The characters where also amazing. Like I said earlier, I felt like I knew how everyone of the main characters worked and cared more for them, than I probably should have. Kady is amazing, she’s a badass hacker, really determined and tough. And even though she doesn’t show it and the book didn’t get inside the characters heads, it’s really obvious that she’s a normal human, who is sensible and scared and terrified of everything going on. I really liked Ezra as well although Kady remains my absolute favorite. Both of the main characters have an amazing humor and sarcasm I really loved and couldn’t get enough of.

And of course, I couldn’t get through this without talking about Aiden. Should I care for a completely insane, non feeling, non living, non empathetic and murderous Artificial Intelligence who has the power to kill everyone? Probably not but I somehow did anyway. I’m not sure if I will continue to because as I said before Aidan is an Artificial Intelligence with no emotions whatsoever. But for some reason it was really easy to forget about that.

I guess it’s obvious at this point but I adored this book and can’t wait to get my hand on Gemina. Just talking about this book again makes me exited again and I really need to know what happens next.