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gardenfairyreads's review against another edition
5.0
Super cool formatting, really intriguing story!
noragrace89's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of the weirdest and most interesting books I’ve ever read!
rereader33's review against another edition
3.0
Thankful November Reading Challenge
Prompt: read a sci-fi novel
Believe it or not, this has been on my radar for upwards of 5 years. I never got around to because I am very easily distracted and not a huge sci-fi fan, but was recommended it by one of my friends (thank you, Gabrielle!). And yeah, I read it...and I have mixed feelings about it.
I'll get my praise out of the way right now: the writing structure and set up is easily what kept this at 3 stars. I loved the the audio logs, the interview logs, the words turned to pictures stuff, loved it all. I definitely think it helped with the experience and made Illuminae stand out from a prose stand point. Also, Kady was genuinely enjoyable and was easily my favorite character in the entire story. She had a good balance of "stereotypical bad-ass dystopian YA protagonist" and "actually well-written female character". Seriously, if she was the only main character, I would have been so much happy reading this novel. Which brings me into the negatives...
Honestly, I really wished Ezra and Kady hadn't been love interests. I didn't told vibe with their chemistry and since we rarely go to see them interact from a third person perspective, their relationship didn't work for me. I liked them well enough individually, but not as a couple. I also didn't care for any of the side characters and while Kaufman and Kristoff did the best they could with their prose structure, not having descriptive language to describe character interactions made it hard for me to connect with any of the other characters. And then there's AIDAN.
Holy
Fucking
Shit
AIDAN
SPOLER ALERT!
Look guys, I get it. This is a sci-fi story with AI in it, per sci-fi standards said AI HAS to be evil and/or morally grey because AI bad, no can feel emotions, blah blah FUCKING blah. I honestly wouldn't have minded this as much because no joke almost every AI in sci-fi is evil, but what made this worse is that AIDAN is pretty much redeemed towards the end, DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WAS ACTIVELY KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE BECAUSE IT COULDN'T USE ITS WORDS AND EXPLAIN ITS REASONING TO THE CREW. And NO, I am NOT entertaining the idea that, "Oh, AIDAN didn't tell them because humans are too emotional and wouldn't do the right thing-" BULLFUCKINGSHIT. AIDAN didn't even fucking TRY to explain his reasoning, he just decided to commit mass genocide on a group of innocent people because "protecting" people is what he was "programmed" to do, because apparently logic was part of his original fucking program. And again, I wouldn't mind this as much if AIDAN remained an evil/morally grey entity, but giving him a redemption arc towards the end completely soured any chance of me tolerating this character.
Okay, this review was a lot rantier than I was imagining, so let's wrap this up. Did I like this? Yeah, it was okay. It wasn't horrible and had some pretty dope moments, so I can't say it was bad. Will I be continuing with the trilogy? No. I'm not a huge fan of book series (unless its manga) anyway, and the ending didn't give me enough reason to continue with it. Do I recommend this to others? Sure. I think this was a solid start to a YA sci-fi series and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. Give it a shot if you want to, I'm sure most people will love this more than me.
Prompt: read a sci-fi novel
Believe it or not, this has been on my radar for upwards of 5 years. I never got around to because I am very easily distracted and not a huge sci-fi fan, but was recommended it by one of my friends (thank you, Gabrielle!). And yeah, I read it...and I have mixed feelings about it.
I'll get my praise out of the way right now: the writing structure and set up is easily what kept this at 3 stars. I loved the the audio logs, the interview logs, the words turned to pictures stuff, loved it all. I definitely think it helped with the experience and made Illuminae stand out from a prose stand point. Also, Kady was genuinely enjoyable and was easily my favorite character in the entire story. She had a good balance of "stereotypical bad-ass dystopian YA protagonist" and "actually well-written female character". Seriously, if she was the only main character, I would have been so much happy reading this novel. Which brings me into the negatives...
Honestly, I really wished Ezra and Kady hadn't been love interests. I didn't told vibe with their chemistry and since we rarely go to see them interact from a third person perspective, their relationship didn't work for me. I liked them well enough individually, but not as a couple. I also didn't care for any of the side characters and while Kaufman and Kristoff did the best they could with their prose structure, not having descriptive language to describe character interactions made it hard for me to connect with any of the other characters. And then there's AIDAN.
Holy
Fucking
Shit
AIDAN
SPOLER ALERT!
Look guys, I get it. This is a sci-fi story with AI in it, per sci-fi standards said AI HAS to be evil and/or morally grey because AI bad, no can feel emotions, blah blah FUCKING blah. I honestly wouldn't have minded this as much because no joke almost every AI in sci-fi is evil, but what made this worse is that AIDAN is pretty much redeemed towards the end, DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT WAS ACTIVELY KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE BECAUSE IT COULDN'T USE ITS WORDS AND EXPLAIN ITS REASONING TO THE CREW. And NO, I am NOT entertaining the idea that, "Oh, AIDAN didn't tell them because humans are too emotional and wouldn't do the right thing-" BULLFUCKINGSHIT. AIDAN didn't even fucking TRY to explain his reasoning, he just decided to commit mass genocide on a group of innocent people because "protecting" people is what he was "programmed" to do, because apparently logic was part of his original fucking program. And again, I wouldn't mind this as much if AIDAN remained an evil/morally grey entity, but giving him a redemption arc towards the end completely soured any chance of me tolerating this character.
Okay, this review was a lot rantier than I was imagining, so let's wrap this up. Did I like this? Yeah, it was okay. It wasn't horrible and had some pretty dope moments, so I can't say it was bad. Will I be continuing with the trilogy? No. I'm not a huge fan of book series (unless its manga) anyway, and the ending didn't give me enough reason to continue with it. Do I recommend this to others? Sure. I think this was a solid start to a YA sci-fi series and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. Give it a shot if you want to, I'm sure most people will love this more than me.
peachani's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, War, Blood, Child death, Gore, Murder, and Suicide
Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Misogyny, Cursing, Vomit, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
jade_logan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mothercrow's review against another edition
5.0
I can perfectly envision this as being the best science fiction movie film I’ve watched in a very long time. It was so good. And I loved the formatting.
ayah_reads's review against another edition
3.0
It's funny how when this was released in 2015 AI was more of a near future thing and viruses hadn't reached a global pandemic level in so long. Makes reading this in 2024 an interesting and rather too relevant time.
I audiobooked and read along with this so I got the full immersion of how this story is written. It's very impressive to have a written a story like this and its been a while since I've read a novel in this type of format so it was cool to get to do so.
But while the format is cool and I've read novels in letters/emails/texts before, I unfortunately couldn't get really attached to the characters or invested in them deeply. I liked Kady and Ezra but it did feel like they gravitated to each other cos their world had ended and they both lost loved ones, which is obviously very fair, but it felt like a relationship based on survival so it was also hard to root so much for them.
I did really like several of the plot twists towards the end, it definitely had me shook.
All in all, it was good to have read this but I don't see myself continuing on with it. Reading this confirmed I'm not a massive sci-fi person and if I am reading a sci-fi book then I need to deeply care for the characters and have something to ground the story in.
I audiobooked and read along with this so I got the full immersion of how this story is written. It's very impressive to have a written a story like this and its been a while since I've read a novel in this type of format so it was cool to get to do so.
But while the format is cool and I've read novels in letters/emails/texts before, I unfortunately couldn't get really attached to the characters or invested in them deeply. I liked Kady and Ezra but it did feel like they gravitated to each other cos their world had ended and they both lost loved ones, which is obviously very fair, but it felt like a relationship based on survival so it was also hard to root so much for them.
I did really like several of the plot twists towards the end, it definitely had me shook.
All in all, it was good to have read this but I don't see myself continuing on with it. Reading this confirmed I'm not a massive sci-fi person and if I am reading a sci-fi book then I need to deeply care for the characters and have something to ground the story in.
uruseibaka's review against another edition
5.0
Illuminae is by far one of the most unique and phenomenal books I have ever read. It’s so richly dark and imaginative, I salute Kaufman and Kristoff for their beautiful masterpiece.
I have no doubts over how I feel about everything in this book. The two main characters, Kady and Ezra, are both endearing. I’ve grown to love them both, their unique personalities and even their imperfections which make them human. The plot and concept are equally stunning. I think I will always be at awe over Kaufman and Kristoff’s intelligently crafted work. Each detail had its own place, you shouldn’t miss a single word as you flip through the so-called files. The plot twists were extremely mind-blowing and unexpected. Illuminae is undoubtedly a combined effort of two evil geniuses.
Everything in this book just works. And of course the flawless design of the physical book itself is a huge plus. I imagine that whilst the two astounding authors were working on their collaboration, they laid every single detail out on a table of awesomeness before weaving them together to form the best sci-fi book in the ‘verse. I can not wait for the next one!
Overall, this book is just simply breathtaking. If sci-fi is your thing then trust me, once you start reading the parts where it gets interesting, you’ll never be able to put Illuminae down.
Review can also be seen here.
I have no doubts over how I feel about everything in this book. The two main characters, Kady and Ezra, are both endearing. I’ve grown to love them both, their unique personalities and even their imperfections which make them human. The plot and concept are equally stunning. I think I will always be at awe over Kaufman and Kristoff’s intelligently crafted work. Each detail had its own place, you shouldn’t miss a single word as you flip through the so-called files. The plot twists were extremely mind-blowing and unexpected. Illuminae is undoubtedly a combined effort of two evil geniuses.
Everything in this book just works. And of course the flawless design of the physical book itself is a huge plus. I imagine that whilst the two astounding authors were working on their collaboration, they laid every single detail out on a table of awesomeness before weaving them together to form the best sci-fi book in the ‘verse. I can not wait for the next one!
Overall, this book is just simply breathtaking. If sci-fi is your thing then trust me, once you start reading the parts where it gets interesting, you’ll never be able to put Illuminae down.
Review can also be seen here.