Reviews tagging 'Death'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

107 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Representation: Asian character
Score: Eight out of ten.

I enjoyed The Aurora Cycle from these authors so I decided to give The Illuminae Files a shot to see if it lives up to my expectations. I picked up the first instalment in the series, Illuminae, and glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing. When I closed the final page, it was enjoyable, and made me hope that the next part of the series, Gemina, will be of the same quality, if not better.

It starts with the first people I see, Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, living on a planet which is a company colony until another company destroyed it, killing everyone on there save for a few thousand who hopped on three spaceships to escape from the apocalypse. However, the situation only worsens as an epidemic plagues the ship, its AI, AIDAN, goes rogue, and BeiTech spaceships are still on the hunt to eviscerate the remaining citizens of the colony planet. I don't even know where to begin with Illuminae. But I'll try. For a book whose page count is one page shy of 600, it's fast-paced and enthralling, which ties in to the writing style. Illuminae isn't a book. It's more of a collection of files, including surveillance footage, images of spaceships, Wikipedia-like pages, artwork and DMs among other miscellanies. I liked the realistic teenage dialogue, but not the characters themselves. Finally! Teenagers in Illuminae don't speak like philosophers. They're more accurate to real-life youth. AIDAN developed his character as he turns from a ship commander to a human-like being, which isn't that original but I'll let the authors get away with it, which made me like him the most. I couldn't relate to Kady and Ezra, though. The composition kept making me turn its pages because I never know what I would get on the next page since it's not a predictable wall of text. It could be anything. The conclusion is nail-biting as Kady and AIDAN are the only survivors of the plague, and take down a BeiTech ship, the Lincoln, with the Alexander before escaping to a faraway space station named the Heimdall. There's also a cliffhanger. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Full trigger warnings: Explosions, military violence and war themes, mass death, death of people and a parent in the past, blood, grief and loss depiction, physical assault and injury, gun violence, epidemic, dead bodies

happysami's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Death, and Body horror

alphabet_soup_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Genocide, Grief, Gore, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Death, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Dementia, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, Ableism, Alcohol, and Body shaming

esouthwest's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

This almost got a perfect rating, but there was just a couple things that threw me off for that. Holy shit, what a good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death of parent, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, Murder, Genocide, Child death, Death, and Suicide

The way he lived felt just a little too perfect for me, although I guess it makes sense.

mysticserenity's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, War, Suicide, and Death

tbwhite23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Murder

modernathos's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book makes you feel the chaos of the possible end of existence.

For this kind of dystopia, the unique formatting of the book works amazing. You never get the exact inner thoughts of any character, but you get more than enough insight and it's not hard to follow. The only critique I have is that it could be shorter than it ended up being, as it felt like the pace only really started to pick up towards the middle of the book.

February 15th, 2024 - February 21st, 2024.

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.” 

“She is catalyst.
She is chaos.
I can see why he loves her.” 

“Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Medical content

clpavain's review against another edition

dark tense

This is the scariest book I've ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, and Torture

mindy0608's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

An exceptionally fun read

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Murder, War, and Death

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Cursing

sara_reads_and_wines's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

Really enjoyed this one! Recommended by my book my chat, I am so glad I gave this one a shot! The audio was fantastic with the sound effects and full cast & reading along with the ebook helped me understand the format better! Told in transcripts, memos, chats, and more we follow Kady and Ezra  as they search for answers about the intergalactic war they found themselves in the middle of, while also fighting a unknown plague. The story kept me on the edge of my seat and I can wait to dive into book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Child death, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Suicide