Reviews with content warning for Gore - Illuminae

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

96 reviews

tealattes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Space battles meet airborne diseases and a loopy AI in this action packed opening to the Illuminae Files series. 10/10 recommend for fans of laid back sci fi who wouldn’t mind a little bit of interstitial romance and girl-against-all-odds type things. (check TWS)

With the unconventional formatting there was so much depth and detail. It is told in the form of a dossier compiling all relevant documents relating to the events after they have already completed, so it’s a mystery for the reader to understand how the world got to that point. Some of these documents include transcripts of interviews, online chatting, emails, scientific reports, military after action reports, public service announcements, description of the security camera footage, personal entries, even the AI’s core data- it’s evident that there are many characters and perspectives supplied. It was a fast paced read that still didn’t sacrifice plot structure and development. It’s slightly confusing at times, but that makes it all the more fun to be able to piece together the documents.

The authors executed the science portions well- they said they had an astrophysicist, white hat hacker and medical professional look over their drafts to make the book as accurate as possible!

However it’s not too dense either and provides humorous bits and even (what I would say) philosophical and emotional themes. With the context of life or death situations, the story tackles the definition of humanity as the authorities, civilians, and even the AI make decisions weighing logic and morality.

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

It is astonishing to watch the differing ways the madness shapes them. Fractures them into splinters and rearranges what remains.

It moves quickly and never is there a dull moment. I could picture the story the whole way through as if it were a movie. And the ending!!! THE ENDING!!! This book does not suffer from book one syndrome, it’s a beautiful story on its own AND it is such a promising setup for Gemina.

(Yeah, so it has some teenage romance. It’s part of the description and I can’t criticize it for executing what it promised to. It appeared rushed but under their circumstances, I just had to root for them, and it wasn’t bad. But what I did have an issue with was the frequency of swearing. It was all censored in black but context still exists and I couldn’t prevent reading it in my head. While sometimes I can get why a character would say them, other times they were overused and called too much attention to themselves. I’d prefer to dial it back so I could better focus on the actual content.)

My largest critique is that there would often be very poetic and emotional scenes ruined by sarcasm and humor. Basically, poor timing; the switches in format and characters caused a bit of mood whiplash. It would be a like a blinking light reminder that this is a YA book when without it, nothing else would indicate that.

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bebidocrimes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.5

If the page count wasn't so intimidating, I could see this having had a craze in my school. Or maybe I think spaceships are cooler than others do. The unique formatting feels like a cute gimmick until occasionally It's Not and it's very very intentional and really lends more impact to the story. My small gripes are generally just because it's YA and can be forgiven.

What omnipotent AI is gonna fall in love(?) with a random 17-year-old just because she can code? Who's still using emoticons when texting your savior while you hide from a pack of crazed murderers? Why are the characters putting more emphasis on losing the (ex-)boyfriend and not HER LITERAL ACTUAL MOM??

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m_petranoff's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A riveting epistolary novel set in the space-faring future, it feels both novel and firmly rooted in the mid-2010's. Some aesthetics and jargon is now dated and some plot points feel a bit cheesy, but if you're a fan of fast-paced science fiction horror with everything except the aliens, this is a romp. While I had my complaints at points and didn't love some of the narrative voices, none of that stopped me from staying up too late to finish it.

Content Warnings