Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

57 reviews

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

asexualandriod's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

As a scifi novel, this book was amazing! The technology was explained to the perfect degree (not too little detail or too much detail). It brought up interesting moral questions. There was a twist at the end that surprised me, but also made sense! I liked the stakes of the narrative, it wasn't like a lot of scifi narratives where you know in the back of your head that they will survive. The format of the book (a post-events dossier) left the option of any character dying at any point.

So, you're probably asking, why the 3.25?

The characters, oh god the characters. The character we follow the most, Kady, is so painfully flat. And her relationship with Ezra is bland. You're supposed to believe that their romance is driving the narrative—the reason Kady makes most of her decisions—but I can barely believe they even like each other. This book, like many of its peers, fell into the trap of putting romance in a book that really didn't need romance. Kady and Ezra's relationship was extremely un-compelling, but I was able to kind of shrug and say, "Yeah, okay, whatever." to their romance, and focus on the scifi elements and unique story medium. Which isn't a good thing in terms of writing. 😅

However, the rest of the story is compelling enough to compensate, so I do want to read the rest of the trilogy. The espionage and secrets have me hooked. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ne0n_ange1's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cait's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

birdy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

laurajones's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

sydney2020's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

serenfletcher_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

So exciting. The format of this book  makes it very accessible, especially for the sci-fi genre. I found the main characters loveable and was moved by the twists that kept coming. I've never read anything like it and can't wait to read the next book in the series! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

short_circuit's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

"the universe owes you nothing, kady. it has already given you everything, after all. [...] the only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance."


god knows i love a morally grey AI with a fucked up code of ethics and a thing for the most badass human girl in outer space

"gaslight gatekeep girlboss" AIDAN
just plain girlboss kady
ezra honey i love u but your girlfriend is so so much cooler

(please heed the content warnings on this one, folks. whole lotta violence and death and shooting and whatnot. there's no tag for "illness", but the main part of the story involves people being infected with a virus that makes them go insane, so i tagged it with "terminal illness" to be safe.)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

leaf_arrow's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

please read trigger warnings before starting this book.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings