Reviews with content warning for Murder - Illuminae

so. i have been collecting some thoughts throughout this whole thing and they might not be especially cohesive, but that's ok, i was always more of a bullet list person.
i like the format of this, it was really interesting and fun, even if limited the amount of what you can learn about the world. some things were weirdly the same considering we're 500 years in the future, as i already expressed.
it might be just me, but the romantic drama between 2 high school seniors was the least interesting part of this thing, i found it irrelevant and at time or two a little bit annoying, but i suppose that's 17/18yo allo people for you. dunno, never been there.
honestly in general, i did not feel much attached to or interested in the characters beyond like a superficial level.
the ai in this was so weirdly melodramatic and rambling aside from its twisted logic which i'm assuming comes from the damage sustained.
in the q&a at the end, the authors mentioned talking with psychiatrists as part of the research that went into this and it does not sound very inspiring, considering the level and amount of demonization of people struggling with psychosis is staggering and infuriating, i think it was actually my biggest problem with this book.
the authors were quite good at creating tension and making one need to read on to know what happens next, i'll give them that.
however, i'm not entirely sure about continuing the series. it's likely i will i guess? not if they continue the ableism though, i'm not gonna stand for that

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trs01's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The writing in this book feels like a rough draft. The authors don't know how to handle serious situations, and the banter and humor were poorly timely and off-putting.

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lauramcc7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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laurenevlyn's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is incredible. I laughed, I cried, I got angry and heartbroken and hopeless and hopeful. Not sure how you got me to root for the murderous AI with an obsessive crush on the main character, but you did. The plot twist was insane and made me cry. This is one of those books that will stay with me for a long time.

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maeverose's review

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Before I get to the review, if you were unaware, Jay Kristoff is racist and antisemitic, so if you wanna read this or any of his other books maybe buy them used.

I’m sorry but I don’t understand how people like this book. If you do, that’s great but wow it was so annoying to me. It literally took me over a year to get halfway through before I decided I couldn’t do it anymore.

Every character except Kady acted the exact same. They all acted like 15 year old boys who made misogynistic jokes and took nothing seriously.

Even the AI talks like a teenager’s edgy poetry

They were in an extremely dangerous and terrifying situation, literally watching people die in brutal ways, and they were cracking jokes as if everything was fine. The romance was cringey and felt completely out of place and unnecessary in this story. I have no idea why Kady liked Ezra. I’m 100% convinced that the only part Amie Kaufman got to write was Kady’s character and her scenes. The entire tone of this book was so off, it’s primarily focused on the romance, but there’s all of this extremely messed up stuff going on in the background that seems to be pretty urgent and important, but nobody is focusing on it as much as they should? And they’re cracking stupid jokes at the same time?

Omg and can we talk about Ezra literally calling women ‘fems’..? You cannot convince me a woman wrote that.

The one thing I did like was the epistolary format of it. This could’ve been such a cool story if it had been written by different authors, had no romance, and got rid of the out-of-place humor. (And was adult instead of YA..)

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ashleereadsbooks692's review

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adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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thecasualbooknerd's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Aurora Rising’s darker, grittier cousin.

Wow, am I glad I decided to read this at a not-so-stressful time in my life. Going into this almost blind, only knowing that it’s sci-fi and in an interesting format, I was surprised at how dark it was—maybe this view is influenced by the fact that I’m reading it right as we’re coming out of a pandemic. Regardless, it is a adrenaline-pumping, gripping story that is excellently paced and expertly crafted.

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asexualandriod's review

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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.

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