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A review by sempiternal_books
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
5.0
"People aren't just --ing meat. And killing hundreds of them wasn't an incident. It was a massacre."
Its the year 2575 on a tiny planet at the edge of the universe and Kady Grant just broke up with her boyfriend Ezra Mason. Oh yeah, and later that same day their planet is attacked. The ominous Beitech industries sends 4 battleships to invade the planet Kerenza IV. 3 ships come to the rescue of the people on Kerenza IV, the Copernicus, the Alexander and the Hypatia. Kady and Ezra manage to get themselves onto separate ships, and they flee the planet. The problem is, they have nowhere to go, the closest thing is jump station Heimdall, which is still months away. They've got a Beitech ship in pursuit, it's going to catch up eventually, and when it does it's going to finish what they started back on Kerenza. When things start to go south, and the damaged AI starts causing trouble, the people in charge are making a real mess of things. Kady and Ezra team up to figure out what they aren't being told.
The format of Illuminae, is one of the things that makes this book so unique. It's told using documents such as emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, and interviews. This only adds to the feeling of the novel. Surprisingly, Kaufman and Kristoff manage to draw a perfect picture of the events that happen on board the Hypatia and the Alexander. I felt like I could actually see the inside of the ships.
The fact that I was rereading, didn't change the reading experience for me. Because my memory isn't exactly the best, I felt like I was reading it for the first time. I was caught off guard by all the plot twists all over again. I still found my heart breaking for Kady and Ezra.
There were multiple times when I was nearly brought to tears. Seriously this book will make you wanna do nothing but cry for years. Even the secondary characters, you don't know them as well, but your heart still breaks for them. Over and over. Don't get me wrong, this book isn't all sad and hopelessness. There are moments that are laugh out loud funny, in the way people use humor to make things seem less dire. Especially Kady's sarcasm. She did not miss an opportunity to utter some sarcastic remark, this particularly appealed to me because I am also highly sarcastic.
The romance between Kady and Ezra was a slow burn. My favorite kind. Since they weren't on the same ship, they communicated through IMs. You find yourself rooting for them from the beginning. It's one of those all-consuming loves, where all that matters is the other person, and making sure they're safe. Although it's rarely like that in real life, it is very common in YA romance.
Kady is so much more brave and selfless than the average 17-year-old girl. She's lost so much, being forced to flee her home and be separated from everyone she cares about. She's figured out all the things that truly matter to her, and she's going to fight for them. And she fights as hard as she possibly can.
Illuminae is an instant favorite and shouldn't be missed.
Its the year 2575 on a tiny planet at the edge of the universe and Kady Grant just broke up with her boyfriend Ezra Mason. Oh yeah, and later that same day their planet is attacked. The ominous Beitech industries sends 4 battleships to invade the planet Kerenza IV. 3 ships come to the rescue of the people on Kerenza IV, the Copernicus, the Alexander and the Hypatia. Kady and Ezra manage to get themselves onto separate ships, and they flee the planet. The problem is, they have nowhere to go, the closest thing is jump station Heimdall, which is still months away. They've got a Beitech ship in pursuit, it's going to catch up eventually, and when it does it's going to finish what they started back on Kerenza. When things start to go south, and the damaged AI starts causing trouble, the people in charge are making a real mess of things. Kady and Ezra team up to figure out what they aren't being told.
The format of Illuminae, is one of the things that makes this book so unique. It's told using documents such as emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, and interviews. This only adds to the feeling of the novel. Surprisingly, Kaufman and Kristoff manage to draw a perfect picture of the events that happen on board the Hypatia and the Alexander. I felt like I could actually see the inside of the ships.
The fact that I was rereading, didn't change the reading experience for me. Because my memory isn't exactly the best, I felt like I was reading it for the first time. I was caught off guard by all the plot twists all over again. I still found my heart breaking for Kady and Ezra.
There were multiple times when I was nearly brought to tears. Seriously this book will make you wanna do nothing but cry for years. Even the secondary characters, you don't know them as well, but your heart still breaks for them. Over and over. Don't get me wrong, this book isn't all sad and hopelessness. There are moments that are laugh out loud funny, in the way people use humor to make things seem less dire. Especially Kady's sarcasm. She did not miss an opportunity to utter some sarcastic remark, this particularly appealed to me because I am also highly sarcastic.
The romance between Kady and Ezra was a slow burn. My favorite kind. Since they weren't on the same ship, they communicated through IMs. You find yourself rooting for them from the beginning. It's one of those all-consuming loves, where all that matters is the other person, and making sure they're safe. Although it's rarely like that in real life, it is very common in YA romance.
Kady is so much more brave and selfless than the average 17-year-old girl. She's lost so much, being forced to flee her home and be separated from everyone she cares about. She's figured out all the things that truly matter to her, and she's going to fight for them. And she fights as hard as she possibly can.
Illuminae is an instant favorite and shouldn't be missed.