A review by scarlettskyes
Illuminae by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

As one of the most unique book styles I have ever read, I was at first hesitant to read this book. But as soon as I got used to the different file types presented, ranging from diary entries, to camera feeds, to messages between characters and even the perspective of a faulty AI unit, I absolutely loved this book. The characters are engaging and fun, even in high stress situations, and the plot twists are shocking without being unbelievable. The art and formatting used is incredible, and it just goes to show how much work went into developing it. While there are dark pages, the text tends to be contrasted enough to read easily, though some entries are harder to read than others. The amount of plot shown in such strange ways is incredible and surprising, and I found myself on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was particually amused that in the very first page, it mentions that while all the brutal details of the incident are described, swear words have been censored as it is inappropriate, giving an in universe reason for the blacked out cursing.
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