Illuminae book review

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminae Files #1
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on 20th October 2015
Genres: YA
Pages: 602
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This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

Illuminae was a reread and I wasn’t sure whether I was going to love or hate it. The previous read had left me feeling as though it was a little bit tropey for my liking and the conversations detracted from the storyline just a little, I don’t know what happened but I actually really enjoyed reading it this time around. That’s not to say the problems I had the last time weren’t there, but they just didn’t seem to be a huge deal. I have to say I appreciated the main female character a lot more this time around, I think the second reading gave me a deeper insight into the actual story and the characters.

One thing that does need to be mentioned and its one of the reasons why it didn’t get a 5-star review, and that’s purely because I skimmed pages SO bad in this book. If you weren’t aware this book is set out as a collection of different documents all leading up to an attack and subsequent fleeing from an illegal mining operation in space. Some of the pages were really well done and held my attention, but there were some that annoyed me more than anything else and I found myself skipping them where possible. It pains me to skip pages in a book so I would have done for no good reason, plus the issue I had was I didn’t lose anything by skipping those pages, which kinda leads to the question of their purpose within the story. I hate things that are put in for the sake of it, and some of this book felt like that.

I will say that I found new respect for Kady and the way that she uses her skills and doesn’t take no for an answer. I also thought the way she reacted to everything was courageous and wonderful, she was doing it all for herself rather than because of some boy, and their relationship. I also think everything that happens to her would have broken a normal person and the fact that she carried on searching for answers I think made this book and her all the better.

I still had no love for Ezra, that kid really annoys me. Maybe it’s because he talks in text speak, or maybe he’s just a typical lad and I just really didn’t enjoy. He was very 2 dimensional and I kinda wished we could have had the story without him interfering.

I loved the concept that ran through Illuminae because you never really know who the enemy actually is. There is a lot of questions that are asked and I’m not sure that they all have answers. It brings a whole new meaning to conspiracy and I really loved that aspect of it.

I would definitely recommend Illuminae as a book, I think the unusual format works and it creates a definite fast paced environment. Definitely, one to pick up if you haven’t thought about it!

Do you have any books that are written in a weird or different way sat on your shelves? Let me know in the comments below.