Editor’s Note: Book review submissions always make me happy! They remind me that our little book community on Facebook and Instagram is continuously growing and that it’s providing an avenue for people to express their love for the written word. 🙂 This beautiful review is from the lovely Shara, who, incidentally, shares my love for everything Sarah J Maas.
Here’s her breakdown of the Illuminae Files. Enjoy!
The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Genre: YA/ Sci-Fi Adventure
Synopsis (Book 1):
The year is 2575 and two mega-corporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them Ezra and Kady have to make their escape on the evacuating fleet. But their troubles are just beginning. A deadly plague has broken out on one of the spaceships and it is mutating with terrifying results. Their ships protection is seriously flawed. No one will say what is going on.
As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth its clear only one person can help her. Ezra. And the only problem with that is they split up before all this trouble started and she isn’t supposed to be talking to him.
A fantastically original, heart-stopping adventure where everything is definitely more dangerous than it seems.
Rating: 5 stars!
Review:
I don’t usually buy hardbound books because, c’mon, it’d be as if your wallet has gone on diet and your bills grew wings and flew away. But! On one unexpected, totally unprecedented moment, I bought a trilogy in hardbound.
This series deserves to be read in hardbound, I swear to God in every version of the universe. Why you ask?
The Illuminae Files is not like any other outer space books you will ever read.
What really caught my attention (and held it till I got the 1st book a few months after I read it in a bookstore) was the way the story was told. It’s a collection of interview and camera recordings, articles, letters, emails, video transcriptions, reports, computer logs and (my most favorite) the thoughts of a murderous artificial intelligence.
There are pages on which the words themselves follow certain patterns: a missile trajectory, a character crawling through the air vents, a virus’ path in the network, an exploding aircraft, a circle, and a swirl. You name it and it is there. The book is very visual and immersive.
I’ve never had so much fun reading as I did with this series.
Each book focuses on a pair of heroes and how they managed to survive a murderous AI, imploding universes and the very ones who started the war in the name of profit.
You want action? Check.
Space battles? Check.
People going zombie-crazy, killing and/or infecting other people? Check.
Of course, no one would leave brain-eating aliens behind right? That’s also a check.
Nerve-wracking, heart-wrenching, tear-jerking scenes? Triple check.
Buying it in hardbound was worth it.
My favorite parts of the book:
Cussing. The bad words in these books are CENSORED (xD). For someone who’s a fan of cuss words like me, it was really fun filling out the obscenities flying out of their mouths.
There was a moment in Gemina (Illuminae Files _02) when a bunch of people died (don’t worry, this is not a spoiler, a lot of people dies in this trilogy) and then the names of the ones who died were printed on several pages till they faded. The names included Kami Garcia, Leigh Bardugo, Veronica Rossi, Victoria Aveyard among others. My money’s on Marie Lu; I think she’s the one responsible for this.
My favorite book in the trilogy: I’m actually torn between Illuminae and Obsidio, so I guess both?
My favorite character: AIDAN (If you’ve read it, I know, don’t judge. xP)
Overall rating: shining 5 out of 5 stars!
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