On My Bookshelf // Illuminae by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Where to start with this book?

Illuminae focuses on a young couple–Kady and Ezra–who break up right before their planet is invaded. There’s a plague that’s mutating and they’re being attacked by an outside source and even their own AI. And not everything is as it seems with the leadership. Oh, it also takes place in the future. That’s probably an important detail to add about this book.

If you’re interested in reading this book, my suggestion is to definitely get a physical copy of the book, whether you buy it or get it from the library.

With Illuminae you’ve basically been given a bunch of hacked documents–instant messages, emails, reports, etc.–that you go through to find out what happened. I absolutely loved that about this book! If you’ve read my book reviews for awhile, you know that I love books that have unique methods of storytelling and include things like articles/emails/texts, etc. So I loved that this book was told using these different formats.

That being said, because of that I don’t this book will be as easy to read and enjoyable on an ereader. In my experience, print works best. (The hardcover copy is also incredibly beautiful. #booklover) Also, because of the different formats, it took me a little while to feel like I really knew what was happening in the book. This is probably also due to the fact that I read it in little snippets at the beginning. But it held my attention and had me asking questions, so it didn’t turn me away from the book at all. I just didn’t connect as quickly to it as I usually do with a book.

I also had a hard time following some of the action scenes at times because of the way the story was told.

The characters… Ezra, I loved him so much! Right from the start he was a character that I knew I’d enjoy spending time with. It took me a little while to grow to love Kady, but I had a feeling I would and I did. She’s an awesome character and I really enjoyed reading about her adventures in this book.

The world was so unique! At least for me. I really haven’t read as many space/different planet-themed books as I’d like to, considering they always catch my eye when I read descriptions, so this was a really unique book to read. I found the world to be well thought out and I found everything to be plausible and believable. You know, for a book that takes place on a different planet over 500 years in the future.

The ending was absolutely perfect. I loved it so much that I went back a few pages so that I could reread the end again.

This book has some really beautiful page spreads and there were some beautifully written passages. This is definitely a book to experience and I highly recommend it if the plot or the storytelling… or both!… sound interesting to you.

I’m excited for book two!

WHAT HAVE YOU READ RECENTLY?

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