Rabbit Ears Book Blog: [BOOK REVIEW] Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

[BOOK REVIEW] Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Title: Illuminae

Authors:  Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Genre: Science Fiction

Year Published: 2015

Number of Pages: 599 pages

Date Read: 7/23/2019

Series: The Illuminae Files #1

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 16+ (Some Gory Violence and Deaths)

Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository

“You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.”

Oh, my goodness! How could I wait so long to finally tackle this book? I have been hearing nothing but awesome things about this book! And yet, because there were so many other books that I wanted to read, I did not have the time to read this book (until now)! “Illuminae” which was written by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff was certainly an absolute blast to read!

Kady Grant thought that breaking up with her ex-boyfriend Ezra Mason was the worst thing to happen to her. Then, her planet ends up getting invaded by a mega corporation called BeiTech and she and Ezra are forced to flee from their planet and go on the spaceship Hypatia to escape from the enemy spaceship Lincoln. But things start to get worse for the crew of Hypatia when it turns out that there is a deadly virus that is spreading across the ship that is turning the people into hideous monsters. Not to mention, the fleet’s AI AIDAN has gone berserk and has started killing people on board in order to protect them from Lincoln’s forces. Now, it is up to Kady and Ezra to save the ship Hypatia from the virus, AIDAN and Lincoln itself.

Wow! I never would have expected to enjoy this book as much as I did! Both Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff did a fantastic job at writing this book! The narrative was highly creative as the story is mostly told through various documents that the commanders of the Hypatia have collected and also through diagrams of the ship and email messages from each of the characters. I have never read a book where the narrative was mostly comprised of documents and diagrams and it made this book so intriguing to read! I also loved the way that both Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff put in so much intensity into the story as I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat when almost everyone was getting affected by the virus and when AIDAN started going berserk. It seemed like almost everyone was going to die in this book due to all the deaths that occurred and that just made this book so exciting to read. I also really loved all of the characters in this book, especially Kady and Ezra as they were extremely well-written. I loved the fact that Kady Grant was such a strong female protagonist who was able to use her hacking skills to do everything in her power to save the people of Hypatia. Ezra Mason was another character that I really liked as his sarcastic personality was hilarious to read and I really loved his relationship with Kady as they seem to have a love / hate relationship with each other, but still care about each other deep down. I especially loved the way that Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff wrote the dialogues in this book, as most of the characters have snarky personalities. And yet, they all sounded so relatable to me, especially when they are trying to figure out how they will survive this all-out war that they are forcefully thrown into.

For anyone who does not like strong violence and death, there is quite a bit of violent moments in this book, especially during the scenes where the virus breaks out and the infected started attacking people in increasingly brutal ways. There is also a lot of deaths in this book due to said virus that might upset some people.

Overall, “Illuminae” is easily one of the most creative and exciting books that I have ever read and if you love science fiction books with a bit of romance thrown in, then I would definitely recommend this book! Now, I am off to read the second book in the series, “Gemina!”