After reading a few interviews with Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff about Illuminae, however, I knew that I had to give it a try. And my goodness, am I glad that I did. I'm really shocked I haven't been seeing more people talk about this now that it's out!
To catch up anyone who isn't familiar with the premise, here's the book jacket copy from Amazon:
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 a speck at the edge of the universe. Now with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to evacuate with a hostile warship in hot pursuit.
But their problems are just getting started. A plague has broken out and is mutating with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a web of data to find the truth, it’s clear the only person who can help her is the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, maps, files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.First, the format of the book is absolutely brilliant, and I can't begin to imagine all of the work and creativity that went into conceiving it, let alone executing it. Everything feels authentic and helps draw the reader into the world of the book — and they way the AI is portrayed is so smart and consuming. This helped make the sci-fi aspects feel really accessible; being privy to "classified" documents is a sure-fire way to make kick my nosiness into high gear and keep me reading.
The other thing, and possibly most important thing, that made this book feel so accessible to someone who doesn't normally read sci-fi is that the main characters — Kady and Ezra — are such teenagers in the most endearing, frustrating, and compelling way. This may be true of most sci-fi/dystopian YA, but it seemed especially singular here. Everything that was happening to them was secondary to the fact that they were just teenagers trying to live their lives and make the best of the circumstances they were dealt: they were teenagers who happened to be dealing with espionage, not agents who happened to be teenagers. The entire way I cheered them on and felt their hopes, their grief, their fears.
Kady and Ezra weren't the only incredible characters. Almost every character who made it onto the page — and there were many — felt like a real, flesh-and-blood, breathing person, which instinctively made me care. Even the AI became a beautiful character, which is something I never expected to feel or say.
Another of the book's strengths is that it did NOT hold back. With anything. There were so many times that I had to sit and stare at the page because I couldn't believe that what just happened had actually happened. One of my favorite things about the book is the way it played up on my fear of "what would it look like to be moving closer to inevitable disaster and tragedy, but to still have to keep fighting because there's no other option." Towards the end, I was actually saying oh my God out loud. There may have been audible gasps.
Which brings me to the twists. THE TWISTS. Totally not gimmicky, the twists came hard on multiple levels throughout the book, keeping the tension and momentum going throughout the entire 599 pages. You'll just have to read for yourself to find out what these mind-blowing twists are.
The only negative I can say about Illuminae is that I didn't know it was the first of a series when I bought it and started reading it — and now I have to wait for the next to come out! What a problem to have.
Thank you Jay and Aimee for bringing such a crazy, brilliant thing into the world.
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