Illuminae

The Illuminae Files, Book #1, by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

So, Illuminae had been sitting on my shelf and TBR list for awhile. I had heard wonderful things about it, but I hadn’t been able to make time to pick it up. After DarkDawn and a few other post-Nevernight-Chronicles-destruction reads, I decided to give this series a go when I was off from work for a week, deciding I wanted to dedicate series time to the series.

I’m so, so glad I did.

I’m also so, so glad I decided to make sure I had the entire series before diving in.

Let me first start off with saying that this book – this SERIES – is not your typical novel format. It’s done as a consolidation of different file types, including interview transcripts, commentary/reports on videos, layouts/diagrams, and others.

While a lot of people, including myself, worried that that would detract from the overall experience, but it didn’t. At least, not for me.

Alright, I don’t have too many non-spoiler-y things to say about Illuminae because I ended up just binging the entire series, barely coming up for air, sleep, and sustenance. But this book is full of surprises [especially if you don’t know any spoilers], ups and downs, and twists.

If you’re looking for a new YA sci-fi series that pushes the envelope of “YA” while still being captivating and page-turning [and can wrap your head around the ab-normal formatting], THIS IS A SERIES FOR YOU.

**SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT. DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS. SERIOUSLY. SPOILERS GA-LORE UP AHEAD. DON’T KEEP READING IF YOU DON’T SPOILERS. YOU’LL ONLY HAVE YOURSELF TO BLAME.**

Leave it to Jay Kristoff to not only breathe life into an AI but make you like him/it.

[I know this hasn’t been made super apparent on here yet, but I’m a HUGE Jay Kristoff fan. He is my only buy-on-sight, no-questions-asked author. He could write about something I normally wouldn’t touch, and I’ll not only buy it, I’ll read it without a second thought. Be prepared for an Aurora Burning review shortly after it hits.]

Ok, moving on. There is definitely some very “YA” vibes in the beginning of the book [shocker-shocker], but those, at least for me, disappeared fairly quickly. Mass murder and real-life shocks to teenagers will pull you out of the “this is definitely YA” mindset QUICK. It feels real from the beginning, only feeling more real as you read through.

Did I mention that the authors had their science and hacking reviewed by experts to make sure everything was sound? This isn’t just your typical “I know a bit about science and I’ll make it do whatever fits my narrative” sci-fi book – this has hard-core science [and hacking/computer science] type content throughout it.

I love Katy’s personality, though Ezra took a little longer for me to come around to. He fits into the teen-boy stereo-type that just rubs me the wrong way, but his character arc improves him, in my opinion, and I’m here for the I-don’t-particularly-like-you to alright-I-like-you-now character arcs. While not always well done, I don’t know that I can pinpoint the moment I started to like him, and that’s something I like about character arcs.

Can we also talk about how the ending of Illuminae makes the reader feel like they’re in the clear and good to go but also makes you want to read Gemina because you just know Jay Kristoff isn’t just about to let everything go smoothly from there? Because, yeah, I immediately picked up Gemina after this one.

I’ll be posting my review of Gemina soon!