(Amazon affiliate link)I have to write this while everything is still fresh. I'm going to tell you right here, right now that this book is absolutely freaking amazing! It blew my mind. So much so that I'm having a hard time forming coherent sentences. I've sat here already for at least five minutes trying to think of something besides, "OMG" and saying "It's so amazing!" again. This is a review. I have to be somewhat intelligent, right?
I had received a digital ARC of Illuminae from Netgalley a few weeks before the publish date. I tried to read it on my e-reader, but the format didn't translate well and I had a really hard time reading it. This was because of the app that I had to use to read the ARC, which was DRM protected. The app did not do well with the format of the book. PLEASE don't let this stop you from buying this digitally if that's how you want to read it. I didn't get a Kindle copy, or similar format. I think this format would be great on Kindle or Nook, etc.
I probably read about 40 to 50 pages into the ARC before I just decided to buy the book when it came out and write a review then. I really liked what I did read, so I was so very excited to get the book. I'm so glad I bought it too. The cover art is beautiful. The dust jacket is this weirdly semi-transparent plastic that allows you to see peeks of what is underneath it. Then, on the actual book itself, is a bunch of writing. All over the place. Excerpts, sort of, from the book. But nothing spoiler-y.
You open it up and are greeted with a beautiful black and white image of space. Take time to admire these gorgeous details. Seriously. Then jump right into the story. If you like sci-fi and like YA, you will love this. Going into this, I honestly didn't really know what it was about. It's kind of a survival story, with romance and a sickness that causes people to become something that I find so much more terrifying than the idea of zombies.
There were at least three different incidents when I said to myself (or maybe out loud, I can't remember), "No way!" My lovely brain always seem to try to think of every possible outcome to a story. So many times I am not surprised by endings or plot twists. I hate that sometimes because I love surprises! However, I never hold it against a book if I predict something that happens in the story. Unless it is horribly obvious. This book though. Oh man! It got me good.
I don't want to go into too much detail on what the book is about. I don't know about you, but I like to go into books blind, or mostly blind. Illuminae's two main characters are Ezra and Kady. They used to date, but broke up the day the BeiTech attacks. Beitech is a rival corporation to the corporation that is mining on the planet they live on. They escape with the aid of 3 ships in the area. One ship from BeiTech is left to pursue them. Two of the three ships that are fleeing are not equipped for battle and the one that is has extensive damage from the fight. The artificial intelligence on board the damaged ship, AIDAN, was also damaged during the fight, which creates other problems. The rest of the story is trying to survive by fleeing the warship and also trying to survive the illness.
Illuminae can be brutal and intense, which were not things I was expecting. Yet, it also gave me chills in some parts. It's a great story all around and I highly, highly recommend it! Not surprisingly, I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars!
Have you read Illuminae yet? If so, what did you think of it? Have you read any books by any of the authors (Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman)? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear from you!
Until next time,
Jenell
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