Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Release Date: October 20, 2015
Pages: 624
Rating:💜💜
Buy it: Amazon | Book Depository

Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the worst thing she'd ever been through. That was before her planet was invaded. Now, with enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra are forced to fight their way onto one of the evacuating craft, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their biggest threat; and nobody in charge will say what's really going on. As Kady plunges into a web of data hacking to get to the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: Ezra. 

I was surprisingly let down by this book. After all the hype that had surrounded it I was expecting an incredible master piece, but I just didn't get find what was so incredible about this book.

This book is  definitely beautiful; anyone could see that. The diagrams and pictures that make up the majority of this book were what kept me reading. I loved the format of the book because it was so different from every other book I ever read. There were interviews, messenger chats, files and logs that had been collected together to make this book and tell the story of what happened on these spaceships. It was different and intriguing and, honestly, the only reason why I picked up the book.

Where this book fell short was with the characters. Personally, I am a character reader. I need to know what they look like, what their dreams are, what they like to eat for breakfast, everything about the character. I just love to be able picture the characters and what they are doing. Even if the book only has a tiny description of what they look like, I'm able to picture their voice talking and it makes my reading experience so much more enjoyable. But with this book, there was none of that. I had no idea what the characters were like, and the little bits of information we did get I didn't like. Both the main characters were whiny and annoying which made me feel detached from them. I wasn't invested in them, and I didn't really care what happened next.

I might be willing to give this book another chance in the future, especially if I listen to the audiobook. I had no problems with the plot of the book, but because I couldn't imagine the characters voices I couldn't enjoy the story.

So there we go. I would recommend that you read this book, but maybe chose the audiobook version over the physical version (or do both, go crazy!).