Well, it took me five years to finally read my advance review copy of Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's Illuminae. I remember the buzz this book was getting at BookExpo the year I got it, and even though the book was a hefty 500 + pages, I still grabbed myself a copy when I saw one and stuffed it into my backpack.(Tip for when BookExpo and BookCon are in person again: always bring a backpack!)
So what did I think of this book? Did it live up to the hype?
Yes, I liked it. It's told in a unique fashion through memos, online chats, interview transcripts, emails, and so on. You get to see what happened sort of as a flashback through all of this collected information.
Basically, there are two main characters (Kady and Ezra) who, along with everyone else on their planet, are refugees. Their planet was attacked, and now their ships are being attacked, too, and it doesn't seem like anyone is coming to rescue them. Kady is a hacker, so she takes it upon herself to dig up the dirt and find out what's really going on. Meanwhile, Ezra has been commissioned into the military. He's got the physical strength and Kady's got the digital strength. Can they bring down their attackers?
Oh yeah, and there's also an artificial intelligence that's too smart for it's own good and a plague that's been released. So...
I have to say, reading this book during a pandemic quarantine was kind of like art imitating life. Or in the case of this book, since it came before Coronavirus, life imitating art. There's a poster image on one page that tells kids to wash their hands and wear their masks to stop the spread of the disease. Just like now...
The one thing I didn't like, and I might be in the minority here, was the ending. I know that there are two more books in the series, but I just wished that things had ended a little differently. I don't want to give too much away, but...well...just go read the book for yourself and we'll talk.
Illuminae is published by Ember, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is on bookstore shelves now.
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