ARC review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

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Illuminae
is a rare book. Not just because it was written by award winning authors, Amie Kaufman, and Jay Kristoff, nor because it is a whopping 599 pages (although those alone are convincing reasons). Illuminae is rare because, while there were innumerable things I hated about it that would’ve been a deal breaker in any other novel and probably would’ve made me stop reading, I still loved the book.

In a variety of formats, from emails to interview transcripts to the inner monologue of an artificial intelligence navigating system, the authors tell the story of two teenagers, Kady and Ezra; from the day they break up, to the day their home planet, an illegal mining site, is attacked by a competing mining company. Rather inconveniently for Kady and Ezra, these events happen to occur on the same day, but they’re lucky enough to both be rescued by government military ships, and their adventures commence for the rest of the novel.

I am just going to go ahead and rant about how much I loved Kady. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated a heroine so much, other than maybe Elizabeth Bennet or Hermione Granger. That’s right―she’s that cool. Kady is smart, sarcastic, really good at computer programming and hacking, and incredibly brave and self-sacrificing without being irrational. But the thing is that she feels real and just flawed enough, like in another life she could be someone you go to school with and realistically be friends with without feeling completely inferior. Ezra is pretty cool too, but I think we all know who the real winner in their relationship is. He gets extra points for being really brave and for having a cute relationship with Kady.

Also, there is no love triangle. This could be my favorite YA dystopia on that fact alone. Do you hear that, young adult writing and publishing industry? I, a teenage girl, and actually many of the teenagers out there who you are marketing your books to, do not enjoy love triangles. At all. They distract from the plot and feel like an excuse for sloppy character development and never happen in real life. Please get rid of them. So, nice job to Illuminae for not falling short in that department!

The plot, from the later beginning to almost the end, is fantastic. It starts off slow, and the format is hard to get used to just because of its variety and unconventionality, but these two characteristics lend to the action later on in the story. Most of the book isn’t really a page turner, but a little over halfway in, it’s impossible to put down. But near the end of the book, another plot twist or two shows up, ruining any chance Illuminae had of being plausible, all for the sake of establishing a trilogy. I probably should have realized this would happen, since practically every YA science fiction novel is part of a trilogy. A villain shows up, but this is hard to believe both because, a) she’s only been mentioned maybe twice previously in the novel and, b) the great thing about Illuminae was the fact that there was no hard-and-fast villain who the characters could fight. This made it more difficult for the characters, but it helped the reader feel more empathetic towards them. Also, for the record, there is absolutely no way whatsoever that Kady and Ezra could have survived the events of the book. Except it’s a trilogy, so I guess they had to.

Please read it. I mean, mostly so I can rant to you about the ending and so we can talk about how cool Kady is. But also because it’s an amazing book with so much to talk about, even considering that part at the end. And with how much Illuminae has been talked about months before its October 20 publication date, you’ll probably be behind the times if you don’t read it.

2 comments

  1. Hey Susannah, I did not know you read this book, too. I totally agree on the love triangle part. It almost exists in every book written by younger authors. This is also one of the reasons why I LOVED this book!!!

  2. Awesome review! I loved the bit about the no love triangle, so happy to hear it because I LOATHE them and I really want to read this book.
    And you are absolutely right, triangles are just a seriously lazy way of bringing drama to the main romance. Ugh, I wish they would just stop.

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