Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
2.5 out of 5 stars.
“Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness.”
Goodreads Description: This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded. The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit. But their problems are just getting started. 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 enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.
Illuminae looked and sounded so awesome when I first heard about it. I kept seeing rave review after rave review. No doubt it got so much hype and still does. I finally picked it up after it sat on my shelves since release day. Much to my surprise it was not that good. What happened to all the awesome things I was hearing about it? All the amazing things? I found it to be the exact opposite of what everyone was saying. I was totally underwhelmed and so bored the majority of the time.
The layout of the book was cool at times, but it was also annoying as well. I didn’t really care for Kady that much. She was really annoying throughout the book. I did really like Ezra. He was one of the main reasons that kept me reading. I wanted to see what happened with him and his journey through trying to survive on the ship. I also kept on reading because of Aidan. Aidan was the most interesting part of the book. I didn’t care about the plague and thought that was boring. Maybe if they talked more about it and the people infected then it could have been a lot more interesting.
This will be a short review, because I’m not sure what else to say. I didn’t love it and it was just an okay read for me. The last 100 or so pages were good, but the 500 pages before that were just “meh”. I wanted to love it so much like everyone else does. I think I just had my expectations set way too high for this one. I didn’t really see any negative reviews about this book before reading it, so I was expecting something epic and it was not. The ending of the book did make me want to possibly check out the next book in the series, but I am not in any rush to get my hands on it and read it though.
Illumine even put my cat to sleep…
How did you feel about Illuminae? Did anyone not enjoy it?
In case you missed it;
Thoughts|| My Kind of Crazy.
Recap|| June.
I hope you have a great day!
socially awkward bookworm. 
I really enjoyed it – BUT I listened to the audio book version, and I’ve said from the beginning I think I liked it better because I heard it instead of read it. I just liked all the story lines. Yeah, there was the kady + ezra thing, but the side stories were the most fascinating I think.
I think I might have loved it more if I listened to the audiobook instead. I think maybe I should give the audiobook a chance and see if I feel any differently about it. It was interesting at times, but it just wasn’t for me. I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed it though!
Enjoyed your review 🙂 Hope you’ll check out my debut novel, THE WAITING ROOM!
Thank you! 🙂 I will definitely go check out your book! 🙂
Oh myyy, this is the first critical review I’ve read of this book, brilliant! 🙂
Thank you! 🙂 I’ve been seeing so many rave reviews about this book and I hadn’t come across any negative ones. I wish I could have loved it like everyone else.
Aww, sorry you didn’t enjoy it! I loved it so much and it quickly became one of my favourites, I’m so excited for the next one! Wishing you luck with your next read 🙂 hopefully you enjoy that one more!
I’m glad to hear that you loved Illuminae. Even though I didn’t love it, I still want to eventually check out the next book. Thanks! 😀
I’ve meaning to read it so days now and I checked out some reviews but yours was the best ive read so far. Great review! x
Thank you! It was hard for me to love it and that sucked because everyone else has loved it so much. I hope when you do get around to reading it, that you like it better than I did!
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I didn’t particularly like it either. Similarly, I thought the format was cool and interesting but it was slow going, the story was completely lost in the different styles and I didn’t care for Kady and Ezra at all. Now in two minds whether to pick up Gemina or not.
I am glad I am not the only one that didnt’ like Illuminae. I’m not sure if I want to read Gemina or not. I keep going back and forth about it. I didn’t like Kady at all, but I did like Ezra.