January 28, 2016

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff


Amie Kaufman is at the top of her game right now.  I loved These Broken Stars, but what makes Illuminae so different is this book is dark. It's gritty, bloody and terrible.

It's not often you get a book that makes you seriously question whether or not there will be a good ending.  The format of the book is a dossier of interviews, surveillance footage, etc. Reading in this format didn't take me to long to adjust to and after a while, it all flowed seamlessly.

There is a lot of moral dilemma in this novel.  Whether is AIDAN trying to figure out how best to protect humans on the ship and deciding just who and what he is, to the Captain of the ship trying to do what's best for everyone.  And for being a dossier, it made me feel things.  I almost cried about 2/3 of the way in.

Why does this matter?  Because honestly, a book hasn't made me cry in quite a long time.  I don't know what that says about me... I do know this book also terrified me.  I don't like zombies, but this plague was so much more terrifying.  (DON'T read with your back to the door in a relatively dark room, when you're home alone.  Just a WARNING!)

The visuals were amazing.  There where coffee stains, fingerprints, blood even.  I felt like I was in that place, running alongside Kady or in the mind of AIDAN.

Check it out in our catalog here.

~ Kilie