Illuminae takes place in the future and is about a 17-year-old girl named Kady whose planet is invaded. The people of the planet are put on spaceships to get to safety as the enemy is in pursuit and deadly. Unfortunately, the ships face many more obstacles than just a warship trying to kill them. The book is formatted in a very unique way. The entire story is told through interviews, texts, audio written down, and surveillance footage. There are also entire pages that are images. Illuminae is a great book, but does it have the story and characters to support it?
The plot felt kind of underdeveloped to me. There wasn’t a clear goal for the first part of the book and then once there was one, the big conflict that was somewhat anticlimactic. I still, however, enjoyed the story. I really liked the ending though. Kaufman and Kristoff did a great job of wrapping everything up in a satisfying ending. Kady was a hilarious and enjoyable protagonist. She is strong and brave and makes you root for her. She is such a funny character. Even though her situation sucked, she handled the stress and pressure with humor which is something I love in a character.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It wasn’t a five star book because of the plot and the fact that it sometimes dragged; however, it was decent. The concept and formatting were outstanding though. If you love sci-fi and overall cool books, I definitely recommend picking it up.
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