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Let's Talk!
Review
Let's Talk!: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
1/26/2016Illuminae
Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Pages: 599
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 20th 2015
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. Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.
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(There is honestly so much to talk about so this review may got long.) Illuminae is such a talked about book among the book blogging community and for a really great reason. It had taken me awhile to finally pick up Illuminae but I am so glad I did because it was honesty such a great book. I had pretty high expectations for it because everyone loved it so I was excited to see what it was all about. Illuminae was such an awesome, epic, and suspenseful book. I loved the characters and the wonderful plot it had as well.
I was excited to meet Kady and Ezra when I first the synopsis for this book. I had actually read about twenty pages from the book when I had an eARC of it (Had to stop unfortunately because I couldn't read some of the text because it was so small and I wasn't able to zoom in.) and I went into this book having a small taste of the personality of the characters. But if it's one thing I can say about them, Kady and Ezra definitely have opposite personalities. I feel like they're the "opposites attract" kind of couple. One likes to plan ahead, one just wings it. They are different but they both are such awesome and (in their own way) badass. Both of them care for the other so deeply for each other and think very rationally (sometimes) in certain situations.
A sci-fi novel where a planet was invaded? I'm already excited. Throw in a couple who had just broken up? Where is my money? As if things were already going wrong! Now here! Deal with a betrayal from you AI and plague!
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I was expecting a lot to happen in Illuminae and for it to keep me on my toes. Amie and Jay delivered and omg they gave me two-day shipping when I was supposed to get 5-12 business day shipping. It was so great and definitely exceeded the expectations I had had. Sogoosogoodsogood. Constantly kept me on my toes and wanting to know what happennnsss. I stayed up reading this book and I definitely haven't done that in forever. So many things surprised me, broke my heart, made me excited. Illuminae was really just a rollercoaster of emotions and I am so excited to ride it again in Gemina. (Synopsis, where you at?)
Illuminae is a truly special book because of the way it is told. I had seen pictures of the book before reading it but there is just something special and different. Turning the page to find a spectacular picture made of words was just awesome. The formats this book was told in was really cool as well. Getting to read conversations through chats and emails, reading action scenes through a security feed (It makes more sense if you have read the book) and reports, all of it was just really awesome. There were so many ways that not doing the traditional style could have gone wrong but Amie and Jay pulled it off perfectly.
I gave this book 5 stars because it was such a perfect read. I loved the characters, plot and the whole format of this book.
There is so much to talk about with this book. I mean where do I even start? So many things went on in this book and so many of them were so jaw dropping. I'm going to start with the ending because that was the part of surprised me the most. At this point, I didn't even know if Ezra was still alive (Yay for optimism?) and I was just glad Kady was still alive, even though she was barely even alive. It was just being so caught up with the ending that the reunion was just
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Kady and Ezra are just the cutest and for so long they had been talking about reuniting and how sorry they were for everything that had happened and all of that just was kinda crushed when Aidan said Ezra was dead ya feel? It was that pciture/word thing that showed Ezra and Kady all within the words "Together." I love how Kady sent that to Ezra's mom because IT WAS SO SAVAGE. I finished the book and all I could think of was how savage Kady had been to send his mom that. Kinda like a huge middle finger. Ugh reading that brought so much joy in my life that I didn't even know existed! (It did exist. Illuminae just crushed all of it).
One more on the ending, Kady being the Illuminae group was pretty surprising for me. I really didn't expect them to reveal who this person leaking the files. The text convo where we find out more about Ezra's mom was super surprising as well. I look forward to what part she will play in the next book and if she and Ezra every meet.
The climax was so great as well. You have Kady who is basically dying with a computer program (But am I the only one who thinks Aidan has a crush on Kady? AM I JUST CRAZY ORRR?) and she has saved all these people! She gets into the pod and records all the information about this whole sitaution and just floats. Floats in hopes someone will pick her up. (But thank god they did because I would never read another book again if she just DIED. [Okay, so many I will read again.])
Speaking of Aidan, reading from that small chuck of that book where it was basically from Aidan's point of view was so cool. That section was so different from the rest of the book and just so interesting to read. And it was weird because I had to avoid touching the black pages because fingerprints would have been everywhere if I didn't avoid touching the pages.
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