Book Review - Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Title: Illuminae

Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Publication Date: October 20, 2015

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 599 pages

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

My Thoughts:

This book is a definite departure from what I normally read and review. The main strike against it is that it's a YA novel - not something I'm particularly into at the ripe old age of  28. BUT! I'm a sucker for epistolary novels and novels that include documents to further the story, so the format of this one really called to me. I almost hate to admit it, but I enjoyed this book way more than I had anticipated. 

It starts off pretty stereotypically YA - Kady is a 17-year-old girl who has just broken up with her boyfriend, Ezra. But the reader only gets a page or two of existential teenaged angst before the planet comes under attack and Kady and Ezra are literally running for their lives. In their escape, they end up on two separate vessels within the same fleet - Kady on the research vessel Hypatia, and Ezra on the main battleship Alexander. As they attempt to reconnect, fear and conspiracies run rampage through the fleet. 

This novel does have a romance element, which normally is one of my main annoyances with reading YA. But I LIKED Kady and Ezra. They actually communicated, they seemed genuinely to care for each other and tried to act in sensible ways, and most importantly: no love triangle bullshit! And while the romance is definitely there, it isn't the main meat of the plot. No, the plot centers on a psychotic AI that would put HAL2000 to shame, fast zombies in space, biochemical warfare, and soooo much conspiracy. It may sound like a lot to have going on in one novel, and it is, but it all jives perfectly. I found myself completely engrossed, and there were more than a few twists and turns to the plot that I definitely did not see coming. 

While there were a few inconsistencies with the plot, especially when it came to timelines for the Phobos virus (probably my biggest issue with the novel, but I'm willing to overlook it to an extent), overall I really, really loved reading this book. Its format is fantastically unique, and though it borrows from different sci-fi tropes, it absolutely succeeds in making them its own. This is the best YA novel I've read in a very, very long time and I can't wait to see what the rest of the series has in store!