Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

41 reviews

lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I found a copy of this book at a library bookstore, and knew I wanted to pick it up. 
“Illuminae” is a mixed media, sci-fi novel that follows a character named Kady. In the year 2575, Kady’s planet has been invaded, and she must make the decision to evacuate. Unfortunately, the ship that she is on is being chased by the invaders. Even more unfortunately, there is a plague that has broken out on the ship and is mysteriously killing everyone on board. Now, Kady is going to have to work together with her ex-boyfriend, Ezra, to not only survive, but try to get to the bottom of what is going on so that she can save her people.
I was very excited and interested to read this book because I knew it was a mixed media style YA. I really enjoy novels that are mixed media, because I think it just adds a little something extra to the reading experience, and it makes the story so much more engaging. For a Sci-fi story like this, the mixed media elements were things like transmissions or emails, which added a unique layer to the story, and made the reading experience so much more engaging. I did end up, listening to most of this, as an audiobook, and even that was an incredible reading experience. The audiobook uses sound effects to make the reader feel like they are in the future aboard the ship as well.
At the beginning of this novel, Kady and Ezra break up. Obviously, this would be a challenging situation to go through in general. But with the added high stakes of life or death, Kady’s and Ezra’s break up feels all the more overwhelming. I did really enjoy watching their dynamic and seeing how they could support one another, even if they were not happy with one another in this moment. Just because you break up with someone does not mean you wish them ill-will, and Kady and Ezra are the perfect example of this. It would have been really easy for either one of them just to write off the other, and save them selves. But that is not what happened. This level of maturity was great to see in a YA novel, and I think it is a great example for a younger audience to see.
I really enjoyed following along with  Kady to see what was going on, and why. It very much felt like a mystery that needed to be solved. Once it was fully revealed, what was going on, why, and who was behind it I was quite shocked. I did not see the turn this novel took coming. Because I was surprised by what ended up playing out I think that improved my reading experience all the more.
This novel was originally published in 2015, but I do think it is aging well. I can tell that this is an older story, because it is written in a way that was much more popular years ago. However, I do think the story holds up well, and people can still find enjoyment with it in the present day. 
If you enjoy specifically YA Sci-fi, I definitely think this is worth a read. I will likely continue in this series in the future.
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bookboxbabe's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

why did it take me so long to finally read this??
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ktebs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is an incredible read. It’s formatted very differently than anything else I’ve ever read, which did make me a little nervous. But it is very well done. I appreciate that the book did have a lot of commentary on modern day ideas and concepts. I do also appreciate how much thought went into the accuracy of the science in the book.
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infjkiki's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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bebidocrimes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If the page count wasn't so intimidating, I could see this having had a craze in my school. Or maybe I think spaceships are cooler than others do. The unique formatting feels like a cute gimmick until occasionally It's Not and it's very very intentional and really lends more impact to the story. My small gripes are generally just because it's YA and can be forgiven.
What omnipotent AI is gonna fall in love(?) with a random 17-year-old just because she can code? Who's still using emoticons when texting your savior while you hide from a pack of crazed murderers? Why are the characters putting more emphasis on losing the (ex-)boyfriend and not HER LITERAL ACTUAL MOM??
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peachani's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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kwthor's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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lawbooks600's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Representation: Asian character
Score: Eight out of ten.

I enjoyed The Aurora Cycle from these authors so I decided to give The Illuminae Files a shot to see if it lives up to my expectations. I picked up the first instalment in the series, Illuminae, and glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing. When I closed the final page, it was enjoyable, and made me hope that the next part of the series, Gemina, will be of the same quality, if not better.

It starts with the first people I see, Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, living on a planet which is a company colony until another company destroyed it, killing everyone on there save for a few thousand who hopped on three spaceships to escape from the apocalypse. However, the situation only worsens as an epidemic plagues the ship, its AI, AIDAN, goes rogue, and BeiTech spaceships are still on the hunt to eviscerate the remaining citizens of the colony planet. I don't even know where to begin with Illuminae. But I'll try. For a book whose page count is one page shy of 600, it's fast-paced and enthralling, which ties in to the writing style. Illuminae isn't a book. It's more of a collection of files, including surveillance footage, images of spaceships, Wikipedia-like pages, artwork and DMs among other miscellanies. I liked the realistic teenage dialogue, but not the characters themselves. Finally! Teenagers in Illuminae don't speak like philosophers. They're more accurate to real-life youth. AIDAN developed his character as he turns from a ship commander to a human-like being, which isn't that original but I'll let the authors get away with it, which made me like him the most. I couldn't relate to Kady and Ezra, though. The composition kept making me turn its pages because I never know what I would get on the next page since it's not a predictable wall of text. It could be anything. The conclusion is nail-biting as Kady and AIDAN are the only survivors of the plague, and take down a BeiTech ship, the Lincoln, with the Alexander before escaping to a faraway space station named the Heimdall. There's also a cliffhanger. Wow.
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alphabet_soup_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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clpavain's review against another edition

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dark tense
This is the scariest book I've ever read
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