Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Thoughts at a glance: ***** (It was amazing!)
That morning, Kady Grant broke up with her boyfriend, Ezra Mason. That afternoon, both of them were scrambling for their lives as mega-corporation Bei-Tech bombed and destroyed their tiny planetary settlement.
While Ezra is conscripted as a pilot aboard the battlecarrier Alexander, Kady puts her computer skills to use aboard the science vessel Hypatia as a series of mysterious and suspicious events occur, decreasing the number of survivors at a steady rate: a dangerous virus begins to spread aboard one of the other ships in the fleet, and the Alexander's AI system may be more sentient (and dangerous) than anyone could have imagined. As Kady uses her hacking skills to wade deeper and deeper into the truth, she finds that the fleet's commanders are covering up something huge, and Ezra is all that she has left, as Bei-Tech closes in on them all.
I really wanted to read this book because I'm a BIG fan of Amie Kaufman after reading the Starbound series she co-authored with Meghan Spooner, and I was not disappointed. THIS. BOOK. BLEW. ME. AWAY. IT WAS AMAZING. You KNOW a book is good when you react physically while you're reading it, and then when it's done, you're just sitting there, kerfuffled, totally not sure what to do with your life (aside from writing a blog post, of course).
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| LEVEL RED!!!!! |
If you like your YAF with a heavy dose of Battlestar Galactica and a touch of Silent Hill and 2001: A Space Odyssey, told in a found-footage, Mark-Danielewski-esque format consisting of hacked emails, interviews, transcripts, chat logs, and confidential documents, then you need to read this book.
If you want a racially-diverse cast of characters with women AND men in positions of power, read this book.
If you want a fascinating exploration of humanity and life and death, read this book.
The funny parts made me laugh. The emotional parts made me cry. The suspenseful parts made me clutch a hand to my chest. The plot twists made me gasp as well as fist-pump.
I won't say anything more, because I don't want to spoil it for you and also because I'm having trouble putting into words how much this book blew me away. The mode of storytelling makes it unique, the story itself makes it riveting, and I feel the need to shout it from the rooftops: this book is amazing. You NEED to read this book.