Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff #Bookreview

Title: Illuminae
Series: Illuminae Files #1
Author: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published Date: October 20th, 2015
Genre: Science Fiction, YA, Future
Page Count:608
Format: Hardcover

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
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.

BRIEFING NOTE: 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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 My Review:

“Are you afraid?"
"Yes."
"Energy never stops, remember. It just changes forms."
"I am still afraid.”   

In the year 2575 Kady and Ezra live on something that shouldn't exist, and that no one knows about. Or at least that's what everyone thought. Until suddenly one day they are attacked and their whole world falls apart, add a breakup between Kady and Ezra, missing parents, and countless friends/family dead. They are both pretty shaken up and now separated onto two different space ships trying to get away from the company that attacked them.
Ezra ends up becoming a pilot in order to help the new ship he is a part of, and Kady refuses to use her amazing computer skills for the new ships they work on.
On the new ships things start going very wrong, very fast. Which ends up bringing the two characters back together, or is it really even Ezra and Kady? That's the confusing part, and I'm still not exactly sure which one was the villain talking at times and which one was our main characters.

“I am frequently underestimated. I think it's because I'm short.”   

Kady ends up finding out things that are happening that have been kept from everyone and then, decideds to do something incredibly stupid, in order to save the last person she thinks she has. This is when I couldn't put the book, down and I had to find out if she was going to be okay, or not. (yes I know there's two other books, but they could have been following another character.) Also all of the other characters I grew attached to as well and when things would happen to them it was sad. Heck, I even liked all the witty banter of the villain for a change.

“They are beyond me.

These humans.
With their brief lives and their tiny dreams and their hopes that seem as fragile as glass.
Until you see them by starlight, that is.”  

Overall I absolutely loved this book. I did find the format of it a little confusing at first, but once I had gotten the audiobook to go along with it. It got so much better. If you can I highly recommend getting the physical book and the audiobook at the same time. Not only does the audiobook have different voices for every character, but sound effects as well for when things are happening like the computer booting up, etc.
This book is surprisingly worth all of the hype surrounding it, which I was rather shocked to find out considering how much this had been advertised and talked about. I can't wait to read the next book and see what happens next!

“What you do when stuff like this happens is you LIVE, you survive it, that's how you honour the ones you lost.”