The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Overall rating: 4,5/5 More than 17 months after the release of Gemina,Obsidio finally came out. Obsidio was my most anticipated release of the year, and it absolutely delivered. It was the perfect conclusion to the great, and very popular, series: The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. If you’ve been in a bookstore in the last three years, you have most certainly noticed it especially if you are a connoisseur of the YA section. It is impossible to miss with its thickness (600+ pages for each novel), the mix of black and white pages, and the colourful sheer dusk jacket. Nothing looks quite like it. Personally, I think it is well worth the 30 CAD$ for the hardcover because the extra money should go to pay the illustrators and graphic designers that worked so hard to make this book beautiful. Obsidio was the perfect conclusion to this series, and you will no doubt see it in my tops of 2018. Like I recently did with The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater, you will notice that this is my general opinion of the series instead of a book by book review. If you are interested in having more in-depth thoughts about each book see the links below! The Illuminae Files #1 Illuminae
The Illuminae Files #2 Gemina (with illustrations by Marie Lu)
The Illuminae Files #3 Obsidio (with illustrations by Marie Lu)
The best part of the whole series is the format. If you were intrigued about the book when you saw it sitting on the shelves, then hopefully your curiosity pushed you to open it up and see that the inside is nothing like you have ever seen before. The story is not narrated through the usually prose, it is told entirely in security camera transcripts, chatroom exchanges, emails, post-it notes… basically any form of communication that we leave unconsciously whether we realize it or not. In some way, it shows that all of us leave a small trace in the universe. Something that can always be traced back to us even when we don’t think we matter at all in the grand scheme of things. The overall concept is that all these little bits of information all constitutes the “Illuminae Files” which are presented as evidence in front of a court for BeiTech’s trial for the invasion of Kerenza IV. Now, you might be worried. If the whole story is told through dialogues with limited space for descriptions, how will you understand what’s happening, how the ships are built, how the world got destroyed… While those concerns are valid, have no fear! You can easily understand what is going on through the discussions, especially through transcripts of video surveillance cameras which essentially read like a normal novel. You get the more poetic aspect unexpectedly through AIDAN, the AI in control of the ship, and through the graphic designs or drawings which tell a lot more about the characters' feelings than words sometimes. I think this format is simply genius. It completely breaks down the barriers of what a novel is: is it just the art of telling a story with words? Does it have a specific structure? It is also much more approachable than a "normal" novel especially if you are trying to get into reading. The photos and funky designs make the reading so entertaining. Even if it seems lengthy at first sight, about a third of the pages are all artsy designs or drawings so there isn’t that much writing even if the book is thick. Since the structure is so strange, you might also wonder how Kaufman and Kristoff managed to fit such an insane plot in not that many letters. At first, I admit, I was confused especially in Gemina. At some point, there are too many ships to remember and what their capacity is, who is on board… However, I am not sure a different structure would've changed much about that. Actually, I think that if I looked more carefully at the illustrations, particularly the battle plans or maps of the interior of the ships, I would've understood everything more clearly. This issue is not really present in Illuminae or Obsidio since the first one is not as complex and the third is a flawless piece of art. The plot does evolve nicely with many twists and turns that will shock you. I did not predict any of it. I also loved how Kristoff and Kaufman don’t sugar-coat war at all. Particularly in Obisdio, we see mass murders and plans for genocide. There are deaths by the thousands. It truly feels as if they are fighting a real war where the villains are inside and outside or worse, undiscovered (arguably, I don’t know anything about real war, but that’s what I imagine it might feel like). I will say that the authors repeat one small trick at the ending of Illuminae andObsidio, without spoiling, let’s just say that I hate when authors can’t stick with killing off a character and have to bring them back alive. Every novel introduces a different pair of characters who are all (guess?) romantically involved (shock!) So yes, there is romance in The Illuminae Files, but it is not the focus of the story. Every couple gets their moment in the spotlight during “their” novel like Kady and Ezra in Illuminae, and Hannah and Nik in Gemina… so in the next novels, their love story is not nearly as important as the new guys’. It’s just a light sprinkle of romance. As for the characters themselves, I think some improvements could have been made. They are all very well fleshed-out, but the girls blend all together. Kady, Hannah and Asha are strikingly similar. They are all badass girls with a lot of courage and inner strength. They all fight for the same cause, and I struggled to find singular traits for each of them. However, Ella stands apart. She is a genius hacker with so much sass she made me laugh out loud multiple times. For the boys, they are all unique individuals. I appreciated that most of them are in touch with their emotions (or develop the ability to be). They break the stereotypes of the manly man that does not know how to show love, who needs to be strong all the time. They show fear and sadness, and it is truly refreshing and a model to follow for young boys. I could see Kaufman and Kristoff pulling a Tahereh, a Stiefvater or a Lauren Kate and coming out with a new set of three books in a couple years to turn this in a 6+ books series. However, I like the way it ended for now. The Illuminae Files was undoubtedly a risk. There were so many ways that it could’ve backfired, and I am impressed some editors even took the chance on this project. I am so glad they did. I doubt that we will much more novels like these in the future, but I do not mind. Let’s keep pushing authors to come out of their comfort zone and always figure out a way to do more. I applaud the authors for their creativity and their audacity, it was truly a tour de force.
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