Illuminae is the most unique book I’ve ever read in my life. A collective effort of thoughtful graphic design, excellent writing and an insane, immersive format makes this book a must-read. Even though there are a lot of mixed opinions on this book, the formatting alone makes it at least worth a try. The story of Illuminae is told through hacked communication logs, pamphlets, lab records, diary entries and much more. Here is my book review for Illuminae (Illuminae Files 1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. 

In Illuminae, we follow Kady Grant and Ezra Mason, two ex-lovers and refugees of the annihilated planet Kerenza. On the day of their break-up, Kady and Ezra’s world turns upside down when their planet is bombed and destroyed. Both of them manage to get out with their lives intact, but the same cannot be said of their families.

The two are sent to separate ships – Kady to the Hypatia, a science vessel, and Ezra to the Alexander, a battle vessel. In the isolation of the ships, alone amidst the endlessness of space, Ezra and Kady have to navigate grief for their families along with the heartbreak of losing each other. 

Kady, restless for answers, is determined to find out the truth of what really happened. She uses her programming skills to hack into various ship communication systems (a lot of what we read is hacked by Kady). However, as she unravels the mystery, she realizes that the person she feels the most hurt by is the only one who can help her. Ezra Mason. 

Space is a place where not many can hear your cries. Kady’s problems don’t end there, as a deadly virus breaks out across the ships, the ship’s AI goes haywire and she finds out the higher command are hiding something that could kill them all. 

And it seems far too many are content to stay in the dark. 

While reading this book, I felt like I was having a full, one-of-a-kind experience.  The story was interesting by itself, but what made this book stand out is the care and beauty with which it was formatted. Somehow, the writers found a way to convey each piece of information through the perfect source. Shipboard alarms, command logs, surveillance footage, diary entries and more told the story of Illuminae. 

I’ve never read a book like this before, so I was fascinated with how carefully crafted each page was. Every detail on the paper was intentional and interesting to examine. I would stop reading many times to flip back to a previous page and notice details I haven’t seen before. I’m filled with admiration for how ambitious this project is – it’s triple the work, but it’s so worth it. 

Despite popular opinion, I liked Kady as a character. The formatting of this book makes it harder to see characters’ inner thoughts and personality, but Kady shined on the page. I really liked her – I admired her resolve, determination, and amidst it all, her ordinariness. Kady was talented at hacking – the author could have easily made her a Mary Sue, conquering all her problems… without any problems. 

However, she was so… normal. She struggled and relied on other people’s help, and often, she failed. Her ability never overshadowed her character and made her “overpowered”. Amidst deadly diseases, “insane” AIs and interstellar combat, Kady was still somebody I could relate to. She had a lot of flaws as a character: she was overconfident, rebellious and avoidant. However, that made her all the more human.

Aidan, the ‘insane artificial intelligence’ was one of my favorite characters. If you haven’t read the book yet, you can skip this section. ( I will be talking about Aidan’s character development, something you might want to find out for yourself.)  I thought AIDAN was brilliantly written, vast and incomprehensible to us but desperate to understand human thought. To get closer to being ‘human’, even. ‘It’ made callous decisions which, to it, were logical calculations. (I genuinely don’t remember if AIDAN has a gender. I mean, it’s a computer, right?) Despite how I longed to blame Aidan, I could not – how can you judge something (someone?) that you do not even understand?

I loved all the sections with Aidan, too – its voice was really one of a kind.  Calculating and logical but caring and deeply human. Characters like Aidan are difficult to write, because they are difficult to comprehend. 

The way this book was formatted allowed for a lot of brilliant, chilling creepy scenes. Honestly, I would say those were my favorite parts of the book. We got to see lab reports slowly descend into gibberish and paranoia, pleas scrawled over and over on children’s pamphlets and much, much more. The deadly virus outbreak was my favorite component of this book – I honestly wanted more of it. 

I don’t know why, but it was a bit too cheesy for me. Obviously, it was a crucial aspect of the book, but it was a little too predictable. Because of the formatting of the book, we don’t see how Ezra and Kady’s love bloomed or even get a chance to root for their love story. Almost straight away, we’re plunged into proclamations of love, text message flowers and declarations of undying affection. Overall, their dynamic was nothing but teenagers in love. 

Illuminae is a book that you have to experience at least once in your life. This book has one-of-a-kind formatting that bypasses everything we’ve learned to expect from books and a riveting story-line. Its graphic design is thoughtful, meaningful and peppered with clues. I savored every page because each was so beautiful. Illuminae does follow some cliches and has cheesy moments, but overall it’s a gorgeous and well-written book.