Saturday Spotlight is (soon to become) a weekly feature in which I honor a book, character, or author that’s been on my mind lately.
This is my first attempt at a weekly feature, so bear with me. Even though this is only the first installment of Saturday Spotlight, I get the feeling it’s going to become more of a place of epic fangirling than essays about my love for Shakespeare (although I do love Shakespeare).
I woke up this morning with every intention of writing about an
underrated fantasy novel that made me cry. But as soon as I opened up my laptop, the teeny tiny voice inside my head that’s been whisper-chanting Illuminae, Illuminae, Illuminae since I finished it on Thursday opened up its lungs and started yelling.
So I guess this Saturday
Spotlight is dedicated to Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff’s Young Adult novel about love, death and zombies (kinda) in outer space. To those of you who haven’t yet read Illuminae, do it. Do it now. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted in a book, but better, faster and infinitely more wonderful.
Additionally, Kady is one of the most badass female characters I’ve ever met. Half the time, she’s saving her ex-ex-boyfriend Ezra’s life; the other half she spends hacking into her ship’s classified documents to save the rest of the universe. Not to mention that her hair is pink, which is in its own right pretty awesome.
So in conclusion: space opera, zombies, badass heroine. What more could you want in a book, right? WRONG. THERE’S MORE. Not only is Illuminae told entirely through hacked documents, there’s also a super creepy but kind of lovable robot (Artificial Intelligence thingy) that goes haywire. And for a little while, its database is the narrator.
I dare you to tell me that’s not the most fantabulous narration technique in Sci-Fi.
This book destroyed my life. I haven’t been able to think of anything else since I stopped reading it. It’s the kind of book that you want to throw against a wall once you’re finished. But in a good way.
(AND THE SEQUEL ONLY COMES OUT IN 2016. Kill me now.)
ALL THINGS AMY 