Tag: Gemina

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman/Jay Kristoff (Book Review)

Kat Impossible22 Comments

Publisher: Knopf Books
Page Count: 615

I may not always be up to date with all the latest book releases, but I really was looking forward to the finale to the Illuminae Files. I previously reviewed Illuminae (review here) and Gemina (review here) on the blog and even though I really struggle with talking about sequels, I could not pass up the chance to rave a little about this one. While there won’t be any spoilers for Obsidio, I do think it’s better if you have read the previous books in the series before continuing on.

I should probably start by saying that I was not one of the many people who hyped Illuminae. I enjoyed reading it, but it was really only during Gemina that I came fully on board with this series. Obviously the format is a lot of fun and the characters definitely grow on you over time, which makes Obsidio such an enjoyable conclusion to it all. Whereas the previous books mostly focused on one couple during the story and only lent cameo roles to the others, Obsidio truly brings it all together. In my opinion, it took away the spotlight from Asha and Rhys a little bit, but not enough to really make me mind since I was already invested in what the other characters were up to.

What I enjoyed most about reading Obsidio was the fact that you really get answers for all your questions. It adds another layer of depth to the characters (AIDAN is still my fave and I won’t back down on that – I have a soft spot for AIs), provides a lot of action, gives you the necessary conclusion, but still doesn’t close the door on this universe forever. It really was a wild roller coaster to read this book and I devoured it in one day, but sometimes I almost wished the stakes were higher or that the consequences were more devastating and lasting. That’s not to say that you won’t have a wide array of emotions coming your way while reading, but that tiny evil voice in the back of my mind just maybe expected even more cruelty (at least targeted towards the main characters). But if I ignore that tiny detail, and that’s really all it is, then it ended absolutely beautifully. I love when my series end as if they were tied up with a neat little bow, making sure I won’t have to worry about the people in it, even if I will always love reading more about their lives.

I realise this is a super short review, but books like this are always best experienced first hand. Just get ready for some hard hitting moral questions and a final adventure that really does the Illuminae Files justice.

Fazit: 4.5/5 stars! A very satisfying conclusion to the Illuminae Files!

Have you read Obsidio or other books in the series? Do you plan to? What are your thoughts?

Gemina by Amie Kaufman/Jay Kristoff (Book Review)

Kat Impossible27 Comments

gemina

Publisher: Knopf Books
Page Count: 608

Gemina is the sequel to Illuminae (click here to read my review) and I was lucky enough to read it with my blogging friend Marie @Drizzle and Hurricane Books! Just like with its predecessor, there was some crazy stuff going on and I was really glad I had someone to freak out with.

This series is incredibly difficult to review without spoiling it. So, I won’t even really attempt to talk about what is going on in terms of plot. Go an experience it for yourself! What I can say, is that I would like to be able to tell you that I was surprised by what happened, but I think Marie can attest to me predicting or sensing that something would happen at least 90% of the time. There is really no way of telling if that was just me or if it was easier to guess now that I knew how the authors worked from what I read in Illuminae, but it was still full of twists and turns and I had a lot of fun!

I actually liked Gemina better than Illuminae somehow. I clicked with the new characters way faster, but fear not, our old heroes and villains make plenty of appearances. And while I still am not able to see the entire big picture here, I love how everything is connected. It’s quite a massive book, but the format just makes it so much easier to breeze through the whole thing in very little time. There were less schematics and more doodles and sketches from a journal, which helped me personally a lot. I think that I got confused with all the different ships last time around. However, I still think that it’s a shame they don’t offer the book in colour. I would definitely be willing to pay more for a chance to have it really be even more astounding.

While, as I said, I enjoyed the format again, there were also a couple things about it I had issues with. For one, a couple of the last chapters felt incredibly repetitive for reasons I cannot go into detail with. It was fun and made sense at first, but it simply dragged on for too long and I was actually happy when that part of the story was over. And second, it sometimes was printed in such a dark colour on dark background that it was near impossible to read (seriously! WHYYY?). I get that that’s sometimes on purpose, but not in a regular chat room conversation. Maybe I had a weirdly printed version, but if that’s a general issue, they should definitely work on that for the finale.

Speaking of which – I cannot wait to see what this all leads to and how it ends for all those characters that have really grown on me!

Fazit: 4.5 stars! It was even better than Illuminae, which I so didn’t expect. I AM READY FOR THE FINALE!

4stars

Now that I’ve successfully said basically nothing about the book, how do you feel? Have you read Gemina already? Are you going to?