Ratings165
Average rating4.4
5 stars
Was confused throughout the beginning and part of the end of this book, yet I can't help but give it five stars because whenever it began to make sense, it left me speechless. So fucking good. Takes a while to get used to the new characters but when you do, it's just amazing. Absolutely loved it. I was literally fooled around fifty million times in this book, like I can't believe it just kept happening and I just kept believing it every single time. Highly recommend this series. If you're in doubt about reading it, just do it, man! Just do it! It will be worth it.
As in the first book in the series, incredibly and unbelievably skilled and courageous teenagers fight against impossible odds to save ... well ... everything. This story features lots of action, violence, death, and plot twists. The pace never lets up. There is also a bit of young romance.
The audiobook is a very well done multi-voiced performance.
Be warned that the story neither begins nor ends with this book.
4.5 stars.
WOW!! Just WOW!! Space. Explosions. Multiverse theory. AI. Messed up people. Amazing relationships. Crazy drug inducing worm killers. Plot twists a plenty! I JUST LOVED IT!!
And now for some coherent thoughts....
This continues to be one of the most unique book series I've ever read. The format took a little while to get used to when I started the first book but quickly became completely engrossing. I love the attention to detail on every single page, the illustrated journal entries add an extra dimension from the first book making it feel more personal and bringing you closer to the characters.
I liked how this book linked back to the first, whilst it starts with new characters and a new scenarios the plot progresses to include characters from the previous book and link the two plots.
I loved the new characters and hated the new bad guys so much!! I especially loved Nik, he's just everything in this book.
Onto the next!!
I'm beyond blown away.
Absolutely loved this book and CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on the third book. I'm so glad I waited to read it until the third book was released.... unfortunately I still have to wait T_T
Was surprised it focused on a different couple, but it made so much sense.
Let's crank the music up and get started, shall we? Yes, we shall.
I'm afraid, we will need to keep this one short, as it's quite impossible to review the second book in the series without spoiling too much the first one.
For some unthinkable reason, I was a bit reluctant to start this book. So, I read 32 pages on the first day, nothing on the second and yesterday I started and couldn't stop until it was 5 am and I turned the last page. Well, I can get crazy like that.
The one important thing you need to know - if you liked Illuminae, you would definitely love this one too. At a times, Gemina has a feel of very twisted and a lot bloodier Home Alone movie (yeah, the one with Kevin and Christmas). But there was no Christmas tree and much more drama. But I loved it anyway. Well, I don't even want to know what that says about me :)
At first, I missed Kady and Ezra a lot (well, first 40 pages maybe?). But the new characters just kept growing on me. They were just so not what they look like at the first glance. Believe me, I was not a fan of them at the beginning. But there was nothing that could've stopped me admiring them later.
Two more things, that are worth mentioning are humour and art. The book made me laugh in some really dire situations for the characters. And art (especially Hanna's Journal) was just beautiful.
So where that leaves me? Well, I'm right here. All ready and a bit scared to start the last book.
I jumped into this one immediately after finishing book #1. As with book #1 - I listened to this one in the car while on a roadtrip. Audiobook version is done with a full cast with added sound effects (very effective, btw - plays out like a radio drama). I absolutely adored #1 - I loved this one, too - only a teeny bit less... probably partially because I was so invested in the characters from the first book - and book #2 involves a different cast of characters (mostly) as the story takes place on a different space vessel. I was initially somewhat put off by the drug cartel/ drug use aspect of the story - it seemed like a random element tossed in (and as it's a YA book...). But - like all the bits of the story - as with #1 - everything in the story is there for a reason and will be an important element later on in the book. If you're reading - don't skim over the images and diagrams. It's all important.
o5/o4/2o17
Finally I have this juicy baby in my hands ♥ It's so good to flip these pages full of good stuff ___
Now I regret I read Illuminae's ebook version. I feel like I need the paperback to re-read it RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THE GRAPHIC DESIGN IS SO GORGEOUS AND NOW I KNOW THE EBOOK WAS A LITTLE SHIAT!!!!
Read 21~23/o4/2o17
Little personal recap: Ok, at the end I obviously bought Illuminae too (can you see how can I be so dumb?) and I jumped right on it as soon as I got it because I wanted to re-read it in order to get on the feels train once again before getting on the highly hyped Gemina. Little recap is over
I seriously have mixed feelings right now. 😵
I don't know, I feel almost disappointed at the moment. I was hyping so much over this book because of all those positive reviews (most of them saying Gemina was way better than Illuminae), so at the end I'm here feeling guilty because I didn't like it as much as I would have wanted 😢
I still liked it, mind you, but during the whole reading process I felt like it was lacking something. I mean, Illuminae had those zombie-likes and a darker and scarier tone in it.. And above all, THOSE PLOT TWISTS OMG they made me feel deceived and gave me chills for days (a lot less during the re-read obvs since I already knew what was going to happen, duh). While in Gemina, well.. Yeah. The only fat plot twist was predictably at the end of the book but it didn't give me the same emotions that those in Illuminae previously did 😪
Anywhoooo, I think it still deserves four stars (with a little extra) BUT I honestly hope Obsidio will be STUNNING and reasonably FLAWLESS because I deserve it, k? 💁
Re-read 16/o3~o7/o4/2o18
Well, I planned to re-read Illuminae and Gemina before Obsidio's releasing date and it was all happiness and excitement until freaking Amazon told me that Obsidio wasn't available (excuse you, I've ordered it almost one year ago. How could that be?! Tell me if it happened to you before, because it can't be.) and has been postponing the shipment for, like, almost a month now. SO. I don't want to make excuses (yeah, right 😂), but as the time passed I've lost interest in reading Gemina because I was feeling depressed and I've wanted to burn the books with my house along with them lmao
Anywhooooooo, beside that, I've read almost half of the book in one sitting today and I have to say that I liked it more than the first time I've read it 💙
So, well, I guess I will change my rating to 5 stars because I feel good. And, who knows? Maybe making some good I will get some good in return (➡️Obsidio will
be shipped in a couple of days⬅️ maybe? I'm delusional, I know. The shipment date is still a mystery and I'm so angry rn sgrunt) 😁
lol why did I have this book at 4 stars? This is like my favorite book. Don't hack me or anything but my password at work may or may not involve the word “Hanna” in it.
I know it says I've read this once, but actually probably have read this book like 5 times if you count how many times I randomly put on the audiobook on at night and pretend I'm Hanna Donnelly.
draws heart eyes all over the book
(Full review to come.)
FULL REVIEW:
Ho-lee shit. This book. Where do I even start with how incredibly, mind-blowing-ly amazing Gemina was?
Much of [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661] was about trying to survive so that the passengers could make it to the space station/wormhole guardian Heimdall. Gemina picks up where Illuminae left off—except from the perspective of some of the people at Heimdall. Our main protagonists are Hanna and Nik; Hanna is the rich daughter of Heimdall's commander and Nik is part of a gang known as the House of Knives. Two very different people with very different social circles, though that doesn't stop Nik from flirting mercilessly with Hanna, and neither does the fact she has a boyfriend.
Of course, those everyday details become pretty irrelevant when everything goes to hell.
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Gemina when I picked it up—mostly because I pre-ordered it after reading Illuminae and didn't read anything about what it was about (since, you know, I knew I was reading it no matter what). What I did expect was what I'd gotten from Illuminae: loads of action and twists, a very high body count, and edge-of-your-seat type pacing. Also probably something about Heimdall.
Gemina is all of that and more.
There are very few books that make me exclaim out loud, and Gemina can take the crown on “book I swore out loud the most while reading.” It's hard for me to say too much without spoiling, so what I'll say is this: I ripped through the pages like nothing else (except Illuminae), the sequel absolutely lived up to the incredible first book, and I need the final book of the trilogy yesterday. Basically, I intend to continue to tell people to read it or else.
Diversity note: Of the main cast of characters there isn't a ton—both Hanna and Nik (our protagonists) are white, cishet, able-bodied, etc. One of the major non-protagonist characters, however is disabled (uses a wheelchair and needs an oxygen mask 24/7), which was good to see. If there's anything I have to request out of book three it's that we see more diversity rep with the protagonists, please!
az elején többször sarokba akartam hajítani az olvashatatlan oldalak miatt, de végül átverekedtem magam rajta és az a helyzet, hogy jobb lett, mint az első kötet (amire egyébként igazából tökre nem is emlékszem azon kívül, hogy “look at it wiggle”...).
4.5/5 stars. I'm in love with Gemina and wish I could experience it for the first time again. Amie and Jay blew my mind with this book.
Let's start off with the characters and their dialogue. I'll be honest, I hated Hanna and Nik in the first 100 pages. The characters screamed cliche to me, cliche in a way that wasn't even done well. I should've expected it as the characters were marketed as “Hanna is the station captain's pampered daughter, Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family,” but I just had such high hopes that Amie and Jay could pull it off. Then they did. I don't know what exactly the turning point was where I started to enjoy the characters, but if it weren't for surveillance footage guy making his appearance early on in the book I probably would've put it down and saved the read for a day where I could tolerate originally off-putting and overly flirtatious/try hard dialogue. Originally, anytime Hanna spoke to Nik, I felt almost out of place and it seemed very forced from the authors. It felt like they were trying to create characters that shouldn't even be speaking to each other (they couldn't even pulloff the forbidden love trope). Nik would constantly flirt in an almost self-deprecating way since he was aware he didn't have a chance of actually being with her. Nik felt much more fleshed out than Hanna even though it feels like we see more of her throughout the book. Maybe it's because Nik was expanded on more through text rather than drawings? This isn't to say that Hanna was a flat character because she was certainly far from that. She was a complete badass and I would say her and Ella are our true heroes (go ladies!). Ella was such a fresh character and didn't let her disabilities hinder her. She's hilarious and strong in so many ways.
Similar to Illuminae I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book. There were some similarities but it felt completely different and I loved it. Hanna's journal and her drawings were one of my favorite things about this book, Marie Liu did an amazing job with it. I also like the small touches on the whisperNET - the NETbar specifically with friends online, a newsfeed, and diary and appointments (Nik has the best ones). This book does a great job of expanding the Illuminae universe and does so in a way that's easy to follow. There's also drawings early on in the book that really show you Heimdall and the systems around it to give you an idea of things. Hanna and Nik's accompanying pages near the end of the book were done so well and reminded me of Replica's format. I'm really happy it found a way to differentiate itself from Illuminae. It was so much more creative than I imagined, after Illuminae I thought it would be practically similar. The pages with blood are still haunting me.
I love the plot. The story was great, it was like die-hard but in space. The cat and mouse chase they had going on worked really well, I just wish they played on the “alien predators” a bit more. I felt that I kind of just ended out of nowhere, maybe I need to re-read it? Towards the end Illuminae characters make an appearance and really tie book 1 and 2 together. Kady and Ezra ♡
Illuminae completely blew my mind, but Gemina was just a good read. I liked Hanna and Nik separately but didn't buy them as a couple in love. And I didn't think the plot was as strong as Illuminae either until the very end (when the title started to make sense). At times it felt like a video game with the cartoonish bad guys being X'd out a few at a time. Still loved the unique presentation and formatting (don't read this on your phone!) Here's hoping that the trilogy will end on a strong note.
I'm probably in the minority here, but for me this was not as amazing as the first book. I still absolutely loved it but it did not leave me with that same feeling. I still want to listen to the audiobook to see if that changes my opinion.