Illuminae

Despite the ridiculous title, my initial reaction to this was- alright! It reminded me of early BSG. Then, about 300 pages in, I stopped caring. Space battles, imho, are way more fun to watch onscreen than to read. I felt the book began to repeat itself (AIDEN especially). I also have to remove a star because EVERYONE is in love with Kady. Why is it never enough in YA novels for the main love interest to be in love with the female protag? Why does everyone and everyTHING have to be in love with her too. Is that to prove to the reader how lovable she is? Is that how young girls should measure their own worth? Hell no, so why do we see this in fiction all of the time?
Sorry, rant over, but seriously that was one of the plot drags.

Overall, as far as YA Scifi it's not that bad. I really enjoyed the amount of effort that went into the creation of the documents and schematics. Again, I enjoyed it for about 300 pages. With a sharper editing knife, this book would have been a four star read. Here's hoping book two is shorter and more point.