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A review by ausfangirlreads
Gemina by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
5.0
*Reread March 2018*
I decided to listening to this as an audiobook, just to make sure I finished my reread on time and all I can say is the audiobook was AMAZING!!
I loved this book the first time I read it and it was still the same listening to it, I love this book and am so excited to read Obsidio (which just arrived at my door this afternoon!)
I don't know if my feeling are ready for the final book.
*First Read December 2016*
Warning!! – This review contains spoilers If you have not read the books please do not read on!
AIDAN: It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.
Donnelly, H: …You’re kind of an asshole, you know that, right?
I would like to start this review with a personal message to both Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff….
COME ON GUYS! I LOVE YOU BOTH, YOUR WORK IS AMAZING AND YOU’RE BOTH VERY TALENTED BUT MY EMOTIONS ARE A WRECK! On that note I would also like to say that Gemina was amazing!
The story like the first book is told via a stack on files, this ranges from instant messenger conversations, surveillance footage reports & even reports from the murderous A.I. AIDAN. Although Gemina was different from Illuminae as it had hand drawn illustrations from the talented Marie Lu and they are amazing, when starting the book I had an idea of how the characters looked but actually seeing them was perfect and made me loving the character easier. Which in turn made it easier for Amie and Jay to rip my heart from my chest any chance they got, I totally don’t have trust issues now, thanks guys.
As always the story was expertly crafted, making sure all the twists and subtle hints were included at the perfect times. There were many times while reading when I got Doctor Who vibes and I also think I saw a Firefly reference amongst the pages which made me smile like an idiot. The range of documents in Gemina made following the story easy, as well as let the authors be creative with page layout. At one point I had the book upside down and was spinning it slowing just so I could follow the story. Now that is how you get your audience involved in a book.
The story follows Hanna Donnelly & Niklas (Nik) Malikov as they work together to try and save everyone on the Heimdall from BeiTech invaders, who’s plan consists of destroying Heimdall, the Hypatia & everyone breathing on both.
Let’s talk about the characters for a second, I loved them! Just like Illuminae I loved the lead characters Hanna and Nik. Hanna at the beginning seemed like a bit of a flirt and that did annoy me a little, but as the story went on I found that the flirting was just Hanna being sassy. Hanna is a strong, funny, smart and sassy girl who would do anything to protect those she loves. Her character develops as the story goes on and by the end she is stronger and smarter than when she started.
Nik. Well what can I say about Nik? He is a sweet, caring guy, with a lot of sass and who would do anything for the ones he loves, which he has shown by taking the blame and jail time for his younger brother’s crime. I will admit that from the beginning I was batting for Nik to end up with Hanna, I liked Jax (Jackson) at the beginning, until he became a butt! But Nik just seemed so sweet and such a teasing, annoyingly sweet guy, that I had no choice in the matter, my heart was set and my OTP ship (or space ship. HA I’m hilarious!) had sailed.
Near the end of the book we get to see some of our favourite characters from Illuminae, Kady Grant, Ezra Mason, Syra Boll & the murderous A.I. himself AIDAN. Now I am going to be totally honest when I say I lost it when I realised that AIDAN was doing some of the surveillance camera reports and then when he came in talking to Syra saying…
O Captain, My Captain.”
Well I lost it even more! I know he was supposed to be the villain in Illuminae, but I have such a soft spot for him.
The ending of Gemina made me laugh, cry, cry harder, curse and then laugh some more, I was so happy with how it finished and in response to Hanna Donnelly’s question from the final page, “You wanna know how it ends?” my response is YES!!!!
I hate that I have to wait until next year to get the final book and see how it all ends. Amie and Jay are both amazing writers who have a habit of making their books bigger and bigger so I’m expecting this last book to be huge and for it to be packed with as much action, sass and laugh out loud moments as the first two books.
Gemina was one of my Top reads of this year and even though I waited a few months after release to read it, I was not disappointed.
Rating: 5/5 stars- Amazing! I loved it!
Happy reading everyone!
Jessica.
I decided to listening to this as an audiobook, just to make sure I finished my reread on time and all I can say is the audiobook was AMAZING!!
I loved this book the first time I read it and it was still the same listening to it, I love this book and am so excited to read Obsidio (which just arrived at my door this afternoon!)
I don't know if my feeling are ready for the final book.
*First Read December 2016*
Warning!! – This review contains spoilers If you have not read the books please do not read on!
AIDAN: It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.
Donnelly, H: …You’re kind of an asshole, you know that, right?
I would like to start this review with a personal message to both Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff….
COME ON GUYS! I LOVE YOU BOTH, YOUR WORK IS AMAZING AND YOU’RE BOTH VERY TALENTED BUT MY EMOTIONS ARE A WRECK! On that note I would also like to say that Gemina was amazing!
The story like the first book is told via a stack on files, this ranges from instant messenger conversations, surveillance footage reports & even reports from the murderous A.I. AIDAN. Although Gemina was different from Illuminae as it had hand drawn illustrations from the talented Marie Lu and they are amazing, when starting the book I had an idea of how the characters looked but actually seeing them was perfect and made me loving the character easier. Which in turn made it easier for Amie and Jay to rip my heart from my chest any chance they got, I totally don’t have trust issues now, thanks guys.
As always the story was expertly crafted, making sure all the twists and subtle hints were included at the perfect times. There were many times while reading when I got Doctor Who vibes and I also think I saw a Firefly reference amongst the pages which made me smile like an idiot. The range of documents in Gemina made following the story easy, as well as let the authors be creative with page layout. At one point I had the book upside down and was spinning it slowing just so I could follow the story. Now that is how you get your audience involved in a book.
The story follows Hanna Donnelly & Niklas (Nik) Malikov as they work together to try and save everyone on the Heimdall from BeiTech invaders, who’s plan consists of destroying Heimdall, the Hypatia & everyone breathing on both.
Let’s talk about the characters for a second, I loved them! Just like Illuminae I loved the lead characters Hanna and Nik. Hanna at the beginning seemed like a bit of a flirt and that did annoy me a little, but as the story went on I found that the flirting was just Hanna being sassy. Hanna is a strong, funny, smart and sassy girl who would do anything to protect those she loves. Her character develops as the story goes on and by the end she is stronger and smarter than when she started.
Nik. Well what can I say about Nik? He is a sweet, caring guy, with a lot of sass and who would do anything for the ones he loves, which he has shown by taking the blame and jail time for his younger brother’s crime. I will admit that from the beginning I was batting for Nik to end up with Hanna, I liked Jax (Jackson) at the beginning, until he became a butt! But Nik just seemed so sweet and such a teasing, annoyingly sweet guy, that I had no choice in the matter, my heart was set and my OTP ship (or space ship. HA I’m hilarious!) had sailed.
Near the end of the book we get to see some of our favourite characters from Illuminae, Kady Grant, Ezra Mason, Syra Boll & the murderous A.I. himself AIDAN. Now I am going to be totally honest when I say I lost it when I realised that AIDAN was doing some of the surveillance camera reports and then when he came in talking to Syra saying…
O Captain, My Captain.”
Well I lost it even more! I know he was supposed to be the villain in Illuminae, but I have such a soft spot for him.
The ending of Gemina made me laugh, cry, cry harder, curse and then laugh some more, I was so happy with how it finished and in response to Hanna Donnelly’s question from the final page, “You wanna know how it ends?” my response is YES!!!!
I hate that I have to wait until next year to get the final book and see how it all ends. Amie and Jay are both amazing writers who have a habit of making their books bigger and bigger so I’m expecting this last book to be huge and for it to be packed with as much action, sass and laugh out loud moments as the first two books.
Gemina was one of my Top reads of this year and even though I waited a few months after release to read it, I was not disappointed.
Rating: 5/5 stars- Amazing! I loved it!
Happy reading everyone!
Jessica.