Genre: Young Adult- Science Fiction
Publication Date: 2015
Page Count: 599
Rating: 4/5
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Theme Spotlight: Books with a Unique Form
Kady Grant's planet has just been invaded. Kady Grant has also just broken up with her boyfriend hours before her planet is invaded. Now Kady's whole life is turned upside down as she and other civilians must flee for their lives from their attackers and find out who their real enemies are.
This is such a cool book. I'm sure you have seen pictures of the inside of the book and how it is told through a series of documents, instant messages, maps, surveillance video summaries, and more. The structural concept of this book is what really pulled me in, as this is not something I would have normally picked up as I don't read a lot of science fiction. I love books with unique formats because they create such a unique reading experience. This book really sucked me in and the multiple forms that the story was told through kept the pace super quick. I loved the art pieces in this novel and the poetry in the writing and physical layout of the words at times. I loved seeing the story from all angles because of the multiple points of view and organizing the information right alongside Kady.
This book actually reminded me quite a bit of The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. I agree, their plots have nothing in common on the surface level, but thematic wise they certainly do. In both novels, the resilience and strength of humanity is examined and admired by a non-human entity. I think this is a great way to examine this theme and I really like how both novels do it. If you liked Death's narration and wonder at humanity, you will enjoy ADIAN who is an artificial intelligence program. I enjoyed Kady as a character, she's a teenage, female computer hacking genius, and I'm happy that she will be returning for the sequel- which already has a name and gorgeous matching cover I suggest you check out.
I did feel that this started to drag on a bit in the middle, which keeps me from giving it five stars, but the format made it easy for me to stay engaged and interested in the story. I highly recommend at least flipping through this book in the bookstore if you don't intend to read it, because it is such a cool format concept and something that really highlights the advantages of a physical book over other formats.
I'll be checking out the next two books in this trilogy as soon as they are released, and I will also be looking into more of Jay Kristoff's works, so let me know if you have recommendations for me. I'm also interested to hear your recommendations of books with a unique format.
P.S. This is my 500th post on the blog! :) Thanks for reading guys
Congrats on your 500th post! I have a copy of this book and need to dig it out. I bought because of the unique way of telling the story and then proceeded to put it in the closet, literally. I'll try to read it soon.
ReplyDeletehaha hope you can dig it out of the closet soon! It was really enjoyable and I am looking forward to the sequel. I thought the format was done very well.
DeleteThanks for stopping by!