Rating: 4/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 Kerenza is an illegal mining colony that not too many people know about. When it is attacked by a corporation called BeiTech, Kady and her ex-boyfriend Ezra must struggle to board the three spacecraft that fought BeiTech and are taking in any survivors - the Alexander, Hypatia and Copernicus. The Alexander is too damage to warp away, and the Hypatia is only a research vessel. The BeiTech fleet only has one ship left - the Lincoln - which will threaten to destroy the ships if they catch up. Kady and Ezra are separated onto two different ships and can only contact each other via encrypted text chats. On the Hypatia, Kady is learning how to hack and is discovering more about the whole situation and uncovering more and more secrets regarding the Alexander. On the Alexander, Ezra has been conscripted to be a pilot, and must now fight to protect the Alexander from a pilot's chair. As the story is told through military files, emails, and reports, new enemies are uncovered and Kady and Ezra must struggle to survive. 
 I've been intrigued by this book for a long time. I actually tried to get an ebook copy from my library a while ago, but the file wasn't working properly. I'm actually glad it didn't work, because an ecopy couldn't possibly compare to reading this book as a hard copy. The only reason it took so long was because it was always checked out from the library, and I'm always hesitant to spend the extra money on hardcover copies. However my mom got me a copy for my birthday so I was all set to start on this unique journey of a book. I've also read both These Broken Stars by Kaufman (which I enjoyed) and Nevernight by Kristoff (which I didn't like much at all) and this book was so much better than those. 
 It took a while to become accustomed to the unique format, but once I did it was great. I've never read a book like it. Even when I felt there were slow bits in the book, the format made up for it. It made it feel like I was progressing faster than I actually was at times. The story really is a roller coaster ride, especially once you hit the halfway mark and the thing happens with (view spoiler)[ Copernicus and AIDAN (hide spoiler)]. I think the most interesting character was AIDAN, Alexander's AI. The last portion of the book has a good amount from his perspective. My favourite character, though, would have to be Kady. She was talented and intelligent, could hold her own, and wasn't afraid to act. 
 Overall, I had a really great time reading Illuminae. It started off being just okay, but as the book went on it got better and better, and the ending was awesome. One part of the ending confirmed my suspicions, while the other surprised me a lot. I'll definitely be looking forward to the next book in the series, and may just splurge to buy it for myself. We shall see! If you like unique books or sci-fi, definitely reach for this book, you won't regret it. However, I wouldn't recommend reading this as an ebook - this is something you need a hard copy of!