Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman - ARC Review



Publisher: Rock the Boat (20 Oct. 2016)

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I heard about Illumina, I thought the writing style was going to be a novelty that I'd get bored of fairly quickly. I didn't realise that it would suck me in, deliver gut punch after gut punch and that I'd love every minute of it. Gemina is just as brilliant and I'm not sure how I'm going to wait for the next book! If you haven't read Illumina, you might as well stop reading this review and get right on it. You have a week until Gemina comes out!

My favourite thing about this series is the format. I wasn't sure how it would affect my enjoyment of the narrative, but in the end the layout enhanced the reading experience. Through rotating between interviews, video transcripts and all sort of creative texts, you end up having to piece together the narrative rather than having it all handed to you. I thought that was fantastic!

Another strength of this series is the plot tension. I wasn't sure how the authors were going to top Illumina but Gemina was great at flipping my expectations and upping the stakes. (Monsters? Gunmen? Why not at the exact same time?) Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are masters at throwing curve balls that whip round and smash you in the face.

One of the main reasons that I got so invested in this was because of the characters. Hanna and Nik were both amazing and I really cared about what happened to them.  

I also loved Nevernight by Jay Kristoff, so while I'm waiting for my next Illuminae files fix I might just work my way through Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufmans' previous novels. This is one of my favourite book series and I highly recommend it.