Rashika, The Book Owl

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

I would like to start this review by thanking Jay Kristoff and Amie Kauffman for ruining my life. Thank you guys, I appreciate it. I am pretty sure they drink their readers’ tears to sustain themselves.  MOVING ON.  I am going to attempt to do the impossible and write a review for this book. No guarantees that it will be completely coherent. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. There will be censored swearing (although apparently not that much since I don't plan these things out...)

This book has a ton of hype surrounding. Like a S███ ton. And yet, I gave zero f████ because I knew this book and I were meant to be. Less than 10 pages in and I was laughing my a██ off and of course, I was proven right in my knowledge that this book was for me.

There are so many things that make this book the amazing thing that it is but I do warn you, if you are the kind of reader who doesn’t like books that aren’t written in a traditional format, this book is probably not for you. It’s told in IMs, diary entries, videos (or more appropriately, commentaries on the videos) and lots of other fun things that enhance the book and give it character and make you fall over laughing but also make you gasp and cower under covers.

One of my favorite things about this book was the IM messages. For starters, they seem very REAL. What I love most about them is the occasional spelling mistakes. I know I don’t always spell things correctly when IMing so when that happened in the book, it made me happy and made it even easier to relate to these fantastic characters.

And fantastic these characters are (WTF am I saying? Do I even make sense?) They are so ridiculously realistic even though they live centuries in the future. Both Erza and Kady are hilarious to read about but they aren’t just here for the jokes. They are smart, badass but also just great teenagers. I love that they aren’t immature or really mature. They are in-between those things. Like most of us. They make inappropriate jokes, are silly but also know how to take charge and make important decisions. I loved reading about them and hopefully you guys will too.

This book isn’t all about the funny things either. It can be very light hearted but there are some scary moments. Especially with the AI called Aidan.

Aidan is one of the most interesting/terrifying characters I’ve come across in a while (I mean, he is on my supervillain squad); however, I did have trouble getting behind its more human characteristics. I’ve read books that feature humanistic AI so it’s not that I have trouble with the idea. It’s just some of its ‘thoughts’ seemed too sentimental for me given its actions. Perhaps it’s just because I felt as though we were supposed to pity Aidan and I couldn’t do that because Aidan was a d███. Then why is it such an interesting character? I think it’s because its thoughts can sometimes be terrifying. I think Aidan's character is a good reflection of human fears about AI and the question of whether AI will someday take control of the world.

As you might have already gathered. This book is sci fic and it’s one of the better ones I’ve read. The authors make these fleet of ships come to life by use of terminology and also with diagrams! YAY DIAGRAMS. We are painted with a lovely (or not so lovely) picture of life aboard these ships and I really loved that.

The entire book is a recount of the tragedy that befell this fleet and hot damn do things get intense. The authors do not hold out on the punches (as I am sure you gathered from my earlier ramblings) and they aren’t afraid to make you sad. But the point of this book isn’t to basically kill you from emotional overload (although that may be a side effect.) This book is so very rich in its plot development and I LOVED it, but there were times when I wondered if I needed 600 pages of it.Don’t get me wrong, the book is a pretty quick read but I do think there are some things that could have been cut down.

Given everything that was revealed at the end of the book though, I KNOW book 2 will actually blow me away. You guys might never see me again. I MIGHT JUST CRUMBLE INTO DUST.

Also, you might wonder why I haven’t mentioned a single thing about a romance in the book and for those curious (and haven’t already found out), there is one. That is all I will say. This is the ship you gotta experience on your own and form your opinions about. Just beware of page 422, my friends. It will forever be known as the page that stole lives.

So, should you read this book? Should you listen to the incredible amount of hype surrounding this book? Yeah, WHY NOT? What have you got to lose? Only your soul, your heart and very since of being. You didn’t need those things anyway. Am I not merciful?

Note that I received an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review