Review: Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2)
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4 stars. Can I get some ass slaps and high fives for making my way through a YA series like a champ? Slowly, I know, but still. Illuminae completely confused me - I literally thought it was so dumb and so spectacular at the same time. Can a book be both? Yes, apparently, because I feel the same way about Gemina.
Oh man. So visually stunning. So twisty and turny. So utterly breathtaking. So fucking impossible to read on a Kindle. So shockingly annoying. Seriously - the romance, oh man. So annoying. It grates. It burns. It maybe even melted my ice cold heart, maybe just a little. But still. How can a work inspire so much appreciation and so much eye rolling simultaneously? Should we ask True Blood?
Also, where were all these cute, emotionally available, commitment-ready boys when I was a teenager? Hmm?
Gemina picks up where Illuminae left off. After attacking Kerenza, Evil Corp sends Bad Guys to the wormhole where the survivors are headed, and once again the fate of the world - ahem - lands in the laps of several obnoxious, love struck teenagers. Yes folks, we’ve got wisecracks. We’ve got underage geniuses. We’ve got romantic melodrama! We’ve even got disgusting drug monsters to replace zombies.
I know I sound critical, which I am, sort of. But somehow all of these “lame” tropes mix together to make some sort of engaging book magic. *shrugs* who knows? Am I feeling generous? Am I feeling desperate due to strange reading times? What’s happening?!
The sci-fi elements here are truly entertaining, if not totally incomprehensible and therefore not really necessary to enjoy the plot. Bring on the quantum entanglements. And AIDAN, oh AIDAN!! My fave. This book puts out a refreshing take on an old trope: AI that knows its power but not its place.
Anyway, can’t wait to knock out the third and continue FINISHING THINGS TO COMPLETION. Series, I mean. Books. It’s not what you think. I've had three White Claws and I'm about to have three more.