Aurora Rising

Let me start by saying I had a few expectations before I started reading. I thought I would enjoy the writing style, seeing as Jay Kristoff has written one of my favorite series. I had my doubts about the genre, because I’ve never read a sci-fi book before. And lastly, I was hoping I would love it so I could add the sequels to my TBR. Well, let’s say it didn’t really turn out as I hoped..

The story started of strong and I was invested in most of the characters. The whole girl-out-of-time-idea was nice, and I like how the Goldenboy who rescued her was not her love interest. Instead this was a brooding, “hot as all get-out” alien specimen, who calls her ‘be’shmai’, has violet eyes and is referred to as the ‘Tank’. I’ll take one of those, please 😏 However, the story was told from six different perspectives, and only three of those were interesting to me. Finian carried the story for the most part, and I couldn’t help but feel like this was a high school edition of Guardians of the Galaxy. I can’t be the only one who thinks so, right? I actually checked the release date to see which came first.

The enemy turns out to be a communist parasite that wants to spread itself all over the universe. It’s not that it doesn’t work for the story, but I feel like I’ve heard it before in other books and movies. And I really don’t watch that many sci-fi movies!

I was still rooting for this book, but then the last chapters happened. Everything that happened in the end felt like a cliché. The self-sacrifice, the squad becoming a family and Goldenboys speech that was a bit too much. Not even Aurora and Kal ending up together could safe it for me, because at this point I was hoping for a plottwist and I kind of wanted him to end up with the science girl instead. Just to mix it up a bit, you know? Besides, the authors kept hinting at Zilas sad backstory, only to NOT tell it in this first book! It felt a bit like click bait, and nobody wants that😒 I read it in a couple of days, which means I didn’t think it’s a bad book, but I expected more because it is written by the creative mind behind Nevernight (one of my favourite series).