Gemina

WOW!! Just WOW!! Space. Explosions. Multiverse theory. AI. Messed up people. Amazing relationships. Crazy drug inducing worm killers. Plot twists a plenty! I JUST LOVED IT!!

And now for some coherent thoughts....

This continues to be one of the most unique book series I've ever read. The format took a little while to get used to when I started the first book but quickly became completely engrossing. I love the attention to detail on every single page, the illustrated journal entries add an extra dimension from the first book making it feel more personal and bringing you closer to the characters.

I liked how this book linked back to the first, whilst it starts with new characters and a new scenarios the plot progresses to include characters from the previous book and link the two plots.

I loved the new characters and hated the new bad guys so much!! I especially loved Nik, he's just everything in this book.

Onto the next!!

The review below contains spoilers referring to the ending of Illuminae.



BeiTech is at it again. The Lincoln failed. Hypatia is survived and are en route to Heimdall. BeiTech will not fail again. Enter Hannah Donnelly and Nik Malikov, the commander's daughter and a drug dealing mafia member. Two unlikely bedfellows forced to work together to stop BeiTech's audit team (read: Murder Force), to save themselves, Heimdall, and Hypatia. The fate of the universe is literally in their hands.... No pressure.

This book was a rollercoaster of emotions that I did not need. I laughed, I cried... I cried a lot, I had reprieve.... and then I cried some more. Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are very good at what they do. They know exactly how to eviscerate your heart, stitch it back together, and then tear it apart some more. This book is so.... so... so good. Just as good as the first. But I think I'm gonna need to take a break before reading book three. I'm not sure my heart can handle it at the moment.

I loved the new characters introduced in this sequel - Kaufman and Kristoff write such wonderful three-dimensional people, and I really enjoyed getting to know Niklas, Ella and Hanna. The plot and format of the book were flawless, just like in Illuminae, and I can't wait to read the conclusion to the series.

4.5/5 stars. I'm in love with Gemina and wish I could experience it for the first time again. Amie and Jay blew my mind with this book.

Let's start off with the characters and their dialogue. I'll be honest, I hated Hanna and Nik in the first 100 pages. The characters screamed cliche to me, cliche in a way that wasn't even done well. I should've expected it as the characters were marketed as “Hanna is the station captain's pampered daughter, Nik the reluctant member of a notorious crime family,” but I just had such high hopes that Amie and Jay could pull it off. Then they did. I don't know what exactly the turning point was where I started to enjoy the characters, but if it weren't for surveillance footage guy making his appearance early on in the book I probably would've put it down and saved the read for a day where I could tolerate originally off-putting and overly flirtatious/try hard dialogue. Originally, anytime Hanna spoke to Nik, I felt almost out of place and it seemed very forced from the authors. It felt like they were trying to create characters that shouldn't even be speaking to each other (they couldn't even pulloff the forbidden love trope). Nik would constantly flirt in an almost self-deprecating way since he was aware he didn't have a chance of actually being with her. Nik felt much more fleshed out than Hanna even though it feels like we see more of her throughout the book. Maybe it's because Nik was expanded on more through text rather than drawings? This isn't to say that Hanna was a flat character because she was certainly far from that. She was a complete badass and I would say her and Ella are our true heroes (go ladies!). Ella was such a fresh character and didn't let her disabilities hinder her. She's hilarious and strong in so many ways.

Similar to Illuminae I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book. There were some similarities but it felt completely different and I loved it. Hanna's journal and her drawings were one of my favorite things about this book, Marie Liu did an amazing job with it. I also like the small touches on the whisperNET - the NETbar specifically with friends online, a newsfeed, and diary and appointments (Nik has the best ones). This book does a great job of expanding the Illuminae universe and does so in a way that's easy to follow. There's also drawings early on in the book that really show you Heimdall and the systems around it to give you an idea of things. Hanna and Nik's accompanying pages near the end of the book were done so well and reminded me of Replica's format. I'm really happy it found a way to differentiate itself from Illuminae. It was so much more creative than I imagined, after Illuminae I thought it would be practically similar. The pages with blood are still haunting me.

I love the plot. The story was great, it was like die-hard but in space. The cat and mouse chase they had going on worked really well, I just wish they played on the “alien predators” a bit more. I felt that I kind of just ended out of nowhere, maybe I need to re-read it? Towards the end Illuminae characters make an appearance and really tie book 1 and 2 together. Kady and Ezra ♡

I jumped into this one immediately after finishing book #1. As with book #1 - I listened to this one in the car while on a roadtrip. Audiobook version is done with a full cast with added sound effects (very effective, btw - plays out like a radio drama). I absolutely adored #1 - I loved this one, too - only a teeny bit less... probably partially because I was so invested in the characters from the first book - and book #2 involves a different cast of characters (mostly) as the story takes place on a different space vessel. I was initially somewhat put off by the drug cartel/ drug use aspect of the story - it seemed like a random element tossed in (and as it's a YA book...). But - like all the bits of the story - as with #1 - everything in the story is there for a reason and will be an important element later on in the book. If you're reading - don't skim over the images and diagrams. It's all important.

Hanna Donnelly, putri kapten Stasiun Portal Heimdall. Nik, putra dari keluarga kriminal. Hanna dan Nik terpaksa bekerja sama demi menyelamatkan rumah mereka. Sementara itu Kady Grant bersama Hypatia tengah mendekati Heimdall, membawa berita invasi Kerenza.
Terjadi malfungsi di lubang cacing Heimdall. Tak lama, sepasukan penyerang menyerbu Stasiun Heimdall. Akan tetapi, satu persatu masalah muncul silih berganti, dan para penyerang semakin brutal.
Namun, Hanna dan Nik bukan hanya bertarung demi hidup mereka sendiri. Mereka bertarung demi mereka yang ada di Heimdall, Hypatia, dan bahkan mungkin semesta.
Sejujurnya aku sudah lupa alur cerita Illuminae, buku pertamanya. Namun dibahas sekilas di buku ini, bagaimana BeiTech menginvasi koloni ilegal Kerenza, kemudian Hypatia membawa para pengungsi yang selamat dari invasi menuju Stasiun Portal Heimdall. Setelah cek kembali reviewku di goodreads, aku hanya memberi 3 bintang, karena saat aku membacanya dulu, format penyajian novel ini membingungkan untukku.
Harapanku ketika memulai Gemina jadinya tidak tinggi, kebetulan akupun meminjam ini dari perpustakaan. Namun sungguh diluar dugaan Gemina ini seru dan aku menyukainya.
Awalnya memang perlu waktu untuk menyesuaikan dengan gaya penceritaan, namun sungguh sangat kurekomendasikan bagi penyuka fiksi sains.

5 stars
Was confused throughout the beginning and part of the end of this book, yet I can't help but give it five stars because whenever it began to make sense, it left me speechless. So fucking good. Takes a while to get used to the new characters but when you do, it's just amazing. Absolutely loved it. I was literally fooled around fifty million times in this book, like I can't believe it just kept happening and I just kept believing it every single time. Highly recommend this series. If you're in doubt about reading it, just do it, man! Just do it! It will be worth it.