Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff | Book Review

“Live a life worth dying for.”

Title: Obsidio
Series: The Illuminae Files, #3
Author: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Published: March 13, 2018
Genre: young adult, sci-fi, adventure
Pages: 615 (it’s thicc)
My Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads page

Attention: This review contains spoilers from the past books in the series but no spoilers from this book itself!

Synopsis

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they’ll find seven months after the invasion?

Meanwhile, Kady’s cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza’s ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha’s past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict.

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.

(This synopsis is from Goodreads.)

Thoughts

This book is SO FLIPPING GOOD. I thought it couldn’t get better from the first book, but boy was I wrong! This book might be my favorite out of the three in the series because of how emotional it made me feel.

I was able to attend one of the tour stops for Obsidio back in March, and the authors let the readers in on a little insight of the story. They talked about how the text messages, emails, and video footage summaries show a more private side of the characters, because they don’t expect an audience beside the people they’re talking to. Because of that, the reader get’s to be more intimate with the character and get to know them on a more personal level. When I was reading Obsidio, I could see what they mean. Every book, the authors introduce a set of new characters into the story, and every time I come to care for them very quickly.

For example, there was this one small character that only had one or two pages about him and his story, but when he passed, I felt sad. Even though he was not an important character, I still felt sad that he was gone. That’s how good these authors are at getting you to care for the characters.

Obsidio takes place basically right after Nik and Hanna saves two universes in Gemina. It was frustrating to see the crew (Kady, Ezra, Nik, Hanna, Ella, etc.) be undermined once the got onto the Mao. The Mao’s crew (who consisted of adults) didn’t take the characters seriously because of their age. It didn’t matter what their credentials and experience was, to them (and their egos), the kids were basically useless. But as a reader I was yelling at them like THOSE KIDS ARE YOUR TICKET OUT OF THERE ALIVE. But of course they don’t listen because the story is already written. It still made me feel better to yell at them. Is that weird?

Out of all the pairs of characters (Kady & Ezra, Nik & Hanna, etc.) that were introduced throughout this whole story, Asha and Rhys weren’t my favorite. I’m not saying I didn’t like them, but they weren’t swoon-worthy either.

Speaking of characters, there were times throughout the story where I would love a certain character, hate them, and then go back to loving them. I like how the characters are not one-dimensional.

If you’re planning on reading this book (which I highly suggest you do), prepare for a lot of death. That’s all I’m going to say.

Overall, I loved this series and I’m super sad that it has come to an end. It makes me excited to see what Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff have in store in the future.

Characters

Asha Grant

Kind of like what the video footage analyst said, she’s ordinary, but that’s what makes what she does extraordinary.

Rhys Lindstrom

It’s clear he’s still head over heels for Asha, but there are something that made me hate him. He was one of those cases where I liked him at first, hated him, and then liked him again.

Kady Grant

Still love her and her kick-butt-ness.

Ezra Mason

You know, out of all the main characters, I don’t think I saw too much of Ezra, which made me a little sad. He’s been a great guy since book one.

Hanna Donnelly

This is the girl you don’t want to mess with. She’s lost too many friends and family, and she knows how to fight. A deadly combination.

Nikolas “Nik” Malikov

If you need a little humor in your life, this dude is your guy.

Ella Malikova

Honestly, Ella is the backbone of the whole entire group. The group would be dead without her, and I don’t think she get’s that much recognition for it.

AIDAN

I used to not like AIDAN in the first two books, but still appreciated how it was a good villain. Now, I understand its reasons, and although it has done some horrible things, it did it with the best intentions in mind.

Isaac Grant

All I have to say about Issac is that he is a real one. He would be the fatherly figure you would want with you in times of a space apocalypse.

Oshiro

Another case of liking her, hating her, and then liking her again. You get why she does what she does, but it doesn’t mean you have to like it.

Conclusion

I give this book 5 / 5 BBC Sherlock heads. If you like sci-fi novels, you’re definitely going to get a kick out of this series. If you like the previous books in this series and haven’t gotten your hands on Obsidio, I highly suggest you get on it. It’s so FREAKING GOOD.

Until next time….