Gemina

lol why did I have this book at 4 stars? This is like my favorite book. Don't hack me or anything but my password at work may or may not involve the word “Hanna” in it.

I know it says I've read this once, but actually probably have read this book like 5 times if you count how many times I randomly put on the audiobook on at night and pretend I'm Hanna Donnelly.

draws heart eyes all over the book
(Full review to come.)

FULL REVIEW:

Ho-lee shit. This book. Where do I even start with how incredibly, mind-blowing-ly amazing Gemina was?

Much of [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661] was about trying to survive so that the passengers could make it to the space station/wormhole guardian Heimdall. Gemina picks up where Illuminae left off—except from the perspective of some of the people at Heimdall. Our main protagonists are Hanna and Nik; Hanna is the rich daughter of Heimdall's commander and Nik is part of a gang known as the House of Knives. Two very different people with very different social circles, though that doesn't stop Nik from flirting mercilessly with Hanna, and neither does the fact she has a boyfriend.

Of course, those everyday details become pretty irrelevant when everything goes to hell.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Gemina when I picked it up—mostly because I pre-ordered it after reading Illuminae and didn't read anything about what it was about (since, you know, I knew I was reading it no matter what). What I did expect was what I'd gotten from Illuminae: loads of action and twists, a very high body count, and edge-of-your-seat type pacing. Also probably something about Heimdall.

Gemina is all of that and more.

There are very few books that make me exclaim out loud, and Gemina can take the crown on “book I swore out loud the most while reading.” It's hard for me to say too much without spoiling, so what I'll say is this: I ripped through the pages like nothing else (except Illuminae), the sequel absolutely lived up to the incredible first book, and I need the final book of the trilogy yesterday. Basically, I intend to continue to tell people to read it or else.


Diversity note: Of the main cast of characters there isn't a ton—both Hanna and Nik (our protagonists) are white, cishet, able-bodied, etc. One of the major non-protagonist characters, however is disabled (uses a wheelchair and needs an oxygen mask 24/7), which was good to see. If there's anything I have to request out of book three it's that we see more diversity rep with the protagonists, please!

Let's crank the music up and get started, shall we? Yes, we shall.

I'm afraid, we will need to keep this one short, as it's quite impossible to review the second book in the series without spoiling too much the first one.

For some unthinkable reason, I was a bit reluctant to start this book. So, I read 32 pages on the first day, nothing on the second and yesterday I started and couldn't stop until it was 5 am and I turned the last page. Well, I can get crazy like that.

The one important thing you need to know - if you liked Illuminae, you would definitely love this one too. At a times, Gemina has a feel of very twisted and a lot bloodier Home Alone movie (yeah, the one with Kevin and Christmas). But there was no Christmas tree and much more drama. But I loved it anyway. Well, I don't even want to know what that says about me :)

At first, I missed Kady and Ezra a lot (well, first 40 pages maybe?). But the new characters just kept growing on me. They were just so not what they look like at the first glance. Believe me, I was not a fan of them at the beginning. But there was nothing that could've stopped me admiring them later.

Two more things, that are worth mentioning are humour and art. The book made me laugh in some really dire situations for the characters. And art (especially Hanna's Journal) was just beautiful.

So where that leaves me? Well, I'm right here. All ready and a bit scared to start the last book.