Illuminae: writing style and format

[Carlie]

What do you think of the writing style and format of Illuminae?

Tell us what you think!

[Shannelle]

Well, I'm starting early, but I'm loving how there's so much personality even though it's not the person themselves writing.

[Autumn]

I really like the formatting! It's a fun way to read the book and doesn't take you that long to read a good chunk of it. Plus, you get insights to several different characters. You get to see there personality through their texts, emails, and diary entries. It's really neat.

[Autumn]

I really like the formatting! It's a fun way to read the book and doesn't take you that long to read a good chunk of it. Plus, you get insights to several different characters. You get to see there personality through their texts, emails, and diary entries. It's really neat.

[Anastasia]

I don't know if I'll like the writing style since everything is emails etc. But I'll give it a try.

[Natascha]

I wasn't sure at first how this kind of story would work in a 600 pages book. Being told only in mails, letters, transcripts, documents. But it works more than fine! :) Well, at least, for me. It kind of makes it feel more alive and real.

[Laura]

My favorite is when we get to read the reports of the security videos with the characters in them... it's so funny, I'm sitting there giggling to myself. I also like the unique approach to black out all the cursing... sometimes it's easy to see what word they were using, sometimes it's fun to guess :b

I really like this style and I wouldn't have guessed that I would. It makes the book fly by.

[t.]

This truly is completely different that anything I've read before. and so far, I'm liking it. Although I have to admit I have to go back and forth every now and then to follow the story because the changes from diary entry to chat to transcript of video footage to etc,etc,etc does confuse me at times, but that also adds some fun to the whole experience.

[[deleted user]]

I started listening to the audiobook today while thumbing through the book at the same time. And I have to say for this kind of format, I think this is perfect. It is so funny listening to it (especially Ezra) and I think it would be less funny just reading it for me at least. At the same time, I would get confused without the book as backup and i love the extras like 'ship illustrations'! I think either way... I wouldn't be able to fully enjoy without one or the other. (Maybe that's just for me but I find it easier and could imagine myself getting more confused, or bored with only listening to or reading the audio/book.)

So yeah, I agree. It is pretty unique so far. You have that a lot in books. these extras, like photos and snippets. But I have never read a book which was completely written in messages, reports and such, without a main narrator. :-)

[Carlie]

I think I'm loving the email and comm convos, they are very easy to read and create a good pace. However, sometimes the reports can be very confusing as it contains so many technical terms and I'm not familiar with these scientific stuff.

I can say that I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi, but the way they present this story makes it interesting and keeps me wanting more of it.

[Fhina]

I really love the uniqueness of the book. Sometimes the reports are confusing but over all I really enjoy this kind of formatting a lot - surprisingly!

[Mandi]

I was actually going to skip the book this month, until I picked it up at BAM and looked through it. The writing style itself had me sold, I didn't even read the book flap summary until I had it purchased and got it home, and now I'm really enjoying it!

[Jenny]

The writing style definitely sold me on this book! I love when authors try something different to bring more interest for the reader. I was worried I wouldn't connect with the characters, but the humor helps a lot! I'm laughing a lot more than I thought I would, considering the format. I definitely agree that it's a faster read due to how the book is laid out. I'm really looking forward to reading more!

[Audra]

I was so excited to read this book when I first got it. The format of it is very different than other books I've read. That being said, I think I might be the only one that isn't a huge fan of the dialog.

What I do enjoy about this book though is the variety of documents. I love how we get emails, reports, letters, etc. It makes it seem like you're reading them first hand, and it's you that's investigating the event. It actually reminds me a bit of Night Film when the website pages and confidential documents were shown.

Reading the emails between Kady and Ezra though is at best tedious. It's like reading a stranger's sappy text messages. I'm almost positive it's because I feel like I don't know the characters yet. I can't get a good idea of what they are thinking when they message something. Is Kady using Ezra for her own purposes or are her messages genuine? It's hard to tell at the point I'm at in the book right now. I wish that I could get more insight into the characters lives. Kady's journal entries were a step in the right direction, but it's not enough.

That being said, the format is so different from anything I've read that I'm hooked to this book.

[Biblio-Athena]

I was hesitant with the format. I felt like it would be too much and there is such a multitude of names and characters and technical stuff. But at some point I decided don't try to memorize the names or understand the tech stuff, and focus on the story the emails and reports are telling you and that helped. It's definitely unusual but super creative. It adds more to they sci-fi of it by making it reeaalllyy sci-fi. I like it. You get used to it, and it provides enough detail without making it look like random descriptive info. It's more informal and that's super cool.