The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Obsidio

Series: Illuminae Files #3

Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Epistolary

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

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, hero’s will fall, and hearts will be broken. – summary from Goodreads

Obsidio was an amazing, thrilling finale to the Illuminae Files!

I loved this ending! It brought everything together really nicely!

All of the characters came together in this book, and we got to see what it was like for the survivors on Kerenza IV when it was being occupied. This book was nice because we got the survivors of the original escapees, the survivors of the Heimdall, and the survivors on Kerenza IV perspectives. It really rounded out the story and showed all sides of the crimes committed.

I loved the new characters, Rhys and Asha. I wish they were in the story a little more, but I loved their story and romance, but also the new perspectives of what is happening in this book. I especially liked Rhys’s perspective because he was a BeiTech soldier, and he showed what it was like from their perspective. It was a really unique view, and again I have to applaud Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, because they do a wonderful job of making these people, typically considered villains, into people, who you feel empathy for.

This was actually a really big part of the story- that everyone was doing what they could. It makes more sense in the book, but I really loved this unique look.

I loved all the different characters. Especially Issac Grant. He really adopted all these teenagers and loved them so much. There is a page with notes he wrote to each of them, and it is so heartwarming and sweet. Winifred also stepped up, and I really like her. I have liked her since the first book, and in this one we got to see a little more of her.

Kady, Ella, Hanna, Ezra, and Nik were a big part of the book, and they were all together and working, which I really liked. I really liked Hanna and Nik’s relationship. By no means was the focus of any of these book’s romance, but it was there, and I think it’s important to point out that Nik and Hanna got together in the thick of an attack last book, and I appreciate how they struggled when things were calmer and had to make a conscious decision. I will always love Kady and Ezra as well! They are so cute together and have a very solid relationship. They took a little more time to grow on me, but I adore them. Ella is, of course, amazing! She is so much fun to read, and I love her snarky personality. Nik and Ezra’s friendship is also one of my favorite things about this book. It was nice to just have a friendship, and they had some nice banter.

One of the other things this book does so well is making the teenagers teenagers. They were often serious as the situation called for it, but they made jokes and goofed off. The end is truly the moment when they act most like teenagers, and I appreciate that moment.

Another point on Asha and Rhys, they are a few years older than the other protagonists, so I think they offer a slightly more mature perspective of the events.

I still adore the format. The way this is written really depicts the crimes committed in this book and how that effects everyone. All the transcripts, pictures, and communication logs are such unique format and really let this story shine.

AI is a much talked about topic nowadays, and it can be quite controversial, and the AI in this book is no different. Throughout the course of the previous books, the AI has slowly gotten worse and worse. It peaked in this book. I don’t know how I feel about this character. The AI in this book is unique and will get you thinking, at the very least.

I enjoyed the ending quite a bit. One of my favorite things about the ending was that all of the main characters were still friends and together. I can’t stand at the end of books where the main friend group splits up, and I was happy that didn’t happen here. I was also pleased with how everything ended in terms of making their story heard. It was a very meaningful ending.

Obsidio was an amazing finale to the Illuminae Files, with new perspectives, an emotional storyline, a unique format, and a wonderful friend group!

Quotes:

“‘At least our lives will have been worth dying for.’”

“Everyone’s right, and everyone’s wrong.”

“‘You’ve done everything I could have ever wanted you to do.’”