Obsidio by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – Non Spoiler Review

I will not mention spoilers for Obsidio, however this review may contain spoilers for the first two books in this series, Illuminae and Gemina.

Book: Obsidio

Series: The Illuminae Files, #3

Authors: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Pages: 615

Genre: YA SciFi

My rating for Obsidio: ★★★★

My rating for Gemina: ★★★★

Goodreads 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.

Guys, I am so sad this series is over! Wow – and what a conclusion Obsidio was to the Illuminae Files! My heart could not take all the emotions this book gave me. I fell in love with the characters all over again. Seriously, this entire crew feels like my real friends. Side note: Can we get a spin-off with Ella, please?

So, like the synopsis above says, Obsidio picks up right after the events in Gemina. We finally get to see more of Kady and Ezra, and it was so awesome to see them interact with Hanna, Nik, and Ella. Their mission is to get to Kerenza to try to rescue any potential survivors. Also, can I please take a moment to shout out Isaac Grant? Because he’s such a hero in my eyes. And, yes, AIDAN is there, and he (it?) is not holding back!

During my Gemina review, I complained that the plot line felt too similar to the events in Illuminae. I am happy to say Obsidio‘s story line went in several different directions, and felt more original. Yes, I was able to predict the twists, but that didn’t bother me. We also get to follow another set of characters, notably Asha Grant, a rebel on Kerenza (and Kady’s cousin), Rhys Lindstrom, a BeiTech soldier, and the rest of the BeiTech crew stationed on Kerenza.

However, unlike Gemina, we aren’t solely following Asha and Rhys. The format cuts a lot between Asha/Rhys/the events on Kereza, to the events going on on the Mao with Kady, et al.

Lets go ahead with The Good and The Bad.

The Good:

• More surveillance files. As much as I love the chat logs, radio transmissions, IMs, I really appreciated reading the surveillance footage instead.
• The interactions between Kady/Ezra and Nik/Hanna/Ella. It was so nice to see them all finally together.
• AIDAN doing AIDAN things. Haha!
• So many feels. I don’t cry when I read books, but several parts really hit me. I won’t spoil which parts I am thinking of, but trust me, it will tug at your heart strings.
• The “bad guys” are humanized. We get to read about the lives of some of the villains, and I appreciated it so much. Everyone is just trying to do what they think is best.
• Less annoying chat dialogue between Nik and Ella. Sorry, guys, I couldn’t stand the text typos in the last book.

The Bad:

• It started a bit slow for me. I think the pace picked up around page 200. But once that happened, things moved incredibly fast!
• I wanted more Ella. Period.
• I wasn’t as emotionally invested in Asha and Rhys. I think that was due to their parts being not as well fleshed out since they had to share this book with everyone else.

I had so much fun reading Obsidio, but I was a nervous wreck during most of it. I loved the ending, though. I give this book a strong 4 stars. If you like YA SciFi in the format of mixed media, then please pick up the Illuminae Files.

Happy reading!

xx,

Amy