Gemina

Hey guys!

It´s Monday and as per usual I have prepared a new review for you. Today I will be talking about Gemina, and before I keep going on with my review I will like to thank to Evelina from Avalinah´sBooks (you can check her amazing blog by clicking here) for recommending me to read the Illuminae Files series.

As I told you when I posted the review of Illuminae I have been meaning o read this series for quite some time but I end up postponing it for different reasons. Finally, I asked for this book in my name´s day and this August I read the two in the series that are already published.

Before I go on I will say that this will be a spoiler free review, but as this is the second instalment in the series you might find some spoilers regarding book one. In case you haven´t read Illuminae yet, I will recommend checking my review of that on by clicking here.  In case I feel the need to do a spoiler in this review it will be warned and write in white so you can avoid it easily.

And now without firther ado, let´s go to the actual review.

Gemina is the second instalment in the Illuminae Files trilogy; however we are not following the characters that we met on the first book as we have a new pair of main characters. On one hand, we have Hanna Donnely, the Heimidal stations captain daughter. On the other hand, we have Nik Malikov, the reluctant member of a notorious intergalactic crime family. Both of them struggle when their station is invaded by some members of BeiTech and some disgusting aliens. And of course, none of the personnel on board is aware that the Hypatia is heading towards them I order to find salvation.

This second instalment is so dam interesting I am not going to deny it. But as much as I loved Illuminae, I like a little bit less this one. I will explain in further detail in the following lines.

The change in the main characters is actually very refreshing. I am used to book series in which we are constantly following the same characters and that´s fine. But I think it was very brave on the authors side to change from one point of view to another, especially when the first book received such good reviews.

As I mentioned, in this occasion we have Hanna, who is a character that I deeply like. We are full of “strong leading female” characters in YA, but they are only because the narrator says they are; their actions do not prove that. Instead with this girl we really follow a strong female lead. She is a total badass (and I love it) but at the same time she has a lot of thing on her plate.

Nick is the other main character, and I liked him, don’t get me wrong, but he falls into the stereotype of the “bad boy that is not that bad, not really” plus, at some points, mostly when he is speaking, I found him to be quite similar to Ezra.

As for the rest of the characters on this book I like them. The variety is wilder as the universe is growing and I they are very well portrayed for secondary characters. In general all the work with the characters is very well done, as you can know who is who with no indication, and just with chat messages we have a full picture of them.

The plot is very interesting I won’t say it´s not, but it felt weaker to me. I cannot tell you why without making a few spoilers so if you choose to read those, is on you. [SPOILER] The whole multiverse thing is not new to me specially because I am huge syfy fan and because I watch The Flash [END OF THE SPOILER]. Also, when you have a plot twist that works really well in one book, don’t use it again on the following statement on the series; it loses the element of surprise and in my case it disappointed me greatly [SPOILER] If you want to kill a character be brave and kill him, it´s fine, do not look for a loophole to not to kill him [END OF THE SPOILER].

Nevertheless, this book was such a wonderful read. I have a great time reading it. And it felt so good when I realized who is the guy narrating the video scenes. I don’t know how I didn´t realized it earlier. I mention that there is a plot twist that was not that good, but there are others that are amazing, and I did not see them coming.

Overall, I will recommend you guys to go on with the series and I am really looking forward for the next and final book that I will read and review for you as soon as it comes out. I gave this book 3.5 out 5 starts.

Have you read it already? If so, what did you think about it? If not? Are you looking forward to it?

See you all next Monday.