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typedtruths 's review for:
Gemina
by Jay Kristoff, Amie Kaufman
I loved, loved, loved the plotline of this one but - once again - struggled to connect to the characters.
More thought:
• It was eerily similar to [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661]. Too similar. I’ve seen this complaint a lot and I have to agree with it. I do think it was better overall but the plotline and characters were too similar for me to ignore. They definitely should be pointed out and addressed. I hope the third book is able to set itself apart.
• The actual plotline was addictive. As always, it took me more time than I would have liked to get into the story in the first place but once it hit its stride, I found it hard to put down. The action was well-written - well, as well as it could be in this formatting - and I found it pretty thrilling.
• While the sciencey side of the plot was a little hard to follow, I appreciated that the authors attempted to make it as realistic as possible.
• The characters were boring. This multimedia formatting has one big drawback and that is that it is impossible to feel even remotely connected to these characters. Hanna was too stereotypical for my liking, just like every other “badass but also hella hot” female protagonist I’ve ever read about. Snooze. The same with Nik. He was the typical “bad boy who is really a teddy bear” romantic interest. I didn’t connect to either of them and I actually liked Jackson more than any other them. Nik’s cousin - I’ve forgotten her name already - was too similar to Nik for my liking. They were kinda merged in my head.
• Everyone in this entire series has the exact same sense of humour? I don’t know when no-one else seems to be commenting on this because it is something John Green is always criticised for - and IMO is also guilty of. This was glaringly obvious in Illuminae but it was not until this book that it truly got on my nerves. If a single person in the world can tell me that every single one of their friends and their family members and randoms they meet in the street share the same brand of humour, I would laugh. I get that sassiness and sarcasm like this is popular in mainstream books. It is funny… but having every single character with the exact same sarcastic tendencies is ridiculous and unrealistic.
• I do not get the hype about AIDEN, like I honestly cannot even begin to fathom what anyone seems in it. It is a computer? … and it talks in nonsense. Why are so many readers attracted to it? I also did not find its POV poetic. It was not ‘cool’ how its chapters were formatted - turning the pages around to try and read took me ages. It was not amusing. It was irritating and really, really frustrating. They were certain sections that I literally had to skim over because they were too close to the spine to even be able to read. It drove me bonkers.
More thought:
• It was eerily similar to [b:Illuminae|23395680|Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1)|Amie Kaufman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443433956s/23395680.jpg|26653661]. Too similar. I’ve seen this complaint a lot and I have to agree with it. I do think it was better overall but the plotline and characters were too similar for me to ignore. They definitely should be pointed out and addressed. I hope the third book is able to set itself apart.
• The actual plotline was addictive. As always, it took me more time than I would have liked to get into the story in the first place but once it hit its stride, I found it hard to put down. The action was well-written - well, as well as it could be in this formatting - and I found it pretty thrilling.
• While the sciencey side of the plot was a little hard to follow, I appreciated that the authors attempted to make it as realistic as possible.
• The characters were boring. This multimedia formatting has one big drawback and that is that it is impossible to feel even remotely connected to these characters. Hanna was too stereotypical for my liking, just like every other “badass but also hella hot” female protagonist I’ve ever read about. Snooze. The same with Nik. He was the typical “bad boy who is really a teddy bear” romantic interest. I didn’t connect to either of them and I actually liked Jackson more than any other them. Nik’s cousin - I’ve forgotten her name already - was too similar to Nik for my liking. They were kinda merged in my head.
• Everyone in this entire series has the exact same sense of humour? I don’t know when no-one else seems to be commenting on this because it is something John Green is always criticised for - and IMO is also guilty of. This was glaringly obvious in Illuminae but it was not until this book that it truly got on my nerves. If a single person in the world can tell me that every single one of their friends and their family members and randoms they meet in the street share the same brand of humour, I would laugh. I get that sassiness and sarcasm like this is popular in mainstream books. It is funny… but having every single character with the exact same sarcastic tendencies is ridiculous and unrealistic.
• I do not get the hype about AIDEN, like I honestly cannot even begin to fathom what anyone seems in it. It is a computer? … and it talks in nonsense. Why are so many readers attracted to it? I also did not find its POV poetic. It was not ‘cool’ how its chapters were formatted - turning the pages around to try and read took me ages. It was not amusing. It was irritating and really, really frustrating. They were certain sections that I literally had to skim over because they were too close to the spine to even be able to read. It drove me bonkers.