Aurora Rising: A Review

This book was probably one of my most anticipated books of this year, and I have to say it wasn’t my favourite. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good, and I still enjoyed it, but I don’t think it lived up to the massive hype around it.

This book took me so long to read. Now, I’m not sure if that’s because I had a lot going on in June, or whether it was the book itself, but it took me nearly a month to read. I found I couldn’t get into it as I had with the Illuminae Files. I found the last 6 or 7 chapters to be the most captivating for me, which is a shame, as the book was nearly over! Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book for multiple reasons.

Blurb

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

Nobody panic.

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The Characters

The characters in this book were great! I really enjoyed reading about them, especially from different perspectives. However, I did find this to be a bit confusing at times, especially as the chapters are so long. I found myself having to go back a few times to check whose chapter I was reading.

My favourite character out of the squad has to be Scarlett. She was such a badass, and so sarcastic and smart. I just loved reading her chapters so much, and seeing whta mischief she got up to! I loved the strong friendship between her and Cat, and the strong relationship she has with her twin brother, Tyler. I also adored how kind she was to Fin, when even he didn’t expect her to be. She was lovely to everyone in the squad, no matter their past or their views, and I just think she was an incredible character.

The Writing

I liked the writing for the most part, but I did find it a bit immature at points. Some of the writing felt quite cringey to me in parts, especially the way the characters spoke to each other on occasion. Mostly the writing was okay, but there really were some points where I had to power through the book, just because of some of the word/phrase choices.

The Plot

I liked the plot, but I think it had a bit of a slower start. Since finishing the book however, I’ve realised that the slow start was needed, especially as there is so much to learn about the world and its inhabitants. We need to know who Aurora is, why she is important, what everyone’s roles in the Squad are, etc. and this couldn’t be done without having the slower start.

Overall thoughts

Overall I think this book was good, and worth the read, but it just wasn’t my favourite Jay Kristoff/Amie Kaufman book. However, that doesn’t mean to say that I won’t be reading the next book; after that ending I need to know what happens next, roll on book 2!!!

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Have you read this book yet? Is it on your TBR? Let me know!

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