OBSIDIO BY AMIE KAUFMAN AND JAY KRISTOFF REVIEW

This book. This ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ book. Was glorious and amazing and fantastic and heart wrenching and every other word in my vocabulary.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILY SPOILERS BEWARE AND SCROLL A LOT IF YOU HAVEN’T READ! IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT READ THE ILLUMINAE FILES CHUM/FEM GET ON THAT

-KATYA! I so thought thy were going to kill Katya to mirror that little girl that was killed but instead Oshiro chose to make a different call and take it the other way and saved my heart thank you kindly. Asha couldn’t save Samaira, but she managed to save Katya. Also, her mother was the woman that Kady saw lose it in B1? Goddamn.

-Michelle: she was ordinary but extraordinary, like all of them, because that is the running theme; all of these characters stepped up and took the opportunity against the odds to make a difference against a group like BeiTech. If a single one of them had given up or taken the easy way out, they all would have died.

-also this book challenged the fact that they were all teenagers: and yes, they were young, but that does not mean incompetent or even necessarily less competent. In a situation where no one is qualified, age does not and should not get you extra point.

-Captain Kady Grant is my aesthetic honestly. I love them all but Kady is my favourite ~~and a certain psychotic calculator’s favourite too~~ and I was so happy with everybody’s characterisation.

-grey morality here there and everywhere; it was around in the previous books like with Charlie Squad in Gemina where you saw through the banter that they were people too, like Fleur was angry about her Petyr (not that it excuses any of them). There is no such thing as pure evil or benevolent. All of the mains killed. That portrayal is brilliant all the way.

-Seriously, they back-pedalled flawlessly from BeiTech being the omniscient villain in Illuminae and Gemina to everyone is a human being a shitty circumstance.

-Rhys was the perfect addition; not just with his illegal hair, but as someone to was torn between being personally involved with Asha and the other pounders. Barring some pure wankers who got what they deserved, no one wanted to be doing what they were.

-Also, the romantic subplots were everything I wanted from life and these books.

-Ezra and Kady’s relationship had the most foundation as they were together back on Kerenza; there was a foundation of banter and support and genuinely caring and being there for each other.

-Even Nik and Hanna weren’t instalove; they acknowledged their issues and how they didn’t have that development as a relationship but they still cared about each other and wanted to go from there. I am glad they didn’t say ‘I love you’ because putting a label on it would have cheapened it. I thought the ‘parachute being a wedding dress’ hint would have been better off (the whole theme, not specifically the parachute) being aimed at Kady and Ezra as they were the most stable, but the dumb parachute thing and being romantic and optimistic and out there was very Nik tbh

-Asha and Rhys had a complicated relationship, but it was so interesting. Their beginning pitfall seemed to be trying to be something they weren’t, as young people sometimes fall in to, but they had no time for that on Kerenza and were able to work together and fall together. Every relationship was clever and healthy and reflected the themes. Props to the authors, seriously.

-AIDAN; I knew he was going to kill them, as soon as he said that they wouldn’t be able to sustain numbers, the same with the ‘little knives’ thing to Ella; also him copying Ezra like shiiiiiiiit that was good writing, subtle enough to be creepy, not so subtle that I missed it damn that was good

-Backtracking a little, I give Gemina the award for first novel where the sequel focused on different characters where I didn’t spend the whole time desperate for the original characters to show up again (though I did love when they did for that shoulder squeeze) I do have to say this this book explored Hanna and Nik and Kady and Ezra and dealing with your shit, that was lovely. I think I would have been a little put out if this had followed the same formula with Asha and Rhys because the Mao crew couldn’t be passive in this conflict.

-Isaac Grant, ultimate sweetheart and cinnamon roll. HE ADOPTED ELLA! THOSE NOTES HE LEFT FOR EVERYONE! If he had died, I would not have been okay.

-When Asha found out Kady was alive I lost my metaphorical shit -the casual non-straight flirting/couples representation was beautiful I have to say -also multi-national names!!!!! I adore that it wasn’t just a list of standard white names, also I did catch the names of some authors like Garth Nix and Danielle ‘Dorothy’ Paige (such trolls) in this one and Kami Garcia in the last one

-the rogue is never who you think it is. Sam in Gemina then Way instead of Karalis 10/10

-I knew everyone was going to live, I fucking called it

-that fucking parachute, I knew it and it was still hilarious

-When Kady thought that Ezra was dead, my heart! Kady did exactly what she did in the Illuminae Files B1 (fantastic character writing tbh) when she thought Ezra was dead her actions became low-key suicidal and she stopped caring about getting out, but in the end was not willing to go down without a fight. That picture- thANK YOU HANNA. I loved those pictures it was fantastic; all of them, honestly.

-No epilogue? That would have been nice though not particularly in character for these books, that penultimate chapter where they got to go to the restaurant and people had their lives that was beautiful. It was the classic; we will now charge into the future and be okay.

-AIDAN LIVED? Is he getting a spin-off? I would read the shit out of that tbh

-Also the analysts; from my thorough and slightly idiotic combing of the books I think that -89 is Nik and -94 is Ella, and I think she also wrote all the briefing notes with the paperclip. Enjoy. Seriously, all the call backs in this book to the first one (like how Kady broke that window and rammed those guys with the van in B1 was noticed again in B3) were amazing. Coming clean that the mains were the analysts and put together the notes was amazing.

-There is so much in these books: the style of IM chats and analyst footage and AIDAN was captivating, the themes, the characters, the relationships was all beautiful.

OVERALL this series is a gift to humanity, and Obsidio is a glorious finale. 1000/10 would recommend. Though if you’ve read this you’ve read the series. Just, this was utterly fantastic.