– that all combine to create a stunning story. Each book of the trilogy is chock-full with unique formats – emails, chat-logs, files, surveillance footage transcriptions, hand-written notes, and the internal dialogue of a slightly murderous A.I. While there have always been books with special pages formatted to look like emails, or handwritten letters, Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman took this to the next level with Illuminae. The Illuminae Trilogy (with Amie Kaufman) The final book, Darkdawn, comes out in September.įor those who want romance and post-apocalyptic vehicle chases… I have to admit, I read it when I was only twelve and adored every moment of it, but it’s certainly aimed at older readers. It has graphic violence, colourful language and intense smut scenes.

Jay has made quite a fuss about this series not being YA, as it has widely been mislabelled as such. The world that Jay has built here is absolutely incredible and fleshed out to an extent that isn’t even attempted in most books, with the use of witty, informative footnotes at the bottom of pages. Jay opens this bloodbath of a trilogy with the bold, confronting line ’people often shit themselves when they die’, and there is no better way to wrap up the feeling of this series. Nevernight follows the story of Mia Corvere, a foul-mouthed assassin who joins a school of killers called The Red Church on her path to get vengeance for her family’s demise. Okay, I may have lied when I said Nevernight was still my favourite book really, it’s neck-and-neck with its stellar sequel, Godsgrave. I learnt that the hard way.įor those who like their fantasy dark and gritty… Be warned, though, as his author’s biography states, ‘he does not believe in happy endings’. His body of work has something for people of all ages, and spans across a variety of genres. Jay has also partnered with fellow Aussie writer Amie Kaufman for two sci-fi series, which have both found extraordinary success and acclaim. If I have learnt one thing, it’s that a good Kristoff novel is never without a healthily large dose of sass, romance and surprises that will break you into a million shocked, weeping pieces. Since then, I have aimed to read all of his works, having worked my way through everything except his original Lotus War trilogy. It immediately became my favourite book, and still is to this day.

The first novel of his I read was Nevernight, and I had never encountered a reading experience quite like it.

I can thank almost all of my involvement in the book community to Australian author Jay Kristoff.

Books like nevernight