Book Review: Illuminate by Aimee Agresti

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything begins to change when she turns sixteen. Along with her best friend Dante and their quiet and brilliant classmate Lance, she is awarded a prestigious internship in the big city— Chicago—and is sent to live and work at a swanky and stylish hotel under the watchful eyes of a group of gorgeous and shockingly young-looking strangers: powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of glamazons called The Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers a network of secret passageways from the hotel’s jazz-age past that leads her to the heart of the evil agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the hotel?

I have seen mixed reviews of this novel. They range from “I abandoned this book” to “OMG! I LOVED IT!” There’s no accounting for taste, and what are book reviews but our own glorified opinions? (P.S. Thank you for reading my opinions!) Anyway, back to Illuminate by Aimee Agresti… I liked this book, a lot.

Let me start with the strengths: I think that the male characters in Illuminate are so well developed that I wish we could have some bonus scenes (hint, hint) from their point of view. In fact, the entire cast of secondary characters were so fully realized that I would cringe with their actions and insults. My favorite character in the whole novel was probably Lance, and I think it is because he snuck up on me. When he is first mentioned in the first few chapters, he doesn’t have much of a strong presence and I thought he was going to be the random third kid thrown in this magnificent internship and that would be it. However, he was much more important to the narrative and to the main character, Haven.

Speaking of Haven, she might not be the most strong female character that I have read lately, but I think that makes her that much more relatable and believable. She is skeptical of everything surrounding her, and strives for perfection and acceptance (much like all of us did when we were in high school). I don’t think the story would have been the same had it been told from another characters point of view, or even from third person, because Haven’s perspective is so imperative to the development of the plot.

About the plot: I agree with some reviewers when they speculate that a sudden internship at a illustrious hotel for three seemingly random chosen students in the middle of a school semester is a tad farfetched. Okay, a lot farfetched, but it provided an explanation as to why our heroine and her sidekicks were removed from their families and living in a hotel. Other than that, I really didn’t take much issue with the plot. It flowed well, and I really enjoyed the development of Haven’s realization of her familial origins (Lance’s too! Dante’s wasn’t really explored.)

I also really liked how Agresti managed to make this story about more than just a love story (in fact, the love story really wasn’t that important at all after we discover Lucian’s true motives). Although I really do love Lucian and the other character that becomes romantically important. The real main dramatic question was about the peculiar happenings at the hotel and how will Haven and her friends survive it and possibly stop it.

The only thing that really bothered me about this text was the length. Illuminate is extremely long for a debut novel, and there were definitely some scenes that seemed superfluous that could have been edited out. In addition, there were some elements at play in this novel that seem to run rampant through YA fiction lately: the girl who is pretty who doesn’t think she’s pretty, etc.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Agresti’s novel and figuring out Haven’s story as it developed. 4 Bards.