Illuminae, by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

It starts off well with an attack on a remote illegal mining colony by an evil mega corporation, BeiTech. Several thousand refugees, including resourceful teen exes Kady and Ezra, manage to evacuate from the planet but are pursued by BeiTech, which wants to destroy the evidence and hence all survivors of the attack. Written in the style of an official report on the event, including briefing notes and redactions, the characters are engaging and the story zips along. Unfortunately it becomes increasingly difficult to physically read, with sections of text swirling all over the page and grey text on a black background. All very creative, but all very unnecessary. Similarly, the plot deteriorates into sheer silliness, as the teen rebels pull off miracles while battling bureaucracy, zombies and an AI spaceship that is going insane, as well as the villainous BeiTech. The novel’s subtitle – The Illuminae Files_01 – and the slightly cliffhanger ending indicate that this may be the first in a series. Don’t bother.