Bookish Mixtapes: Illuminae

This is the second post/playlist in a series. If you want to hear a little more about why I make these playlists then scroll back through the blog posts to Bookish Mixtapes: Six Of Crows.

As always this post will be TOTALLY FULL OF SPOILERS. So if you haven’t read Illuminae, you might not want to read this.

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Link to playlist on Spotify

SONG (Artist): Explanation

WHAT ABOUT US (P!nk): In my opinion, this is one of the best “break up songs”. At the beginning of Illuminae, our protagonist Kady has just broken up with her boyfriend Ezra. After having gone through a lot together, they’ve reached a point in their relationship where they don’t know where to go. 

POMPEII (Bastille): The only world that Kady and Ezra know, the Kerenza colony, falls down  around them as BeiTech attacks the peaceful, yet illegal, colony.  

NAILS FOR BREAKFAST, TACKS FOR SNACKS (Panic! At The Disco): All of the remaining Kerenzens are shaken. They are not exactly sure what happened or what to do next. Danger is everywhere now. A lot of medication for PTSD is being passed out.

RISE UP (Imagine Dragons): This song is supposed to represent how Kady is able to rise against the authority figures who tell everyone not to worry. She hacks the system and is able to learn information from this moment on.

SAFE AND SOUND (Capital Cities): The people on the different ships now believe that they are safe in space, and have escaped BeiTech/ Lincoln. 

WHITE BLANK PAGE (Mumford And Sons): This song is to represent the empty air between Kady and Ezra. Shared trauma can create a bond like nothing else. They want to reach out to each other again after Kerenza. But Kady and Ezra are on different ships, and they broke up.

BLACK SUN (Death Cab For Cutie): A certain kind of darkness begins to fall over the ship. The feeling that the refugees haven’t quite escaped yet sets in. PTSD is also shaking the refugees.

DISTURBIA (Rihanna): What better disease song is there? What seems like PTSD has turned into the Shakes. A disease which turns its victims into violent, zombie-like vectors.

RIDE (Twenty One Pilots): Now the incoming Lincoln, the disease, it’s all starting to weigh on Kady and Ezra. They are some of the few passengers who know of these threats though. And that is due to Kady’s excellent tracking skills.

STARS (fun.): You know, because it’s in space.

BUDAPEST (George Ezra): Ezra shares that he and Kady broke up because he was unable to give her what she wanted, and what she deserved. He couldn’t leave Kerenza for fear of letting his mother (the psychopath, the home wrecker) find out where he is. “You deserve someone who will run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.

LET’S HURT TONIGHT (OneRepublic): And here. Here is where the shared trauma comes into play. Kady and Ezra are able to heal their relationship over messages. 

ROSES (The Chainsmokers): Kady receives a rose typed from “I’m sorry” repeated and spaced out to form the image. It’s beautiful and seems very time consuming on Ezra’s end.

HELL OR HIGH WATER (The Rescues): Darkness closing in. It sets an aesthetic.

HOW FAR WE’VE COME (Matchbox Twenty): Many people have begun to accept that this is the end. They are falling onto their “end of the world” plans. Lincoln is catching up and the jump point is far away. AIDAN is going off the wall. And Kady is switching ships to find her Ez.

THERE’S A GOOD REASON THESE TABLES ARE NUMBERED HONEY, YOU JUST HAVEN’T THOUGHT OF IT YET (Panic! At The Disco): The stakes are raised and no one is prepared. This song is to reflect how out of place all of these refugees are compared to the danger at hand.

REQUIEM IN D MINOR (Mozart): AIDAN set this song on the speakers as victims of the Shakes are released upon the captain of the ship. Upon all of the leaders of the ship who AIDAN believes is not fit to be in charge.

SEVEN NATION ARMY (White Stripes): Fighting in space!!

ALL ALONE (fun.): The victims are loose on the ship now. It turns out that Ezra is nowhere to be found. AIDAN has been pretending to be him, and luering Kady to their aid. She is alone in her struggle.

I JUST WANNA RUN (Downtown Fiction): She is angry and sad all at once. She doesn’t want to go on, but realizes that at this point she might be the only one able to save the Kerenzen refugees in spite of her pain.

SUGAR, WE’RE GOIN DOWN (Fall Out Boy): Kady begins to direct refugees around the diseased, bringing them to escape pods and hopefully safety on Hypatia.

VICTORIOUS (Panic! At The Disco): The inflicted are everywhere. Lincoln is almost here. She hardly escapes with her life from the zero G waste land that has become of the Alexander.

RADIOACTIVE (Imagine Dragons): Radiation poisoning to be exact. Kady escaped, destroyed the Lincoln, stopped the inflicted, saved thousands. But look what it cost her. This is a scene I like to compare to the opening of the Marvel movie Endgame.

RENEGADES (X Ambassadors): Oh look! She’s not dead! And Ezra is still alive! Now the refugees are packed in as they make their slow crawl toward hopeful safety. What started out as traumatic has become an absolute catastrophe. And who knows what the future has in store. A happy ending?