Ignite Me

Shatter Me #3

by Tahereh Mafi

The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and Hollow City, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love."

With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn't know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won't keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that's not all he wants with her.

The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal, and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and satisfying end.

Genres: Dystopia, Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Science Fiction, Fiction, Paranormal

408 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs. She can usually be found over-caffeinated and stuck in a book. Shatter Me is her first series, with television rights optioned by ABC Signature Studios; Furthermore, her first middle grade novel, is on shelves now, and Whichwood, its darker companion, will be on shelves November 14, 2017.

Reviews

[Ferdy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spoilers

I knew it. Ugh, what a ridiculous book. I think these YA romances are getting more and more unhealthy, creepy, unrealistic, and silly. The romance in this wasn't just cringey and fucked up, it was also cheesy, predictable, cliched, and nonsensical. The plot and the main characters weren't much better. Why did Juliette even have to end up with anyone? Why couldn't she have told both Adam and Warner to piss off and just enjoyed being a teenager with other interests who dated around before settling down. She didn't need to choose her life partner at age bloody seventeen.

Random, Repetitive, Ranty Thoughts:

-Juliette thinks Adam, Kenji and the rest of Omega Point were killed in the war against the Reesablishment/Anderson/evul government regime. Now she wants revenge not to mention sexy times with psycho Warner.

-There was hardly no action or plot, the majority of the book was spent on Juliette's whining, Warner being all emo, Juliette and Warner moaning about their pwecious feelings for each other, and Adam being a dick. The rest of Ignite Me consisted of Juliette and co coming up with a poorly thought out plan to kill evul leader Anderson and take over the Reestablishment with their x-men like powers. It was all so underwhelming and poorly executed.

-I'm not even Team Adam or Team Warner but the way Mafi twisted things and made 180 character changes so that Warner was the perfect love interest and Adam was the abusive, jealous, bitter psycho ex was beyond infuriating. I HATED Mafi's attempt at manipulating readers to hate one love interest and root for the other, it was insulting and plain lazy writing.

-I rolled my eyes at Warner's 'redemption' and at the attempt at making him seem more like a good guy than a bad guy. The whole thing was pathetic, some examples:

1. Juliette hated that Warner made her torture and possibly kill a toddler… It turned out the whole thing was just a simulation and nothing of the sort happened. And while Warner was enlightening Juliette of this he acted as if she was somehow magically meant to realise that the whole thing had been in her mind.
2. Juliette hated that he forced her to spend time with him and made her wear stupid dresses for him… Apparently, he only did that because he liked spending time with her and wanted her to feel happy.
3. Juliette hated that Warner kept her away from his soldiers and made her feel all alone… Duh, every single one of his soldiers were sex starved would be rapists. Silly Juliette, not realising that.
4. Juliette was disgusted by Warner killing one of his soldiers just because he stole some food… Aw, the poor baby only killed that soldier because he was an abusive wife beating douche.
5. Juliette wasn't happy that Warner read her journal and was generally a creepy monster… Well, Warner admitted that he was a selfish douche so naturally him admitting that made all his previous douchey, pervyness a-okay.
6. Juliette hated that he wanted to use her as a weapon… Well, it turned out he didn't, he was just pretending so he could study her and possibly find a way to save his mummy who had similar powers to Juliette.

-And on top of that Warner had a mean daddy and a sick mummy. So yea, he wasn't an evul, crazy, obsessed fucker at all he was a tortured hero who was doing his best to survive. Ugh.

-It was funny how hurt Warner was when Juliette thought he was an irredeemable wanker. What did he expect? Why would he think that Juliette would give him the benefit of the doubt after all he'd done? He hadn't done anything to earn her trust, loyalty, and friendship. And no, him helping her now and again meant nothing. He only did those things because he fancied her/was obsessed with her, not because he was a good person.
The whole thing was positively stupid, if Warner spent all his time acting like a freaky fuck then of course everyone would think he was a freaky fuck. How did Warner not get that?!

-Warner wasn't a psycho at all, he was just a poor, misunderstood, lonely boy who wanted to be loved. Yea, it was totally cool that he had Juliette imprisoned in his compound, mentally tortured her, watched her go nuts, and tried to force her to kill people. After all, it was all for her own good. Fucker.

-It was ridiculous that Warner got all pissed that Juliette thought badly of him. What did he expect when he acted like a controlling monster, made her believe she killed a toddler, and shot one of his soldiers in front of her?! Why did he get so outraged and righteous about Juliette's opinion of him?! How the hell was she to know that the toddler she thought she killed was just a simulation and that the man he killed was an abusive prick? How could she possibly know those things weren't as they seemed? After everything she witnessed and went through it was only natural that she'd think the worst of him. If he wanted her to think otherwise maybe he should have told her exactly what was what. He had no right to act all hurt and pissed at Juliette's opinion of him.

-I hated Adam's portrayal, I was never a fan of him to begin with but he was always depicted as a decent guy. In this though he turned into a grade A son-of-a-bitch-idiot-fucking-wanker-bitch. He was verbally, physically, and emotionally abusive towards Juliette all because she deigned to choose someone else over him. And he never once apologised for his disgusting behaviour, for some reason he thought he owned Juliette and thought he had a right to abuse her. He was awful.
The thing that annoyed me most was that the Adam in the first two books and the novellas was a good guy — he was calm, reasonable, considerate, and caring but in this he was a completely different person. The 180 change in his character was beyond ridiculous, I didn't buy it, there was no hint of Adam being a cruel, bitter, fucker in the rest of series so him suddenly being like that in this was nothing but manipulative shit just so he could look like the more rubbish love interest.
Why couldn't Adam stay as he was instead of being so threatening and abusive?? Why did his character have to be assassinated just so Warner could look good and he could look like a scumbag in comparison?! Why did the author have to resort to such contrived, lazy, pathetic, poorly written bullshit?! Why couldn't she trust readers to make up their own mind about Adam and Warner instead of spoon feeding us rubbish and trying to force us to feel a certain way?! Ugh, I'm so pissed.

-I rolled my eyes at Juliette banging on about how Warner understood her and how Adam never did. The only reason Warner supposedly knew Juliette better than Adam was because he used to perv on her in her cell, he could sense her emotions with his powers, and because he read her journal full of crazy thoughts. There was no real organic connection or understanding between Warner/Juliette.

-Why the hell did Juliette let Warner take her journal a second time?! It was private, but Warner took it anyway because he wanted to finish reading it and Juliette did nothing about it. WTF?! Why didn't she protest more? If someone stole and read a diary full of my thoughts I would flip the fuck out. Yea, I didn't buy Juliette being all passive and cool about Warner reading her inner most thoughts.
If Warner really loved and respected Juliette then he wouldn't have read her diary and personal ramblings. It was like he was studying her so he could groom her into falling for him. It was sick.

-This whole book was manipulative in how it twisted things to make Warner seem like a good guy and the perfect match for Juliette whilst making Adam come across as a douche who never understood Juliette. I didn't appreciate Warner/Juliette's supposed suitability being shoved in my face, if they were really right for each other then the author wouldn't have needed to bang on about how perfect they were together instead of letting us readers see for ourselves.

-The secondary characters were pretty good. Castle, James, Alia, Lila, and Kenji were all decent characters, I wanted to know more about them instead of reading about insufferable Juliette, Warner, and Adam.

-I didn't like how Juliette was constantly surrounded by guys, she had hardly had no female interactions. And the female secondary characters that were around her had very minor roles. They only spoke rarely and when they did it was just a few sentences here and there. Yea, not impressed.

-WTF was with Warner constantly calling Juliette love and dear, it made him sound like a cross between an old grandma and a pretentious git.

-Was it really necessary for Juliette to call Warner Aaron? It was cringey and dumb.

-Are you kidding me with Juliette ending up being the leader of everything?! She was a clueless, crazy, idiot who was more concerned about her love life than anything else no matter what she claimed. There's no way she could be a great leader, anyone would have been better than her.

-All in all, I LOATHE LOATHE LOATHED this. If the author had written Warner/Juliette as the HEA without resorting to sabotaging Adam's character I might have actually enjoyed it. Sadly, he was just a tool purely used for making Warner look amazing and yea, I'm not impressed with cop outs and lazy writing. I doubt I'll read any of Mafi's future books.

Review before reading:

Ugh, it's so obvious that Juliette will choose psycho Warner because he ignites her or some bullshit. I want Juliette to fuck both Adam and Warner, then dump them, and then shag her way through America. That would be awesomely beautiful.

[Cookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda disappointed. I love Tahereh Mafi, but it is clear that world-building and action-writing are not her strong suits. The action scenes felt rushed. Anderson died too fast and too easily. We didn't get to witness a large-scale epic war. The ending provided no real closure to the story. What happens to Juliette after she killed Anderson? How will a 17-year-old girl with barely a middle school education lead a global movement, let alone governing any country? I wanted more.
However, Warner, Kenji, and Juliette's emotional maturity almost made up for the things that lacked.
About Warner:

Dear Kenji:

Hey, Juliette:

And Adam:

Edit after cover reveal:
WOWOWOWOWOWOW I can't believe our "Ignite Me" guess was right! Good job Shatter Me fandom.

Original:
Here's an interesting observation: I've noticed that the titles Shatter Me, Destroy Me, and Unravel Me are all referring to the manners of what Juliette does to Warner. In Destroy me Warner said: "That this girl would know exactly how to shatter me." Then he went on and said in Unravel Me: "You destroy me." In addition to that, Juliette, also in Unravel Me, related to the term when thinking about Warner: "I want to unravel him."

So....is it delusional to hope for the seemingly impossible?

[jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

“lift your hips up for me, love” 🤰🏽🤰🏽🤰🏽
that’s it. that’s the review.

[Mitchii · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading this book, I have one thousand and one thoughts running inside, trying to escape out of my head. And I think it took a while before I processed everything that I have just absorbed. And they were plenty. So many. As a forewarn though Ignite Me was different from what I expected it to be but in some ways all the same. I’m still reeling everything in to be quite honest. But here I go; I’m going to spill my guts right about now:

The Shatter Me series is for me not really a dystopia novel per se. It’s not about the world they were living in but it’s about this girl, namely Juliette, and her personal journey. And that’s why I wasn’t completely surprised when it ended when things normally should be just starting. In a way it feels like it was halted in the middle of the story but I liked how the author ended where things were about to begin. I think it was clever way to end a story making readers think while leaving glimmer of hope for the characters we all fell in love. Although I think that that build-up was stretched-out and it fast-forwarded the last events. In fact, despite the all too many disclosures there were still questions that were left unanswered. Yes, I would have wanted more but then I realized that it’s not about Anderson and the war. The story always led me back to Juliette. It’s not about the result but it was how she got there.

I really loved reading Juliette’s journey; from this timid little girl who only had pen and paper as an emotional outlet to being this brave girl leading a rebellion. And while I do like how strong and confident she was now, I can’t help but still doubt on how fast she transformed to this new persona of hers. I also do think that she isn’t capable of leading. At least not yet as she’s still didn’t feel whole to me. She isn’t ready, that responsibility is too big for her, even for the new Juliette.

Here’s a revelation that shocked me: I cannot hate Adam. I just can’t. From all of the people in there the only person who I find the most transparent and vulnerable was Adam. No, I don’t condemn his actions towards Juliette. But really, can you blame him? He was just speaking his mind. He had his emotions on his sleeves; his reaction to Juliette’s changes was acceptable as it was real. I can’t fault him; the guy had a bruised ego and a broken heart. And those made me see him more. In fact, I actually came to like him now as opposed to the two novels. He was so raw in here, so exposed, that I get to glimpse the real Adam amidst this big brouhaha between him, Juliette and Warner.

Is that my cue to tackle my most favorite part of this book? I think I have said everything I need to say in this manifesto . I might tweak it up a bit later on but basically I sort of hit right on the mark. So I don’t think I need to add more. But in the first two books we’ve seen him too closed, expression clipped and emotions contained. But reading about Warner’s vulnerability and struggles were still shocking. So it was delightful to see him, well, happy. I must say the intimate scenes between Warner and Juliette shared were scorching hot. I think I came to a sensory overload. But basically my ship is sailing pretty far to dreamland. I completely and totally satisfied. (You should see my huge grin after those hot scenes. I will never look at a boardroom table the same way ever again. And these honeysuckle soaps, where can I buy them?)

Ah, Kenji. This man is just so awesome beyond words. I couldn’t even count how many times he cracked me up but surprise, surprise when he admitted that he too was broken as everyone else. It also tires him to be this jokester, masking the pain behind his jokes. But I really, really loved his platonic relationship with Juliette. They interact so animatedly, whether they sharing moments on the rooftop or teasing Juliette’s when she kept on ogling Warner while he bench-pressed. It’s not even Warner or Adam who had been there on her mission—it was Kenji. Oh Kenji, you also had me.

I’m bit sad that one of my favorite series had come to an end. It’s always bittersweet to me. Only a few books that got me this overly excited, and definitely this is one of them. I’m still too hang up and I probably will take a while before I completely get these emotions out of my system. I don’t think I will ever be.


***

Plug: My little project called Project Sixty-Two

Pre-Reading Comment #3: (10/17/2013)

“That this girl would know exactly how to shatter me” – Warner (Destroy Me)

“You destroy me.” – Warner (Unravel Me)

“I want to believe in the boy with a tortured childhood and an abusive father. I want to understand him. I want to unravel him.” – Juliette (Unravel Me)

And there’s Warner’s tattoo: IGNITE

NOW GO FORTH AND FANGIRL!

Pre-Reading Comment #3: (08/08/2013)

Oh sweet baby pandas & all the cute kinds!!! We have a title & cover people: IGNITE ME!!! IGNITE ME!!! So many feels. I'm drowning in joy!!! The title has Warner's name written all over and under!!!

Pre-Reading Comment #2: (06/28/2013)

I just saw the teaser summary of Untitled Me (well, still no title…)

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she’ll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew—about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam—was wrong.

This indicates that:

1. More Warner scenes.
2. More time together: more Warner + Juliette interactions.
3. More Warner.

I’m solid Team Warner. And I approved this plot!

PS. To anyone who doubt if Warner loves Juliette, Ms. Mafi even wrote it in my copy:



*winks*

Pre-Reading Comment #1:

This is going to be a long wait. And Ms. Mafi I'm holding you on these promises:







TEAM 62 (Warner) FOREVER!!!

[Claudia Lomelí · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book this book this book was just so PERFECT.

OH GOD, it was everything I wanted and more! It has been a really LONG time since a book left me so happy and warm inside. I'm floating. And I flew through the pages of this book, I finished it in just one day and I couldn't stop. I couldn't get enough.

GOD, Warner. Warner was so beautiful in this book. Every single word he spoke was beautiful and REALLY, every time he was in the pages of this book I was grinning like an idiot, because that is the effect Aaron Warner Anderson has in me. I'm totally in love with this beautiful broken boy. I love the way he always believed in Juliette and how much he loved her and MY HEART IS IN PAIN BECAUSE THE FEELS. We learn so much about Warner in this book and I can't thank Tahereh Mafi enough for that. And for writing such an awesome, badass, interesting and beautiful character. Warner have just made it to the TOP 3 of my book boyfriends, and I have to tell you, is really hard to earn a spot there (yeah I know I'm crazy).

I also really loved the whole development in Juliette's character. She was so PROACTIVE and FEARLESS in this book and I was so so so thrilled for her! I liked this Juliette a lot. She didn't frustrate me at all and I am genuinely happy for all she has achieved :')...

And ah... I highlighted half of the sentences in this book. Tahereh Mafi's writting never ceases to leave completely BREATHLESS. And Kenji, I loved him in this book, too...

Why can't I have more of this trilogy? I want an epilogue and I just want more Warner please.

OH GOD I'm so in love with this book.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My reviews of the rest of the series:
#1 Shatter Me
#1.5 "Destroy Me"
2. Unravel Me
#2.5 "Fracture Me"
#3 Ignite Me
#4 Restore Me

O.M.G.

I can't even.

I've lost the ability to can.






This book didn't go anywhere that I thought it would, but wow, did I like it! I haven't felt this emotionally attached to characters or a story since I read Clockwork Princess. I devoured this book in a day, and now I don't know what to feel because the series is over.

I don't want to say too much, for fear of spoiling something. But if you want to know what I'm feeling, proceed with caution:

OMG WARNERRRRRRRRRRR

RYW#T@IQA;OEGHI@%#*(Q#A




His character arc through this series was incredible, almost as incredible as Juliette's. I can't believe they ended up together. Like. Wow. I don't think I've read a YA book that surprised me this much in terms of the love triangle. PROPS TO YOU, TAHEREH MAFI!

And Kenji. My beloved Kenji.

He might be even funnier in this one than he has been in the previous two. If that's possible.

Basically, I was a bottle of emotions reading this book. And I exploded during the not one but multiple steamy scenes that I'm still kind of shocked she was allowed to include in a YA book. Like, Warner + Juliette have way more chemistry than Adam + Juliette. That's all I'm saying.

*le sigh*


Basically, all the mad love to Tahereh Mafi.

This is an epic conclusion.

All I have left for this review is:

[Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥ · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.
No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.”

Do you still remember my review of “Unravel me”?
Yes?!
Okay! Then let me tell you something:

“Ignite me” was so much better than the last book!!!!

I don’t know how Tahereh Mafi did it but she killed me!!!! I died about a thousand deaths while I read this book and I have absolutely no clue how I even survived to read this!!! Gosh, that book left me reeling and laughing and gasping and crying and swooning and drooling and I had absolutely no idea what to do with all those feels!!!
I bit my nails, I was desperate, I was hopeful, I wanted to smash the book against a wall - which would have been pretty bad because I read it on my e-reader and I’m quite certain it wouldn’t have survived this special kind of treatment *lol* - I wanted to shake some of the characters, wanted to yell at them, I wanted to laugh with them, I wanted to punch some sense into their heads. (Yeah, Adam it’s you I’m talking about!!!) And most of all I really, really wanted them to be happy and fine!!!

So yeah, I think you get the idea! ;-)
It was an emotional rollercoaster and I actually loved every second of it! *lol*

That said I guess I can finally jump to the actual review! I hope you manage to read until the end. If not: You’ve been brave and I don’t blame you! ;-P

The plot:

"My eyes are filling fast with tears and I blink and blink but the world is a mess and I want to laugh because all I can think is how horrible and beautiful it is, that our eyes blur the truth when we can’t bear to see it."

The book basically starts where “Unravel me” left off. Juliette has been saved by Warner and was brought back to base while she was unconscious. In the first chapter we learn that Omega Point has been destroyed completely and that Warner had no other choice than to smuggle Juliette into his private quarters. Of course our heroine is not happy about the bad new and wants to find out what truly happened and if anyone is still alive. So yeah our golden boy and our lethal girl decide to take a trip to the place where Omega Point used to be and it’s actually there, where the plot thickens and everything gains momentum! ;-) Since I don’t want to spoil you I decided to leave it at that, I’m pretty certain that most of you have already read the entire trilogy though.
So for everyone who’s already read the books and for everyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled:

The character’s section is going to be full, I repeat, full of spoilers!!! So beware my fellow readers! Ye be warned!!! ;-P *lol*

The characters:

Juliette: I loved how self-confident and strong Juliette has become. She’s finally capable of forming her own opinions and she doesn’t take – forgive me my crude choice of words – shit anymore! *lol* The old Juliette would have cowered and accepted the way Adam treated her, the new Juliette kicked ass!!! Quite literally as well! XD I was so proud of her! She finally had the courage to stand up for herself and her beliefs and she didn’t only make her own decisions but also made sure to follow through with them! It was amazing to watch her transformation and I was so glad she finally found herself!!! There was only one thing I didn’t like about her and that was how she let Warner suffer! How dare you Juliette! How dare you to break his wonderful and gentle heart!!!! I mean jeez I know you had to think things through, but seriously!!!! It’s WARNER we’re talking about!!!! That awesome hot guy who’s crazy and madly in love with you!!!! XD Open your freakin eyes!!! *lol* Okay, okay enough of the rant, everything is fine! ;-)

”Or,” I say to him, “I leave, find your father, kill him, and deal with the consequences on my own.”
Warner fights a smile and fails.
He glances down and laughs just a little before looking me right in the eye. He shakes his head.
“What’s so funny?”
“My dear girl.”
“What?”
“I have been waiting for this moment for a long time now.”

"I can’t be that girl anymore.
For so many years I lived in constant terror of myself. Doubt had married my fear and moved into my mind, where it built castles and ruled kingdoms and reigned over me, bowing my will to its whispers until I was little more than an acquiescing peon, too terrified to disobey, too terrified to disagree.
I had been shackled, a prisoner in my own mind.”

”I remember it so well.” I hesitate. “Dying. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced. I couldn’t scream because my lungs were torn apart or full of blood. I don’t know. I just had to lie there, trying to breathe, hoping to drop dead as quickly as possible. And the whole time,” I say, “the whole time I kept thinking about how I’d spent my entire life being a coward, and how it got me nowhere. And I knew that if I had the chance to do it all again, I’d do it differently. I promised myself I’d finally stop being afraid.”

”This isn’t about Adam or Warner,” I tell him. “This is about me and what I want. This is about me finally understanding where I want to be in ten years. Because I’m going to be alive, Kenji. I will be alive in ten years, and I’m going to be happy. I’m going to be strong. And I don’t need anyone to tell me that anymore. I am enough, and I always will be.”

Adam: Well, I think I’ve to take that back. Nothing is fine when it comes to Adam. Adam… that name… I just have to think about him and I become aggressive. Oh man, I seriously have issues with that boy!!! I already wanted to slap some sense into him while I read “Unravel me”, reading about his character in “Ignite me” I was actually tempted to punch him in the face! Gosh!! That stupid, stupid, stubborn, selfish, obnoxious and incorrigible jerk!!! And that’s actually me putting it more than just mildly! I hate him, I loathe him, I want to scratch him with my fingernails! How dare he to be so egoistic and mean!? When I read chapter 27 I was so angry I wanted to slap him in his stupid pretty face!!! Saying that he was happier when he thought Juliette was dead?!!?? I mean seriously!!??? WHAT THE FREAKIN HELL!??!!! Don’t you have any decency?! And then he even has the nerve to throw her out and to keep his relation to Warner a secret? *grrrrrr* I could go on and on about how much I despise him now, but I think I’ll just leave it at that. ADAM is dead to me and the fact he decided to get to know Warner in the end still doesn’t change anything about my opinion! What a stupid fool!!!

”It’s not charity,” I snap. “He cares about me – and I care about him!”
Warner nods, unimpressed. “You should get a dog, love. I hear they share much the same qualities.”

What do you know about being alive?” he demands. “You wouldn’t say a word when I first found you. You were afraid of your own shadow. You were so consumed by your grief and guilt that you’d gone almost completely insane – living so far inside your own head that you had no idea what happened to the world while you were gone.”

You don’t even know what you’re saying,” Kenji tells him. “You’re acting crazy – “
“I was happier,” Adam says, “when I thought she was dead.”
“You don’t mean that. Don’t say things like that, man. Once you say that kind of shit you can’t take it back –“
“Oh, I mean it,” Adam says. “I really, really mean it.” He finally looks at me. Fists clenched. “Thinking you were dead,” he says to me, “was so much better. It hurt so much less than this.”

“And right now, I can’t say I know what Adam would do if I were dying in front of him. I’m not sure if he would save my life. And that uncertainty alone makes me certain that something wasn’t right between us. Something wasn’t real.
Maybe we both fell in love with the illusion of something more.”

Warner:

He’s standing at the front door, hands shoved casually in his pockets, no fewer than six different guns pointed at his face.”

Oh Warner… *sighs dreamily* With every book I read I loved that boy more and more! He still is awesomeness on two legs and if possible he got even more awesome throughout the book. Gosh, how much I love him!!! I’m Warner trash, I want to have his babies, he’s the perfect man and he’s easily become my no.1 book boyfriend. (Well, truth be told Will and he seem to share that place now. *LOL*) We finally saw more of his vulnerable side and I loved E.V.E.R.Y single S.E.C.O.N.D of it!!! I loved how he came to Juliette rescue when Adam and her had that argument back at Adam’s house and I was so heartbroken when he tried to hide his scars in chapter 32. And good god, I swear when I read chapter 50 it broke my heart into tiny little pieces. I was crying so hard I was even forced to take a break. That chapter literally killed me! I was so overwhelmed by my emotions I could barely breathe. My heart ached so much… that poor lost boy, to read that chapter was pure torture and just to remember it is actually enough to cause me to weep again. *sniff* Warner suffered and hurt so much throughout the entire book and all I wanted to do was to cradle him and to take his pain away. No one deserves to be so miserable and alone and I really hated Adam for hiding his and James’s true identity. If I’m entirely honest I also kind of hated Juliette for being so indecisive and when they finally hit it off I was so happy I grinned the entire time. =))))))

I’ve said it before, love, and I’m sorry I have to say it again, but you do not understand the choices I have to make. You don’t know what I’ve seen and what I’m forced to witness every single day.” He hesitates. “And I wouldn’t want you to. But do not presume to understand my actions,” he says, finally meeting my eyes. “Because if you do, I can assure you you’ll only be met with disappointment. And if you insist on continuing to make assumptions about my character, I’ll advise you only this: assume you will always be wrong.”

“He wasn’t trying to patronize me.
He was enjoying himself.
Aaron Warner Anderson, chief commander and regent of Sector 45, son of the supreme commander of The Reestablishment.
He has a soft spot for fashion.”

”I have no one to impress,” he says. “No one who cares about what happens to me. I’m not in the business of making friends, love. My job is to lead an army, and it’s the only thing I’m good at. No one,” he says, “would be proud of the things I’ve accomplished. My mother doesn’t even know me anymore. My father thinks I’m weak and pathetic. My soldiers want me dead. The world is going to hell. And the conversations I have with you are the longest I’ve ever had.”

Warner takes a hard, shaky breath. “Then what did you say to him?”
Seven seconds die between us.
“Nothing,” I whisper.
Warner stills.
I don’t breathe.
No one speaks for what feels like forever.
“Of course,” Warner finally says. He looks pale, unsteady. “You said nothing. Of course.”

”The bed is empty.
Warner has collapsed in the corner.
He’s curled into himself, knees pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs, his head buried in his arms. And he’s shaking.
Tremors are rocking his entire body.
I’ve never, ever seen him look like a child before. Never, not once, not in all the time I’ve known him. But right now, he looks just like a little boy. Scared. Vulnerable. All alone.”

”It’s the only way I know how to exist,” he says. “In a world where there is so much to grieve and so little good to take? I grieve nothing. I take everything.”
I stare into his eyes for what feels like forever.
He leans into my ear. Lowers his voice. “Ignite, my love. Ignite.”

Kenji: I think that boy is the most complex side character I ever had the pleasure to come across. *lol* He’s funny and serious at the same time and he cares so deeply for his friends that it’s sometimes even kind of painful to watch. I loved how he cared about Juliette and how he tried his best to support her. It was pretty obvious that he didn’t agree with her opinion about Warner, yet he still accepted her decision and tried everything possible in order to understand her motives. I really wish there would be more Kenji’s out in the world and I truly hope that Kenji finds true love in the next book. Do you hear me, Mafi? I want Kenji to have a girlfriend in “Restore me”!!! He deserves it, he sooo does!!! XD If you haven’t written a girlfriend for him already, you still got plenty of time to change this!!! ;-) So yeah, do it!!!!! Oh and by the way: That’s an order and no request!!! *LOL*

“You’re not bothered by all the heavy breathing going on over here?” He makes a haphazard gesture towards us.
I jump away from Adam reflexively.
“No,” James says, crossing his arms. “Are you?”
“Disgust was my general reaction, yeah.”
“I bet you wouldn’t think it was gross if it was you.”
A long pause.
“You make a good point,” Kenji finally says. “Maybe you should find me a lady in this crappy sector. I’m okay with anyone between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five.” He points at James. “So how about you get on that, thanks.”

“Good for you. I’ll buy you a balloon the minute the world stops shitting on itself.”
“Thank you,” I say, pleased. “You’re a good teacher.”
“I’m good at everything,” he points out.
“Humble, too.”
“And really good looking.”
I choke on a laugh.

“It just gets really heavy sometimes.” He looks away. “Too heavy. Even for me. And some days I don’t want to laugh,” he says. “I don’t want to be funny. I don’t want to give a shit about anything. Some days I just want to sit on my ass and cry. All day long.” His hands stop moving against the mats. “Is that crazy?” he asks quietly, still not meeting my gaze.

”Who’s Bruce Lee?”
“Who’s Bruce Lee?” Kenji asks, horrified. “Oh my God. We can’t even be friends anymore.”
“Why? Was he a friend of yours?”
“You know what,” he says, “just stop. Just – I can’t even talk to you right now.”

James: Oh that little boy was just so adorable and I had to laugh so hard whenever he spoke with Warner! Those two brothers had such an awesome chemistry and I loved how open and unprejudiced James was! Unlike Adam he actually saw the good in Warner and I just loved him for it! XD

Warner studies Jame’s face with rapt fascination. He bends down on one knee, meets James at eye level. “And who are you?” he asks.
Everyone in the room is silent, watching.

”Why do you call her ‘love’?” James asks. “I’ve heard you say that before, too. A lot. Are you in love with her? I think Adam’s in love with her. Kenji’s not in love with her, though. I already asked him.”
Warner blinks at him.
“Well?” James asks.
“Well what?”
“Are you in love with her?”
“Are you in love with her?”
“What?” James blushes. “No. She’s like a million years older than me.”
“Would anyone like to take over this conversation?” Warner asks, looking around in the group.

”So, wait – then you’re not the bad guy,” James says all of a sudden. “You’re on our side, right?”
Warner turns slowly to meet James’s eyes. Says nothing.
“Well?” James asks, impatient. “Aren’t you on our side?”
Warner blinks. Twice. “So it seems,” he says, looking as though he can hardly believe he’s saying it.

Anderson: Thank god he was finally shot and didn’t even get a proper chance to say anything! I swear everything that man ever said revolted me immensely and I’m just glad that it’s over and that no word is ever going to escape his lips again. XD

”And shoot him in the forehead.
Twice.
Once for Adam.
Once for Warner.”

So yeah, I loved the entire book and if there is one thing I didn’t like than it’s just the fact that the trilogy is over and that the ending was too fast. I would have liked to see more of the aftermath and I kind of hoped for some sort of epilogue, but considering the fact that Tahereh Mafi is going to write three other books I don’t feel the urge to complain! *lol*

All told, I highly recommend the “Shatter me” trilogy and if you haven’t read it already you definitely should!!!! ;-)

And last but not least: This was a buddy read with the awesome Megha and I was sooo damn glad I was able to talk about all those feels!!! Thanks a lot! You rock!!! XD

”You know,” he whispers, his lips at my ear, “the whole world will be coming for us now.”
I lean back. Look into his eyes.
“I can’t wait to watch them try.”

[Madita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread: I just realized I never wrote a review on goodreads for this book so here we are:

5/5 stars this book is my comfort read.

Juliette is one of my favorite female mc because of her character development and the way she never gave up and continued to grow and grow and become a stronger person. When you compare Juliette from book one to in this book, you can see a massive change in not only the way she talks and thinks about herself but also because of how she is respected by other people.
I relate to a lot of Juliette’s thoughts in book one so I guess she is a very personal character to me and seeing her grow makes my heart warm every single time.

Warner is obviously my book boyfriend and I feel like that already says enough but here we go. I really didn’t like Aaron in book one, not the first time nor any other time I have reread it because coming from Juliette’s perspective, he was a horrible person.
Now he has always has a lot of respect for Juliette and yet again in this book it just shows how much Aaron really cares for her.
The way he starts expressing his feelings towards her make me emotional and honestly jealous because I want someone to talk about me like that.
The chemistry between the two also finally explodes in this book and I mean it’s definitely there.
You can tell that they are a match made in heaven.
Both keep pushing each other to be better:
Aaron keeps pushing Juliette to be comfortable in her skin and understand that her power doesn’t make her something evil or something that everyone should hate and
Juliette keeps pushing Aaron to be a better person not just to her which works (kinda).
You can just tell that their relationship has respect in it and lots of learning and growing together.

Kenji is obviously my platonic soulmate so I can’t forget about him. He brings everything to the table okay:
He is a loyal friend that will stand up for you in any situation and is your partner in crime. He’s funny and loving and even if he doesn’t have any love life advise he sure does have lots of advice for how you can grow as a character and jump over your shadow.
We get a lot more depth for Kenji in this book and find out more about his past and his relationship with everyone else like Castle and Brandon.
Him and Juliette have such a great friendship and I find that they have the perfect balance of a teasing and fun but also caring and loyal friendship.

We get a lot of other characters that make the entire group grow and we are at the beginning of the forming of a found family trope which is my favorite thing of all times.

Now writing wise I do live Tahereh and I still to this day love the crossing out technique she used in her first book and just because she made Juliette a character that I really really like.
Plot wise we are getting quite a lot of actions but also ✨drama✨ on love island which we all know is super fun. This book has a lot of tension and the story is written at a good pace and the set up for book four is there. Yet again I think the book had enough tension and enough serious moments to make me never feel bored at all and yes there us a slight love triangle in here but as you will find out pretty quickly, you can’t really choose Adam.

Now about Adam. Honestly biggest change in character ever but somehow it all fits together and makes sense especially in correlation to their chemistry.

That’s all that’s my take on my comfort book and yeah BEST LOVE CONFESSION ON THIS PLANET IN HERE LIKE WOW AARON KNOWS HIS WAY WITH WORDS



Had to reread yet again

[brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

“i want you to make a list of all of your favorite things, and i want to be on it.”

“the perfect book doesn’t exi-“ WRONG the perfect book does exist and it’s this book RIGHT HERE
— i honestly can’t put into words how i felt while reading this bc i’m just overwhelmed with all these emotions rn, like it was a full on roller coaster. i’m going to need at least 5 business days to process this book.
okay, so hear me out, CHAPTER 55

— juliette’s growth from the first book to now is PHENOMENAL. from being this shy timid girl to a whole girl boss who doesn’t take shit from anyone anymore, YOU LOVE TO SEE IT. i loved watching her gain more confidence and finally become her own person. she knows who she is and what she wants and is ready to take charge and rule the nation. she finally stands up for herself, more specifically to *cough* ew adam.
i was fully invested in her friendship with kenji—their banter is EVERYTHING, my fav comedic duo 🫶🏼
kenji is carrying this whole series on his mf back

— warner, *sighs dreamily* idk how it’s possible to love him more than i already do. i’m literally on my knees for him. pick me, choose me, love me. i would do anything for aaron warner!! he needs a dog? i can bark. he could run me over with his car and i would drop to my knees, kiss his hands and beg for his forgiveness.

”you can have anything of mine you want. you can have all of it.”

kicking my legs n shit—sir i want YOU.

”lift your hips for me, love”

WHY ARE MY LEGS WIDE OPEN

— his name who shall not be spoken is a certified douche and i just kept hoping he would, excuse me, ✨drop dead✨ just when you thought his character could not get any worse, BAM he gets 100 times worse. this man is just big ball of possessive rage that needs to seek help. the urge to just punch him in the face.
as aaron warner says he is "some bland, utterly replaceable automaton."

no thoughts, head empty. just the pager scene. NOTHING WILL EVER TOP THIS SCENE, THIS IS GOD TIER PEAK ROMANCE. WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS LOSING MY MIND, NOW JUST IMAGINE IF WE GOT IT IN WARNER’S POV!!
i’m having a breakdown while writing this, that scene is the apex of literature.

[anmol (wangxian's version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

in conclusion, warner can choke me or whatever

[chan ☆ · Rating 2 out of 5]

what in the wattpad hell did i just fcking read

this is a CALL OUT to everyone that loves these books. because i know what you are. you're just horny. because there was um no plot to this book and it astonishes me that this was published.

this lovely book picks up right where the last one left off. jewel is with wingnut jr. and she is continuing to fall for him. what a surprise. she decides she wants to see if any of her pals are alive (since we didn't get to see the fcking battle that was built up to in book 2) after the battle. wow they're alive what a fcking shocker. everyone kumbayas except for adumb duh, because let's demonize the cast off love interest. and of course everyone else sees the light, joins forces with gem stone & wise cracker, and they all defeat evil together.

i seriously made that plot sound workable. it wasn't. but that wasn't even my biggest issue with the book.

i was annoyed af with the love interest situation. as i've said many times, triangles are my favorite shape. but ms. mafi had to ruin that for me. in all fcking aspects.
--------------------------------
first we have wakadoodle "hell's empty and the devil is in my pants" warner. besides his problematic past i was willing to open myself up to loving him. we like a redeemable main character but he turned out to be not so likable. let me count the ways and regale you with some quotes:

- he gas lights the FUCK out of jeweltone and makes himself someone to feel sorry for, ex:

"because i do not have the luxury of philosophizing over scruples when i'm forced to act on basic instinct every day"

"don't ask me questions you already know the answers to. twice i've laid myself bare for you and all it's gotten me was a bullet wound a broken heart"

- he stole her journal that she wrote in at a vulnerable time in her life and quoted it back to her. she didn't like this:

"you think you know me just because you've read my journal- you stupid, prying, privacy-stealing asshole"

in short: regardless of whether he ate mad pussy near the end of this book, he's kind of a fucking psychopath. i don't care if his murders were justified. he is emotionally damaged from his upbringing and needs some seriously therapy before he enters into any sort of relationship. oh yeah and stop stalking women, thank you.
--------------------------------
then we have the lovely adam:

i'll keep this short. but turning adam into an asshole was probably the cheapest move on the part of this author. it would have been so much more satisfying for adam to idk tragically fall on a knife, or accept that jellyjam has a new man or just be really sad idk. but to make him hateable was such a cop out. how an author handles the choice at the end of a love triangle really says a lot about their writing. and making adam into some incel asshole was just cheap. unsurprising, but cheap.

BUT CHANDLER YOU GAVE THIS TRASH 2 STARS WHAT GIVES?????

1. gem of ice actually grew as a character. she stopped sniveling, i didn't see any crossed out words, it was a nice change of pace. that alone really made it bearable to read. i think she was out there wilin a little bit with her "i'm the savior of this dictatorship" but whatever. the plot was trash, i knew it, but at least she was trying to do something about it.

2. the blue balls did evaporate and we did get some fucking. which was necessary given the lead up.

in summary: this was not enjoyable to me. the best part was when juliet was drawn a bath. if you want to read about people fucking go read some smut/romance/chick lit because at least that has a plot.

*****************
loins on fire; a buddy read with sabrien & kayla

[Whitney Atkinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

VIEW MY REVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQj1x...

March 2018
What can I say. This is my favorite book of all time. Nothing brings me more strength than chapter thirty-nine. Nothing brings me more peace than chapter fifty-eight. I will never get over how every single chapter feels like a roller coaster. I will never not have to put this book down to catch my breath, to cry, to bring myself back to the real world. I've written enough essays about how much this series means to me so i'll stop being emo, but Juliette's growth and her resilience in this book is awe-inspiring. And so incredibly relevant and inspiring to my own mental health. When I annotated this book last September, I attacked the pages with blue highlighter to mark my favorite quotes from Juliette about staying strong, and there's one that makes me cry every time I read the book:

I've been here before, I tell myself. I've been lonelier than this, more hopeless than this, more desperate than this. I've been here before and I survived. I can get through this.

Last semester when I had a relapse of my anxiety that was so debilitating I nearly dropped out of school, I would tell this quote to myself. Rereading it after recovering from that point in my life just slammed into me because I'm so grateful for it. I'm going to cry again right now as I'm typing this just remembering how much this book touches the deepest corners of my heart and speaks so true to my own fears and the way my anxiety influences my life. I know Juliette's not real, but if she were, I would want to hug her and never let go. I want to hug this book and never let go.

I truly want to sob every time I remember this isn't the last book in the series anymore. There's 2 days left until Restore Me comes out and I'm so terrified but so, so thrilled. This series has healed me enough to last for a lifetime; I can't wait to see where we go from here.

September 2017
YES I already read this book once this year buT THEN RESTORE ME WAS ANNOUNCED AND DYLAN SENT ME A COPY TO ANNOTATE SO LET ME LIVE!!!!
So 50% of me reading this book was me being like "omg restore me prediction omg easter egg i didn't notice before omg new theory omg restore me foreshadowing," and the other 50% was me roasting warner and how much i still hate the ending of this book. a lot of people accuse me for putting shatter me on a pedestal but i wish i could mail this copy to anyone who says so because half of my annotations in the first half of this book are like "warner can fuck off instead of trying to get her to be in love with him" and "i hate when he does stuff like this." the boy is problematic, but what can i say.
I think this reread really just solidified how much I fucking love this book for Juliette's character growth. I had an entire highlighter color to highlight the quotes and scenes in which Juliette was particularly badass, and there were entire sections that I think are really undiscussed in the fandom that Juliette really shines through on her own. She has an entire conversation with Kenji about, "It's not about Adam or Warner, it's about me and finding my own strength," and I think it's one of the most important parts of the series and an absolute turning point. It makes me want to cry every time I reread the scene that she talks about, "I was locked up in an asylum for 264 days because I made myself a prisoner to my own thoughts and suffering, but I never even contemplated that my own strength could have broken me out of there with my bare hands." It's so sad, but so revolutionary for Juliette's character development. The way that she unendingly fights for her friends and her world, as well as how she is ALWAYS nice and considerate to people no matter the circumstance, is always really inspiring to me. She's such a good person even when she doesn't need to be, and her empathy and compassion is really something I envy.
I really won't be able to stand her suffering in Restore Me because she is such a precious child of mine that I want to protect.
And since this is the fifth time I've reread this and I think you understand the depths of my feelings for it already, I'll go. But EEEEEEEEPPP RESTORE ME

April 2017
This is the first time that I've read this and finished it, clutching it to my chest, thinking, "this book is flawless. there are zero issues. every action has a meticulously cultivated intention behind it. every single one of these characters deserves love and happiness. (except for adam, he can choke.)
when i reread unravel me i was scared that i was losing my passion for this series because it really didn't make me as emotional as it used to but i legit cried during this reread at least 10 times so i guess i just wasn't feelin unravel me at that moment because i was feelin this every goddamn second.

(i also hate rereading these because it makes me realize that half the fanfictions i have written are super out of character and i have so much wrong info that i forgot about. but oh well.)

March 2015
2nd reread (idk why i didn't re-review this after i reread it the first time)
what can i even say. it gets better every time i reread it, every time i notice new small details. (did you know delalieu has a mustache??????)
i can still point out its flaws and i still am really frustrated with the ending but at this point, i know this book so well that i can see it like it's a freakin movie. it's insane. i love juliette so so so so so so so so so so so so so much, holy shiitake mushrooms. okay. i don't know how to pull myself out of this slump coming on. jeez.

January 2014
I'm filming a review but it will not be up until a couple days after the release date

but guys, prepare yourselves.
anything feelings you had about anything are probably gonna do a 180.

August 2013
I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT
I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE IGNITE ME AND THE EYELASHES WOULD BE FLAMES
BUT THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER
even though i hate the color orange BUT THAT'S OKAY OH MY GODS THIS IS MORE THAN FANTASTIC

BUT

warner. why would she. warner. shes just making it seem like. warner.

i don't like this. i do like it but i dont like it
ja feel?

June 2013
WE HAVE A DESCRIPTION ADFHJASKHFLASJDHFLSDIAHFKIDUSHAFLIDAH

okay but you can totally tell that she and warner are gonna be together a lot, so it becomes clear that all the questions she's answered about there being a lot of intimate scenes proves it'll all be with warner unless adam becomes a third wheel which might suck even more.
BUT I NEEEEED THIS BOOK :(

April 2013
I haven't read Unravel Me yet but i'm already excited about this one. Don't judge me.

[NickReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear Juliette has developed so much as a character, it is inspiring to see what a marvelous person she has become. Simply beautiful.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so sad this series has ended.

BUT IT WAS SO GOOOOODODODODODODOODODODODOD. It's impossible to write anything without spoilers, so please just read the series if you haven't.



I want a certain character to have a spin off series... just sayin.

[marwah · Rating 5 out of 5]

reread: still waiting for my don’t worry darling fantasy to come true. (ifykyk)


I’m all for the feminist life but when it comes to Aaron Warner I will become a 1950’s housewife and let him run me over with his car<3

[Layla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Kenji carried this series. Everyone else sucks. 0.5 stars.

[ashley ! · Rating 5 out of 5]

the perfect man doesn’t exis- oh hey aaron

[Jesse (JesseTheReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(more of a 3.5)

While I was satisfied with the ending of this book, I still had a few issues with it. I'll talk more about it in my monthly wrap up video. :)

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

"It's like a soap opera." Ian nods. "But with worse acting."

I couldn't have said it any better. That's what this book actually is.

It's been a while since I read a dystopian book. I read the first 2 back in 2015 and while I wasn't hard to please then, I still didn't like them. The writing style annoyed me, the characters irritated me, and the books bored me. Not much has changed since.

So this is the final book in the trilogy (yeah yeah, I know we have extra books now but it's something recent). Normally, you expect the last book to be action packed with and an actual resolution. This one was neither. It took Juliette 350 pages to decide if she wants Warner or Adam. Don't get me wrong, she knew she didn't want Adam but, but does she truly love Warner?

I'm not sure if this a bad or a good thing but the characters we met in the first 2 books are not the same.

➺Juliette is not the same girl, she's more confident and she thinks she's the one who should lead the rebellion and not anyone else.

➺ Warner is the angel now. All his actions are lamely excused. It was all to make her better *snorts*

➺ Adam is suddenly the jealous obsessed boyfriend. The used to be nice is now suddenly awful. How else can Juliette choose between the boys? One of them should be obviously bad.

➺ Kenji, the only decent character, is now kissing "J"'s ass.

A 17 yo barely educated suddenly wants to lead a nation. A teenager who has 0 experience in politics or how governments work. She can't even decide who she really loves, how is she supposed to make judgments affecting the whole nation? I'm sure her country will prosper. After the death of all their peers, she blames them for not wanting to fight back anymore. Yeah, right. Suddenly she's the superhero. She only needs a cape now.

The author was obviously trying to make us love Warner by justifying his actions "because he wanted to help her". All he ever did, was for her benefit. What about torturing Adam? We never get an excuse for this behavior. You know why? Because there is none. When Juliette is wary of him, he's shocked. How can she act like this? After all, he did everything for her. He was trying to help. No, he didn't lock her for over 200 days and isolated her from any human contact (you know pervert soldiers), no he didn't make her go through hellish experiences (stimulation, of course), and he didn't look like an obsessed psycho (whom I very much preferred). He's just a misunderstood person who doesn't give a shit what others think about him, oh poor boy. He tells her sweet things thinking what he's doing is right which is not.

Then there’s Adam is acting all crazy and calling Juliette and Warner for their shit so he's the bad guy (he overreacted too much). I've been across many love-triangles but this one is surely one of the worst because the author is forcing us to love a used to be psycho character by making him a martyr of his own society (daddy used to beat him) and the one who is supposed to be a saint became an asshole. No logic here. I didn't even like Adam but here am I, defending him. Some authors subtly manipulate their readers looking at you SJM but for it to be done so obviously done and so sudden? Come on!

Kenji my sweet funny boy is NOT funny anymore and being a loyal puppet to Juliette, the understanding best friend. Oh, please *eye roll* The other minor characters Ian, Sarah, James, etc... were better than the MCs. Too bad they didn't get much attention.

This book is pure drama and the action part (it can be summed up in 20 pages out of 400) was too easy. Suddenly Juliette is so strong and Warner too. Perfect, right? They're the ultimate couple, after all. They can now keep everything under control. This trilogy could've been summed up in 1 book without all this angst bullshit. I read 400 pages in less than 4 hours which is a record for me but not so much because I was skipping sometimes paragraphs while understanding everything BECAUSE NOTHING WAS GOING ON. I did not fall under Warner's charms nor admired Juliette's growth. The book is a romance set in a very simple dystopian world. Then she comes up with a ridiculous plan to save the day and of course, it works.

Many things in this book made me cringe:
- Warner's sweet talk.
- Kenji's obsession with Juliette
- WARNER USING THE WORD LOVE. Oh, the cringe. It was used over 50 times... This made cringe so hard that I was trying to find any possible way to avoid reading the sentences in which he says love.

While the list of my the eye roll moments is infinite, here are some worth mentioning:
- Juliette's power enlightening moments.
- Warner justifying badly his actions.
- Juliette-trying-to-be-badass moments.
- the romance.
-The overly dramatic writing style.

The ending was so abrupt, so fast, so illogical. I can see why she's making a sequel but isn't including an epilogue better? Three more books, seriously? I bet they'll be mostly romance. Like Ignite me. A theme like this one was barely handled 3 books. I can't imagine how much adding 3 will make it drag.

I honestly had no interest in reading this book but my friend had the paperback and I don't read printed copies so often... Plus I only have one book left which is not much, I don't like to leave series unfinished when I can read it all. I had -93501230713092 expectations and I knew I'll hate this book, it did help honestly. For an instance, I was considering giving it 2 stars but then again, that's mostly the physical book playing charms on me (I find it harder to give them a low rating than ebooks). I am not sure I will read the new book when it comes out, we'll see. However, I know I won't be reading any of Mafi's other work.

[Zemira Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only we're getting a Vampire Academy movie in February 2014 but we'll get to read about King Warner slaying all the competition around Juliette. Any other option is not available and will be ignored.





*bursts in*

Here's my review!

Warning! There will be spoilers. I won't hold my tongue for anyone. I want to be free to express my thoughts since I can't explain how much my life is ruined by fictional character to my family or friends. So if you don't want to know about which guy Juliette chose in the end, shoo!

Another warning. This review won't make any sense. My thoughts are scattered all over my brain and I'm still pretty much not sure how I'm going to continue my life without a new book every winter.

What mind fuckery is this? I felt like I was going crazy while reading this book. I would clutch my hair, flail all over the room, cry, yell This is my ship!, shimmy and pretend I'm taking a part in those gifs where people are REALLY excited about something.

Ignite Me was better than seeing your favorite band perform live for the first time. I don't get excited easily but I was acting like a mad woman today. I never felt this way about any book/series before. Tahereh delivered again, so surprise there. I had some doubts about whether she would kill off characters. I was worried about my King getting hurt. I'm not gonna lie, if I had to choose between saving everyone else or just King Warner... well, do I even need to answer that?

Readers didn't like Juliette in Shatter Me and Unravel Me but I was one of those who loved her manic ass right from the start. She grew up and learned who she really is. She's someone who fights no matter what, tried to do the right thing every time, has a kind heart and thinks positive. She's a true fighter, is determined and I love her.

Adam was an useless POS, most of the time. Who'm I kidding?! He was awful towards Juliette after he found out they wouldn't be getting together. He was being an ex from hell. Juliette was being nice but he wouldn't let go of his anger. The only person he treated nicely was James. Not even Kenji could get on his good side.

Kenji! The sweet sidekick. He's always helpful. He's still a mystery. Hmmm... I wonder if he'll get his own novella because I don't think he got to shine properly in this trilogy. I'm actually pissed Fracture Me ended up being Adam's novella and not Kenji's. No one asked for Adam's POV, ok?! People were demanding another Warner novella while I was the only one in there asking for more Kenji. No one wanted to read what is not inside Adam's head!

Here's the part I was saving for the end. King Warner. His Stylish Majesty, Aaron Warner Anderson. AAAHHHHHH!!! Sorry! How to describe this man? He's perfect. I have nothing bad to say about him. I am ready to be ravished on the table. haha And I'm not even done there. I want him in the bathtub while we try out his soaps. I want him on the bed, bench press in the training room and in the elevator. Sorry! I got carried away again. I swear, I didn't mean to go there but my thoughts just drift. I'm gonna be serious for a second now. Warner turned out even better than I initially thought and all the haters will probably change their mind. If not, then you can just re-read Shatter Me for the rest of your life and pretend the other two master pieces never happened.

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with one of my friends. We were discussing our exes and she said she would never like her ex now because she grew up and changed a lot. She doesn't want to cuddle a guy who's too insecure about himself and them in general. She was right. So many relationships fell apart not because people stop loving each other but because they changed. And that's the main reason I knew Adam and Juliette would never work. He would never get used to Juliette's powers, her desire to be free and to want more from life just like she doesn't want to be 'all' he wants.

Chapter 55 made me cry. I was seriously freaking out while reading it and then it was over. I had to set the book down and cry for a couple of minutes. Why did I cry? Well, because my ship is canon!!! King Warner found happiness and it made me happy. Just when I thought nothing can top Chapter 55, Chapter 58 comes along and I start levitating.

I can say thing with certainty- Aaron Warner is the best male character in whole bookdom. Move over Mr.Darcy, Jace, Dimitri, Will, Adrian, Eric, Barrons and all others. You can't fight me on this because there's just no way anyone has all the qualities for the sexiest man ever. He's Juliette's bird for God's sake! If you still want to comment about some other dude, please do, I'll just laugh his peasant ass off.

I could write for hours about this book but I'll just stop here. Tahereh Mafi is finally replacing Richelle Mead as my favorite author. After so many year, Richelle has lost the throne. Never saw this coming. Thank you, Tahereh. For your incredibly unique prose, for your impeccable style and for giving antagonists a completely different side.

[vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

aaron warner is so fine

[louise :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

did i sacrifice my precious sleep to read this book in one sitting? absolutely.

was i worth it? yes, yes it was.

[MischaS_ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It’s not charity,” I snap. “He cares
about me—and I care about him!”
Warner nods, unimpressed. “You should get a dog, love. I hear they share much the same qualities.”

Já ani nějak nevím, co říct! Tohle bylo... WOW.

Adama pořád nesnáším - proč neumřel?

Warner je pořád moje zlatíčko ♥

Juliette mi o trochu víc přirostla k srdci než v předchozích dílech. Ani si už neškrtala myšlenky! (To mi došlo až teď) :)

U žádného dílu jsem se nenasmála tolik jako u tohohle.



“There are three things you should know about me, love.” He steps forward. “The first,” he says, “is
that I hate my father more than you might ever be capable of understanding.” He clears his throat.
“Second, is that I am an unapologetically selfish person, who, in almost every situation, makes
decisions based entirely on self-interest. And third.” A pause as he looks down. Laughs a little. “I
never had any intention of using you as a weapon.”

“Don’t touch me!” I jerk away, glaring, clutching the foot of his bed like it might be a weapon. “I
should shoot you all over again for doing that to me! I should—I should—”
“What?” He laughs. “You’re going to throw another pillow at me?”

“You don’t know me,” I mumble, wiping away tears. “You think you know me just because you’ve
read my journal—you stupid, prying, privacy-stealing asshole—”
“Oh, right—about that—” He smiles, one quick hand plucking the journal out of my pocket as he
moves toward the door. “I’m afraid I wasn’t finished reading this.”

And for the first time in my life, willing to admit
that I’m angry.
It’s liberating.

“You allow the world to think you’re a heartless murderer,” I tell him. “And you’re not.”
He laughs, once; his eyebrows lift in surprise. “No,” he says. “I’m afraid I’m just the regular kind of
murderer.”


“Hey, um, I’m sorry to bother you, but I’m looking for a friend of mine,” he says. “Have you seen her?
She’s a tiny little thing, cries a lot, spends too much time with her feelings—”
“Shut up, Kenji.”
“Oh wait!” he says. “It is you.”

“I never thought you were an idiot,” I say, surprised. “I thought you were crazy,” I tell him, “but not
an idiot.” I hesitate. “I actually think you’re brilliant,” I confess. “I wish I could think like you.” I look
away and look back at him too quickly, feeling a lot like I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

Every vertebra, every knuckle, both kneecaps, both hips. I am a pile of bones on the floor and no one
knows it but me. I am a broken skeleton with a beating heart.

“This is so unbearably inconvenient,” he says. “I was prepared to hate him for the rest of my life.”

“I want one.” I’m staring at the gun wall in the training room. “Which one is the best one?”
...
“You don’t need a gun,” Warner says to me, surprised. “You can certainly have one, but I don’t think
you need one.”
“I want two.”

“Who’s Bruce Lee?”
“Who’s Bruce Lee?” Kenji asks, horrified. “Oh my God. We can’t even be friends anymore.”
“Why? Was he a friend of yours?”

It’s only then that I remember I still have no idea how to drive.
It’s probably a good thing I’m driving a tank.

I loved making you mad,” he says to me, his eyes wicked. “I love making
you mad.”

“Don’t be sorry, either,” he says. “God, the only reason I’m not going to kill Kent for this is because I know it would only upset you more.”

Warner laughs a sharp, strange laugh. He looks almost relieved. “Do you have any other
stipulations?”
“Not really.”
“You don’t want to fix me, then? You don’t have a long list of things I need to work on?”
“No.” I stare out the window. The view is so bleak. So cold. Covered in ice and snow. “There’s
nothing wrong with you that isn’t already wrong with me,” I say quietly. “And if I were smart I’d first
figure out how to fix myself.”

[Stef]

[Updated 11/28]



[Updated 11/03]

So I was able to see a few snippets from The Mafi Mafia's website (Tahereh gave them an 8-chaptered excerpt of Ignite Me) and here are the current snippets we have so far!

"He's on his knees."—(???)

"And we are quotation marks, inverted and upside down, clinging to one another at the end of this life sentence."—(???)

"No. I am not going to kill you."—Warner

"I am an hour glass."—Juliette (very first sentence in the book!)

"You were harmless and beautiful and you always yelled at me." —Warner

"The memory of his kisses along my torso; his hands exploring my back, my bare legs, the backs of my thighs, his fingers hooking around the elastic band of my underwear— Oh."—Juliette

"I never realized Warner was unaware of how deeply I detested him."—Juliette

"Aaron Warner Anderson, chief commander and regent of Sector 45, son of the supreme commander of The Reestablishment.
He has a soft spot for fashion."—Juliette

"It makes me feel ashamed for ever having felt sorry for myself."—Juliette

"My seventeen years have collapsed and buried me from the inside out."—Juliette (sentence number two!)

And my favorite thus far in page 1...

wake up
wake up
"Wake up," he whispers.

If I made some mistakes please do correct me for I have only gotten these quotes by squinting for two minutes at the blurred picture of the excerpt, trying to figure out what those words are.

Well that's it for now! I'll give you guys some updates soon! And have you guys seen the cover for Fracture Me? Extremely beautiful and breath-taking!

[Updated ??/??]
The cover and title is finally revealed! And it is beautiful!!!



Another reminder: In one of Tahereh's interview, she said that there will be a conclusion on who she ends up with...and we will find that out on the beginning portion of the third book~ So what I'm trying to say is: Juliette will be having sexy times with only one of these boys in the third book and I am hoping that it is Warner <3

[Updated 6/29]

Hey guys! So for those of you who want to know about Warner's tattoo, I have a hint as to why it says IGNITE:

In Destroy Me, he said in one of the chapters "I grieve nothing. I take everything." And if you get all the first letters in each word, it'll spell out IGNITE.

[Grace (Bookworm Supreme) · Rating 5 out of 5]

No no no no this was TOO GOOD!! 😍😍😍 This book has imprinted itself onto my brain and I CANNOT stop thinking about it. How is it this perfect?! 🤌🤌

“Ignite, my love. Ignite.”

I'm not gonna bother with a synopsis since it's the third book, so let's just get right in.

🚨 Possible spoilers in terms of romance. This series is so big you'll probably already know who ends up with who but if you miraculously don't, I wouldn't advise reading this review 🚨

Starting with the characters! Ahhh I LOVE this group of characters!! They were good in the first 2 books, but I feel like I really fell in love with them in here 😍😍✨✨

➡️ Juliette:

Wow what happened to the whiny girl from Book 1?! She was such a great protagonist in here!! She really grew into her powers and became such a strong FMC- and I was HERE 👏 FOR 👏 IT 👏 Also, seeing her romance blossom and her friendship with Kenji grow was so great. If I'd told my past self reading Shatter Me that I'd grow to love her, I wouldn't have believed it, but her character growth is sooo good 🤩🤩

➡️ Warner:

Ahhhhh here he is, my favourite hot psychopath 😏😏

When I finished Unravel Me, I didn't think he could get better, but he DID!! 🤭🤭 I'm so obsessed it's actually unhealthy. He was even more hot in here and I still love that morally grey streak of his 🔥🔥 Literally the dream guy. If my partner doesn't treat me like Warner treats Juliette, I don't want him ✋

Also, I took a while to get used to him being called Aaron, but now I love it 😍😍

➡️ Kenji:

Kenji is just amazing 😍😍 I will never get tired of his jokes and Shatter Me just wouldn't be Shatter Me without him. His friendship with Juliette is precious and I love their dynamic. Kenji is just amazing. I now understand why y'all love him sm 💗💗

➡️ Adam:

Excuse me a minute I just need to go punch a wall BECAUSE I AM SO MAD AT ADAM 🤬🤬

He really irritated me in Unravel Me, but I HATED him in here!!! 😤😤 The way he treated Juliette made me want to throw something and I was completely with Warner when he said he would've liked to kill Adam. Thank GOODNESS he and Juliette aren't a thing anymore bc then I would've gone mad. Like, Adam needs to go die. AARRRGHHH 😡😡

Overall love these characters. Warner, Juliette and Kenji are unmatched. Adam, however, could mysteriously disappear from the series and i would say a big thank you to Tahereh Mafi 🤫

“And we are quotation marks, inverted and upside down, clinging to one another at the end of this life sentence. Trapped by lives we did not choose.”

Next, the writing!! I'm really starting to like Tahereh Mafi's writing style! It feels very smooth and polished now and is SO easy to read. Reading these books literally gives me sm serotonin, I can't even explain it 🤭🤭

“Do you never get exhausted being so wholly unbearable? You have as much charisma as the rotting innards of unidentified roadkill.” ~ HAHAHAHA true

The plot- umm, there actually wasn't that much of a plot. It did come in towards the end, but most of the book was taken up by character development and ✨ romance ✨ Which was PERFECT, bc that's the best part of the series hehehehehe. I doubt this'll satisfy you if you want something super plot-heavy but if you're mostly here for Warnette (like me), you'll eat it up 🤌🤌

“It's not charity," I snap. "He cares about me--and I care about him!"

Warner nods, unimpressed. "You should get a dog, love. I hear they share much the same qualities.” ~ 🤣🤣

Lastly, the romance. Basically the thing we all care about the most. But for good reason bc the romance in this series is ELITE!!! 😩😩🤌🤌 Like, I loved it in Unravel Me but in here it was just INCREDIBLE. The quotes, the tension, the prolonged eye contact, their interactions- I ATE IT UP 🤭🤭 I must've looked so weird just giggling all the time and screaming when I was reading this book. IT WAS AMAZINGG AAAAHHHH 😩😩❤❤ Warnette is THE power couple and I love them together sm. The way Warner treats Juliette had me swooning every second page and Juliette's thoughts about Warner made me scream. They are PERFECT for each other 😍😍

CHAPTER 55 WAS AN EXPERIENCE Y'ALL 🔥🔥

Enjoy some of the AMAZING Warnette quotes:

“His hands are holding my cheeks, and he pulls back just to look me in the eye and his chest is heaving and he says, "I think," he says, "my heart is going to explode," and I wish, more than ever, that I knew how to capture moments like these and revisit them forever.

Because this.

This is everything.” ~ They are perfect for each other 🥺🥺❤❤

“Can you hear my heart? I want to ask him.

I want you to make a list of all your favorite things, and I want to be on it.” ~ 🤭🤭

“I do want you," I say to him, my voice shaking. "I want you so much it scares me.” ~ FINALLY!!

“Lift your hips for me, love.” ~ the BEST quote!! 😍😍🔥🔥

Overall, OBSESSED!! 😍😍😍 I expected great things, but it still smashed my expectations through the roof. Every bit of hype this series get is fully deserved.

✔ Cool writing
✔ Fast-paced story
✔ Entertainment
✔ WARNER
✔ WARNETTE

1 star for Juliette character develop + 1 star for Kenji + 1 star for WARNER + 1 star for the entertainment + 1 star for 'lift your hips for me, love' = an easy 5 stars

“Aaron Warner Anderson, chief commander and regent of Sector 45, son of the supreme commander of The Reestablishment.

He has a soft spot for fashion.” ~ can he get any more perfect?!

~ BEYOND 5 stars

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Shatter Me series:

1. Shatter Me- ★★★☆☆
2. Unravel Me- ★★★★☆ ❤
3. Ignite Me- BEYOND ★★★★★ ❤😘
4. Restore Me- ★★★★☆
5. Defy Me- tbr
6. Imagine Me- tbr

❤ - favourites
😘- amazing romance

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To everyone who told me how good this book is, how good the romance is- YOU WERE RIGHT 👏👏🥳🥳

The Warner content in here- OMG 😩😩🤌🤌

RTC!

[liana · Rating 4 out of 5]

if i were to choose who id fuck marry and kill, id fuck kenji, marry warner, and kill adam (its self explanatory really). its usually hard to make me genuinely laugh but kenji's humor had me actually laughing for a full 3 mins he's probably my favorite character ngl,, warner and juliette's relationship warms my heart i internally screamed so many times warner deserves the world :( the first book was a shitshow but i could see the author's improvement as i kept reading and her writing and the plot def got way better.

[(taylor’s version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does your heart and mind go 🦋💗Aaron Warner Anderson💗🦋every 5 minutes or are you normal⁉️

[April (Aprilius Maximus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

1.) Shatter Me ★★★★
*.) Destroy Me ★★★★
2.) Unravel Me ★★★★.5
*.) Fracture Me ★★★
3.) Ignite Me ★★★★★
4.) Restore Me ★★★★
*.) Shadow Me ★★★
5.) Defy Me ★★★.5
*.) Reveal Me ★★★
6.) Imagine Me ★★

-----------------------------------------------

perfection.

[human · Rating 1 out of 5]

sign #453950 that this book gave me lasting brain trauma: sometimes i randomly think about how much of a dumpster fire this book was and get mad all over again.

yes, i am aware that i read it almost exactly two years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~

(0.1/5: 0.05 for how relatable winston was, and 0.05 for kenji and juliette's friendship. do you see what this book is doing to me?? i'm WILLINGLY doing math now, smh. fml.)

Buddy read with Layla! Go check out her review!


To start this review, I think that there's something I need to acknowledge. That is, all the warnings that people gave us when we were starting this series, but more specifically, this book. I will be forever grateful for y'all who said "i'm warning you, it only gets worse!" or "spare yourselves!!" even though I was just sitting here like



So yeah. Probably not the best decision on my part especially considering that it was so terrible it basically put me into a reading/reviewing slump, but hey, someone had to do it, right?

Which brings me to the other part of this acknowledgment: I'd like to sincerely thank Layla for dealing with me while going through this. Let's just say, the PMs were a mess of screaming and ranting. All of which took place in the middle of the night. So thanks again for that, my dude. (Check out her amazingly hilarious review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

I should also probably apologize to everyone who thought I was going to be typing up this review and posting it soon after I read the book (it's been over a month). Long story short, shit went down and I got into a bit of a reading/reviewing slump. So, sorry about that. (It got to the point where doing homework was better than thinking about this book for another second. So yes. It was, in fact, that bad. Whether I'm talking about the book or life in general here remains to be seen.)

Now that's out of the way, we can get to the real stuff.



Spoiler warning!! This review is actually a rant in disguise, filled with spoilers for the entire series so far. If that's not your thing, don't read this. If you liked this book, I'm questioning your taste in books (kidding! mostly.), and don't read this either. If you're still here... well, have fun.

Oh boy.

Where, oh where, do I even begin with this book. Just thinking about it gives me war flashbacks.



*visually attempts to remain sane*

The characters. Yes. The characters.

I'm hoping that by now you know who Juliette is, AKA Ms. Speshul, AKA I-refuse-to-make-up-my-mind-about-who-I'm-going-out-with-and-will-create-drama-that-disrupts-the-actual-rebellion. Remember her, yeah? Words cannot begin to describe my exasperation with Juliette. It's one thing to have even semblance of character development, to be able to grow into a new person.

Everyone was telling me that "just wait, juliette gets better!!" and I honestly don't see how she did. What happened to her? She goes from being a whiny, rat-with-a-b, to, all of a sudden, a somewhat competent rebel leader. And by rebel leader, I mean she screams positivity and determination at people, 90% of which is complete nonsense.

I told myself I wasn't going to scream about character development because I already did that in my last rant, but this really needs to be said: having a character wake up one day and decide to do a complete 180 from what we already know about them is, in no way, acceptable character development. Or character development at all.



Other than Juliet, there's Warner, the love interest. Honestly, nothing big happened with him other than the reveal of a tRaGiC bAcKsToRy which was probably supposed to justify the fact that he's a psychopath and redeem him in our eyes. Which it didn't. At least for me.

Then, of course, there's Adam. Adam, Adam, Adam. I don't think that I'll ever be able to find a trash can big enough to stuff you and your over-inflated ego in, but for now, this gif will have to do:



Seriously. Adam has somehow gotten worse from the course of the second book to this one. If you ask me, the worst way to resolve a love-triangle is to make the entire audience hate one of them, but that's just me. To be clear, I was never a fan of all the love-geometry in the first place, but dang, for suffering through three books, you'd think we'd get a half-decent resolution to it all.

As for why Adam is terrible and nEEDS TO GO BACK TO THE DUMPSTER FIRE HE SPAWNED FROM? Well, in this book, we see him becoming even more of an ultra-possessive, category 5 clinger, which shouldn't be possible, but is. He thinks that he and Juliette were MeAnT tO bE, and refuses to accept the truth. He sTARTS ATTACKING AND YELLING AT JULIETTE BECAUSE SHE WON'T TAKE HIM BACK-

I'm sorry. I hate Adam with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. Which is exactly what Tahereh Mafi wants, but it is very easy to hate this arsehole, okay?



Other than the love triangle, there's also Kenji. Remember how the whole point of my rant of 'Unravel Me' was to say that Kenji was the only reason that book got more than 0 stars? Yes, well, it brings me great pain to say that after that trainwreck, Kenji was hospitalized for a broken back from carrying this series.

As such, he didn't do that great of a job in this book, because even with his presence, things got way, way worse, while he was sidelined to the 'moral support' friend role. This is honestly more of a let-down than it should be, but then again, the only character that I was able to tolerate in this entire shitstorm isn't that great anymore??



There's also Winston, who's still busy being a mood, and a myriad of other side characters who were mentioned from time to time.

That's... yeah. Those are pretty much all the characters.

I'd start talking about world-building next but it's yet to make an appearance. Moving on.

As for the love triangle itself? Well, if you were thinking that after three books of mutual simping and pining and angst, Juliette and Warner finally get together, you were thinking wrong. About three-quarters of this book is just filled with mutual pining and irritating dramatics, to the point where I was starting to hope that they would get together just so my suffering could end.


The love triangle coming to haunt you in your bookish dreams because apparently possessing an entire series wasn't enough.

Of course, it's not a circus Shatter-Me-love-triangle without Adam interfering, now is it? Although, I have to admit, making a character so annoying the fandom completely turns against them certainly is a, well, interesting way of resolving a love triangle.

Don't ask me about the last quarter of the book, when Juliette and Warner were actually together, because it was so sickeningly saccharine, it made me want to vomit. On multiple occasions. It was terrible all around, really.

The only ship I support is Juliette x the-therapy-she-so-desperately-needs, but I'll have to settle for Juliette x Warner as apparently short-lived as it is.



The rebellion comes more into focus here than in the second book as though Tahereh Mafi suddenly remembered that this is supposed to be a dystopia, I'll admit, but that was only in the beginning. It gave us hope that it wouldn't fry our braincells completely, and look where hope got us. At least with 'Unravel Me', we totally knew that what we were getting was going to be complete and utter shit.

But this book? Nah, it lulls you into a fall sense of security, to the point where you think you might rate a book in this godforsaken series even 2 stars, but no. It only gets worse.



Juliette becomes more of a rebel leader in this book, although why anyone would trust her with any sort of responsibilities when she's clearly more into figuring out her love life is unclear to me.

Over the course of the book, she gives a couple of motivational speeches, to which all the characters responded with "of course we'll die for you!" and "friendship is magic!" or something, while I was sitting there going:



because 1. why anyone would follow Juliette of all people into battle is beyond me, and 2. well, just the way she gave those speeches, but specifically the flowy language is enough to make your head spin.

Now, remember how Omega Point was destroyed in the last book, and there are about 10 rebels living in Adam's old home? I have to warn you, this is where things start to get really convenient and really annoying.

Juliette is nursed back to health, and goes to Adam's house (apartment?) to meet up with the rest of the rebels. Lots of Adam drama unfolds, Warner shows up to dRaMaTiCalLy AnD hErOiCaLlY rEsCuE Juliette, and things almost come to blows- oh wait. They do.



All the rebels are moved to Warner's compound, and begin secretly planning and training to bring down the sector, because apparently, people have been pretty close to rioting all along. As the training montage ensues, Juliette finally accepts her feelings for Warner and lets Adam know what's up.

They launch the attack and Juliette gives another nonsensic- oh, sorry, inspirational speech, to boost morale. Everyone splits into groups, but we don't get the perspectives of anyone in the other groups, not even a clue as to what happened, other than 'everyone is tIrEd BuT aLiVe'.

Now, I'm going to pause storytime for one second here to expose one very large plothole: Omega Point was run by hundreds of skilled rebels, if the second book is anything to go off of. Are you telling me that a small group of rebels led by Juliette Ferrars had more success than hundreds of superhumans?



Yeah. Don't make me laugh. Especially considering that Juliette's entire plan to kick off the rebellion was to put on a talent show in front of the soldiers and everyone aCTUALLY WENT ALONG WITH IT.

Just, no.

The ending is super hazy and makes even less sense than regular passages of the book. Juliette basically shoots the Supreme Commander a couple of times and immediately assumes that he's dead. She then swims back to the compound, where she checks to make sure that all of her friends are still alive (somehow), announces that she will be Supreme Commander now, and hugs Warner. Because of course. Priorities.

If you got whiplash reading that paragraph, well...



The ending, as you could tell, was abrupt as hell. Nothing is really clarified, so that's just what we're going to have to live with. Funny how something with a decent amount of hope at the beginning could let us down in the most tragic way at the end. I mean, JULIETTE as Supreme Commander?? It's sad, really.

(Basically, the plot tries to tell itself that it can be a plot if it BeLiEvEs In ItSeLf EnOuGh, but that's just never happening. Nothing makes sense and everything is too vague for this to be an actual plot. This definitely isn't me still in denial of this book series and waiting for someone to say "hey, you know this was a joke/satire, right?")

The only thing that could even vaguely redeem this book in my eyes was Juliette and Kenji's friendship, or Winston and how relatable he is. But naturally, of course, the friendship wasn't developed all that much, beyond a scene or two, and Winston really only showed up twice.

Finally, finally, there's the writing itself. Nothing has changed, so here's a gif that represents it far more accurately than I could ever scream about it:



(Not related but I'm reading through this review and I'm lowkey surprised that I was able to make it through this shit at all, let alone in a single day. Layla and I deserve medals. Or an international holiday in our names. We'd even settle for funding for therapy at this point.)

Bottom line? There is no bottom line, because we got a try-hard rebellion and more chapters of Juliette and Warner being horny than is healthy. Instead, here's real footage of me by the time I finished reading this:



~~~~~~~~~~

I don't think it's healthy to have this much anger inside of a single body.

Oh well.



Incoherently angry rant (likely filled with tortured screaming and more angry gifs than you'll ever need) to come.

~~~~~~~~~~

Buddy read (series continuation) with Layla! Thanks for tolerating my middle-of-the-night ranting!!

[Bryce Rocks My Socks · Rating 5 out of 5]

throwback to when this was the last book