Review for Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

3.5 Stars. Character Driven, but just a Scene Setter for Book #3. I didn’t like this book as much as the first one, but having read the third book I can definitely say it’s worth reading Unravel Me to finish the series. This story takes a different turn in this book. Shatter Me felt more dystopia, this book felt more like X-men, which was cool, just very different. We see all of the characters growing up in this book. They take on new responsibilities, especially Juliette. Some characters grow closer while others grow apart.

Though Juliette’s relationships were a huge part of the plot in this book, like the first, Unravel Me focused a little more on the world that Juliette lives in and how Juliette can affect that world and help people. Still though, the heart of this story was with it’s characters.

I started to really love Kenji in this book, but he also seriously frustrated me when he complained about Juliette and Adam’s relationship. I get that Adam and Juliet were dramatic at times, but I felt like Kenji lost sight of how important Adam was to her. He acted like she was just any other girl with a boyfriend. But, that’s not what Adam was to her. For Juliette, losing Adam mean losing the ability to touch another human being. It meant being deprived of an entire aspect of love and affection. I just got annoyed with Kenji trivializing that. But, we also see Kenji and Juliette spending more time together in this book and the beginning of a great friendship starts to develop.

Spoiler: Juliette’s breakup with Adam was totally heartbreaking, and completely real. I liked that they tried to make it work, but things just kind of fell apart around them. As the book went on I kept wanting for them to get back together, but there was this moment when it just felt like too much time had passed. They’d missed their chance, and that was awful, but from that point on it just felt like it wouldn’t be the same if they got back together. I just loved how real it was.

The romance that starts to bloom between Warren and Juliet threw me at first. I enjoyed seeing another side of Warren’s personality, but I really hated him in the first book, so I didn’t like the idea of them being together. However, as the story went on he started to win me over. I also enjoyed that his character didn’t change too easily or too quickly. Spoiler: And, their almost-sex scene at the end was totally hot.

The end of this book left me rethinking who these characters were. Juliette is figuring out who she is and thrown into a social world for the first time. She grows up a lot. And, both Adam and Warner surprised me. I was left thinking that neither one of them were exactly who I thought they were in the first book.

Read my Review of Shatter Me

 

 

Review for Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

4.5 Stars. Unique Writing Style, and an Intense Story.  This series blew me away. What I loved most was the growth Juliette’s character went through from the first book to the last. In Shatter Me there was a lot of description, especially in the first two chapters. The writing was beautiful, though a little wordy at times, but in a way that actually added to the story. The book is told through Juliette’s POV, so I could understand some of the repetition because these are her thoughts, and considering the book opens with her in an asylum it’s understandable that she’s going to have some jumbled thoughts. There are also some very interesting metaphors, some of which were things I’d never consider using to describe the things she was describing, but they added to Juliette’s personality. She’s quirky and a little crazy.

Juliette has a lot of growing to do in this book in order to be comfortable with who she is, but she’s still strong. I loved that despite everything she’s been through that she was able to hold herself together and hold on to her beliefs.

I also loved the romance between Adam and Juliette, though I felt like it happened a little quickly. I really wished there’d been a little more angst, and a little more build up between them. Having said that, after reading all three books, the pace of their relationship was perfect in retrospect.

In turn, the villain of this story, Warren, comes off as really sick and twisted, and he really gets into your head at the end of the book. When I first met him he wasn’t anything like what I was expecting him to be, and as the story progressed it was clear that there was more to his character than we got to see. There’s some mystery about him, and a vibrancy to his character that made me love to hate him.

This book starts out a little slow with Juliette locked up in the asylum, but it ends with plenty of action. I liked that Juliette takes the lead at the very end. For a little while it feels like she’s a bit of a damsel in distress having Adam save her, but she takes charge at the very end and ends up doing some saving herself.

Juliette is on a journey of self-discovery, she grows a lot in just this book, but even more as I look at the series as a whole. She’s very broken in Shatter Me, she’s afraid of what she can do, and this is just the beginning of her journey.