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