This book made me hate it and love it at the same time, I like it more than the first one, obviously. I most confess that I was expecting something more bigger, like everybody told me but I think it happened but not in a way I would like.
We have this situation in which Juliette is already free from the Reestablishment, now is with Omega Point, which is full of talented and awesome people and now they are preparing themselves to be ready for a war.
That was going so damn well but...
The characters:
Juliette was making me angry all the time, I see a lot of potential in her character, a lot of development and a lot of power but everytime that she was doing good, Adam was there to make her weak and powerless. It was like a rollercoaster of feelings, in some chapters I loved her and I was proud but then in other ones I just wanted to punch her in her face and make her open her eyes. Romance make her weak, frienship make her stronger but she apparently didn't want that. I mean when she faced the son of a bitch of Anderson I was so happy and proud because she did by herself, when she make the earth trembling that was so bloody awesome. But at the beginning, everyone wanted to give her too much oportunities: to have friends, but she was so into Adam that the only thing she wanted to see was him. Which lead me to...
Adam Kent. I swear that I have never read such a bored and stupid character in my whole life. When I start with the book I told myself that I was going to give an opotunity to him, but the hell I couldn't because he didn't give anything to love him, he was so "JULIETTE PLEASE LOVE ME" that I just wanted to someone to kick him in his ass. He is like an obstacle for Juliette, he doesn't let her to grow up, he's always trying to make her weak. His ability is kind of cool, and we found out that he's not inmune to Juliette he's just power off her ability. Both of them reacted so immature: Like, dudes, just because you can't touch each other doesn't mean that is the end of the relationship, there are other ways to show love but NOOOOO they didn't want that, they wanted kisses and kisses and kisses and sex and WOW, so damn dissapointed. That lead me to...
Aaron Warner: I have conflictive feelings toward him, I like him better now, and even more because he's romantic with Juliette but he wants to know her, he wants to see all her potential, he see she's capable of so many things and he doesn't try to stop her. I love that part when she's telling him that they could be friends and he says yes but then some chapters after he says he wants to be other type of friend, and I just love that. But, HE IS ADAM'S STEPBROTHER, and I'm not sure if I want to see that kind of love triangle. But, HE HURT KENJI and Juliette didn't do anything, didn't tell Castle about Warner's abilities, didn't tell them that he was goind to scape, and for me that is betrayal, like I understand you like him but NO, NO, NO I didn't like that at all.
And then there it is: KENJI my favorite character of all in that series. I love him to death. He's just so damn awesome and cute and funny and I love all the speeches he gave to Juliette, I love him and I just want him to be okay. He's amazing. His relationship with everyone at Omega Point was the best, I love Castle, Winston, Brendan, Sara and Sonya. I love everyone there.

Overall, as I said, I like it but hate it. It's cool, I'm still in love with the writing style, Juliette and Adam really tried my patience and I just hope that she and him and they get better in the last one. I hope Adam let me see the reality of him, no more "JULIETTE PLEASE LOVE" NO, I DON'T WANT THAT ANYMORE. And I also hope that Juliette stops taking all the guilty to herself. Adam and Warner fall in love with her and that is not her fault, if she hurt them they blame her and that is just wrong. I don't want any of that in the last one.
Bye.

Estoy completamente enamorada del estilo de Tahereh, tanto que, aunque la historia tiene mucho más romance del que esperaba, casi ni me importa. Me dan ganas de leer absolutamente todo lo que escribe esta mujer, juro que me encanta la voz que le dio a Juliette.

Time is beyond our finite comprehension. It's endless. It exists outside of us, we cannot run of it or lose track of it or find a way to hold on to it.

Juliette sweetie, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you're ending up with that piece of crap, oh my God.

FAVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OMGOMGOMG

Me to Kenji regarding Juliette throughout the whole book:



I propose an alternative title to Unravel Me: "Juliette and Run-On Monologues: A Love Story." Because that was Juliette in this book: moping, thinking exhausting soliloquys, and crying over Adam. Which, now that I think about it, is literally no fucking improvement from the first book. The difference here is that Juliette mopes, thinks exhausting soliloquys, and cries over Adam in the various dark corridors of the underground resistance. I have to hand it to her. 700 pages or so later, I still have no idea what her personality is.

What made Juliette supremely insufferable for me in Unravel Me compared to Shatter Me was her selfishness. She spends weeks isolating herself from her comrades and drowning in self-pity. Most of her thoughts are about Adam. Does Juliette bust her ass to master her powers? No. Does Juliette speak to the people she's underground with? No. Does she recognize that testing on those with powers needs to be done to gain an upper hand against the big-bad-government? No.

There are several times Juliette says that she needs to quit whining and being lovesick and actually contribute to the resistance. Those were the times I threw my hands in the air and screamed "SHE'S FINALLY GROWING AS A CHARACTER!!!!" before I read on and see that she STILL doesn't pick herself up and give all she can to the Resistance.

The majority of this book was the characters walking around hallways. We get meager action toward the end. The ending was fucking stupid because there were AT LEAST two scenarios where Juliette could have used her powers to change the outcome, but she doesn't because Mafi needed the plot to go a certain way. That's the problem with giving your MC really strong powers: they can use said powers to save themselves but then there'd be no plot. For instance, Juliette could have teared //the house// down at the very end of the novel and killed someone really important and saved herself. Did she do that? No. That would require astute thinking.

Oh, and Warner was far better in Shatter Me when he was the merciless commander with an iron-clad reign over his army. He dissolves into another love-sick character and pines over Juliette in a severely unconvincing manner, considering he's known Juliette for weeks. I appreciate Juliette not insta-loving Warner, though.

Kenji is easily the best character of Unravel Me. He calls Juliette out and tells her she's not the only one with personal issues. He takes responsibilities in the resistance and builds repertoire with people.



Unravel Me was slow addition to an already slow-moving series. I hope to God Juliette picks herself up by her bootstraps in the last one and actually grows into becoming a leader. I have a sinking suspicion Mafi is going to make her the leader of the resistance without any leadership experience or prior interaction with the people she'll lead. Reasonable human beings recognize that Kenji has the charisma to be the commander. Alas, we need our Strong-Female-Heroine in that role.

My parting words: Adam is as bland as a rock.

I unexpectedly enjoyed this book. Other people have complained about the metaphoric writing style, even one review I read mentioned that it was "creative writing class gone wrong" and while I completely agree with that statement, I still really enjoyed the writing style. It's not an effective way of telling a story, and the strikeouts are annoying and interrupt your reading, but it made me feel really connected to Juliette's character. I imagined as if she was writing this all down in a diary, and it captures how she feels and what she is thinking beautifully. I completely understand if you do not like this as it's not for everyone, but it really just resonated with me personally as a reader.

I also really enjoyed the sappy love story. This is a romance 110% more than it is a sci-fi/dystopia. But I related SO HARD to this romance. I think I may have been spoiled on the following novels a little bit with the romance, so I am afraid to continue on. But I LOVE Adam. He is wonderful and so sweet. He is just what I want in a guy. Warner is freaking crazy and a lunatic. I don't understand how he is included as a love interest

especially in later books. Sure, they did kiss in order for Juliette to trick him into taking his gun and there was a "spark" as noted by Juliette, but really, he is a stalker. How can you fall for a stalker? He is obsessed with Juliette. Obsession does not equal love at ALL. It's not healthy. I am reluctantly interested to continue on with this love story to find out how "Team Warner" is a thing, but I am very certain I will stay Team Adam here.

I think the characters and character development is done well throughout the story. I understand where Juliette and Adam come from and how they feel. Juliette especially grows as she is out in the world, away from her prison. She grows more confident and actionable. Kenji adds some nice charisma that was slightly lacking before he appears.

Adam's brother, James, really adds a nice family element and how Adam cares for his younger brother is very sweet.

The plot development makes sense as well, even if I think by the end I could summarize this book very quickly:

"Girl with deadly touch finds out there are other people with superpowers and joins them all in an effort to abolish the lies of the government".

but that has to do with this being about the love story here.

And really, though that ending is predictable, if she really was the only person in the world with a superpower it just wouldn't make any sense. It would be incredibly poor worldbuilding. which already is just all right/generic.

I liked this book a lot more than I expected to after the first one! I felt that Shatter Me had a beautiful writing style and a lot of potential, but was weakened by underdeveloped characters and an uninteresting romance. (The fact that I was listening to an audiobook with a narrator who made Juliette sound like she was twelve also probably didn't help.) And then Unravel Me happened.

The first character I fell in love with here as Kenji, who is funny but knows when to take things seriously, and often said exactly what I was thinking, and supports Juliette but calls her out on her mistakes, and really wishes people would stop telling him about their feelings, and has a mysteeeerious past that's only been hinted at thus far and that I really want to learn more about. Kenji grounded me in the story and made it possible for me to appreciate all the other characters.

Juliette has come so, so far from the isolated, self-loathing, terrified girl she was in the beginning of Shatter Me. And while it was frustrating to be inside her head in the beginning of the book, I honestly appreciate that her growth took a while. Seventeen years of thinking you're a monster isn't something you overcome in a day. (This is also why I strongly disagree with anyone who dismisses Juliette as weak and whiny). And even when Juliette made mistakes, even when she had backslides, she was consistently trying to grow. And she does! She learns to form connections, to fight for herself and the people she loves, to use the strength that's been inside her all this time.

The weakest part of the book for me, as with the first one, was the romance. I never really believed Juliette/Adam, or found them interesting. I felt that their story, while sometimes enjoyable, did not have much depth, and they seemed to have the exact same conversation over and over, which got really tiring really fast. I do like Adam himself well enough! I really want to see more of him and James, and him and Kenji, and him and Warner. I really hope that their dynamic in Ignite Me consists of more than just "we like the same girl and hate each other", as tends to happen with so many love triangles.

Oh, hey, now it's time to talk about Warner. The moment he showed up, I was shaking my head at myself because I KNOW MY OWN WEAKNESSES and I knew how this was going to go. SAD PAST! TERRIBLE FATHER! CHARACTER DOES TERRIBLE THINGS BUT REVEALS SOFT SPOTS! I AUTOMATICALLY START TO CARE ABOUT HIM EVEN THOUGH I KNOW I SHOULDN'T! And that's exactly how it happened! I like that we got some insight into why Warner is the way he is, and that he is completely aware of how terrible he is, and that there are still a few glimmers of hope that maybe he can be better.

That said, I am still not entirely sold on Warner/Juliette, mostly because the whole terrible-to-everyone-except-that-one-lady-I'm-obsessed-with(-and-the-occasional-dog) dynamic leaves a bad taste in mouth. (I'm bad at love triangles, okay?) I am, however, more interested in them than I am in the other option. I love that they see pieces of themselves in each other, how their perceptions of each other change, and the potential for growth between them.

(Side note: This is the second book I've read in which a guy reads a lady's personal writing WITHOUT HER KNOWLEDGE and tells her how beautiful it is and how he fell in love with her through her words and it's presented as this big romantic moment and NO VIOLATING PEOPLE'S PRIVACY IS NOT ROMANTIC PLEASE STOP) (obviously Warner has done MUCH worse things than that but this struck a chord in me because I've seen it before)

The worldbuilding was pretty standard YA-dystopia-land, nothing much to say here!

Tahereh Mafi's writing, as I've said before, is beautiful and unique and Juliette's headspace often feels a lot like a poem. I did feel that it worked against itself at times because it made the slow moments (eg, Juliette thinking about either one of her love interests) so much slower. Still, when it worked (which was most of the time) IT REALLY WORKED.

Aaaand I think that's everything! I read Unravel Me in less than 24 hours and I grew to love the characters and the series so much more. Now I'm off to check the library catalog to see if they have Ignite Me.

4,25/5 stars

4.5 stars

Alright, at the start, I wasn't to sure about what I was getting myself into. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style, but I stuck with it do to all the amazing reviews, and since it's taken me this long to actually read it, I thought I'd finish it.

As I continued reading, I actually started to like it. Not one of my favorites, but it was worth the read and I can't wait to see what happens in the next novel.