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A review by mintandmemory
Shatter Me Series Box Set: Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
3.0
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 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.