I feel kind of weird reviewing the second book in a series when I haven’t written a review for the first one but I read Shatter Me so long ago and I’m not too keen on reading it again so I decided to just skip ahead to Mafi’s most recent release. Oh well, here goes!
Unravel Me, by Tahereh Mafi, HarperCollins, 2013, 485 pp.
The Hook:
tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it’s almost
time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She’s finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam’s life.
(Book description from Amazon.)
My Thoughts:
*This review contains some minor spoilers. Don’t read it unless you’ve already read Unravel Me.*
I actually surprised myself when I picked up this book simply because I wasn’t too thrilled with its predecessor. I liked the concept and even enjoyed the characters but the ending was a bit too X-Men for my taste (they find a secret underground hideout where all the other special people learn to use their powers? And Professor X, I mean, Castle, is their teacher? Come on!) but I digress.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan for the first half of the book for one particular reason: Juliette. That girl loves to whine! She sits in a corner crying about her boy problems while there’s a very real war going on outside. To say I was annoyed would be an understatement. What saved the book, for me, was Kenji. He basically said to her exactly what I (and I’m sure many other readers) was thinking. No one cares about her emotional baggage when there’s a totalitarian regime killing its citizens and basically hunting down everyone she cares about. The book improved dramatically when Juliette stopped focusing so much on herself and actually started working to protect those around her.
I know it sounds like I hated the book but I really didn’t. I’m a huge fan of Mafi’s writing. She has a way of constructing a picture in your mind without bogging you down with too many details. I also loved Kenji and Warner’s characters. In the first book they were portrayed pretty one dimensionally so it was nice to see their characters fleshed out. I also loved that we got to see more of how things work in Omega Point and got a fuller picture of the outside world. I hope the next book expands on it even more. I also hope that the new-found strength Juliette seems to exhibit at the end of the book carries over into the next one. If she goes back to whining and crying in a corner I’m going to be really pissed.
So overall, I enjoyed it but didn’t love it. I think with a stronger and less annoying main character, the third book could be golden. Oh, and more Kenji, definitely more Kenji!
Ages: 15 and up- Violence, Sexual Content, Mature Themes
Rating: 3/5 stars
You can purchase Unravel Me (Shatter Me)
Overexposed 