Ignite Me

Title: Ignite Me

Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 3

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Rating: 4

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia Sci Fi

Number of Pages: 421

Publication Date: 2014

Publisher: Harper Collins

Summary: With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn't know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won't keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world...but that's not all he wants with her.

What a fantastic conclusion to the Shatter Me Trilogy. This final book is action packed, fast paced, and brings the series to a nice close. By the end of this book I had well and truly fallen in love with the characters and was sad to know that their story had come to an end.

May contain spoilers...

The character development in Ignite Me was perhaps my favourite part of this book and this series. I originally found the characters to be very two dimensional and I couldn't really love them. But by the end of this book I found myself understanding who the characters were and the difficult decisions they were making. Juliette had a huge amount of character development in this book. When I read Unravel Me I thought that she was finally the character she was meant to be, but after Ignite Me I realised that only the surface of the strength and determination she possessed had been revealed.

Warner also makes huge changes in this book. While in the previous books and novella we have slowly been revealed to the human side of Warner, it is in Ignite Me that I fell in love with him. In the previous books Warner, while having genuine and redeeming qualities, had ultimately done what he needed to survive. But in Ignite Me he learns to be a strong individual who not only does the right thing, but isn't scared to do so. Warner also learns to do things for others, and I don't just mean doing things for Juliette because he likes her.

The character development that I loved the most, however, was that of Adam. Why?.. because he went kinda backwards. I loved seeing the petty, angry and not-so-perfect side of Adam. Previously I had found him to be too perfect, too flawless and lacking any realistic dimensions. But seeing him crumble and failing to be this perfect crutch that would help Juliette and the rest of the world onto the right path was a refreshing sequence of events in the book.

I was also pleased to see a more active role of the Reestablishment in this book. This series is meant to revolve around the destruction and corruption of the world and the Reestablishment, but in many ways it was lacking in the first two books. There was a lot of talk of the Reestablishment but no real action. While a large portion of the beginning of this book did continue in this same fashion, the big epic battle at the end did make up for this. 

Unravel Me

Title: Unravel Me

Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 2

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Rating: 4 stars

Genre: Young Adult Dystopia

Number of Pages: 461

Publication Date: January 2013

Publisher: Harper Collins

Summary (from the back of the book): Juliette is still haunted by her deadly touch. But now she has teamed up with other rebels with powers of their own, she'll be able to fight back against the Reestablishment to save her broken world. With the help of these new allies, she will learn the secret behind Adam's-and Warner's-immunity to her killer skin.

I didn't particularly like the first book in this series but I had heard that it gets better as you go along so I picked up Unravel Me and I'm really glad I decided to. Everything that I didn't like in Shatter Me seems to get sorted out in this book and everything that I was uncertain of, was cleared up. It's not often you come across a second book in a series which is the one that holds it all together. 

The main thing that I disliked in the first book was the relationship between Adam and Juliette, and Warner and Juliette. It all felt a little forced. After reading this second book and watching the characters develop I began to understand why the characters came across like this. In Shatter Me all the characters seemed to be going through the motions, doing what they thought was expected of them. But in this book they start to see that maybe they need to think a little of themselves and do what they want. But not quite as much as the reader realises how much they need to rethink a few things.

I was also glad that who the Reestablishment was and their goals were brought more into this story. Once again I did, however, find that the role of this corrupt group did play a slightly less significant role than Juliette working out who she is and what her abilities are, and her boy issues.The ending of this book has set up the Reestablishment to play a huge role in the final book and I hope I won't be disappointed. 

Que some minor spoilers....

In this second book we learn why it is that Adam and Warner are immune to Juliette's powers...but more importantly we see Adam stop being immune to Juliette's power. Something which brings a staggering amount of reality into the story. When Juliette and Adam realise that he is not quite as immune to her powers as they thought, they are forced to seriously reconsider their relationship and whether or not it is wise for them to keep seeing each other. When Juliette pulls away to protect Adam, we also get to see a darker side of Adam. Especially when he is put in situations involving Warner.

Without Adam acting as a crutch on reality for Juliette, she is forced to be a little more independent and we begin to see her learning to live and not just existing. Juliette begins to make friends and with Warner a prisoner at Omega Point, we get to see her interact with someone who actually understands what she has been through. It is through Juliette's interactions with Warner that as a reader you begin to understand how badly Juliette has been forgetting to live her own life, how much she has been relying on others and doing what she thinks is expected of her. And much like the first book, Warner pushes all her buttons and makes her react and feel. Something that Juliette has spent a large chunk of her life trying not to do.

I found Unravel Me to be the book where the story started. In many ways I have found Shatter Me to simply be the starting point, the book that sets the scene. But now the story has really begun.

Shatter Me

Title: Shatter Me
Series: Shatter Me Trilogy - book 1
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Rating: 3.5
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy/ Sci-fi
Number of Pages: 338
Publication Date:November 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
Summary (from the back of book): Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong colour. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war - and the Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

The first thing I want to mention is the writing style of this book. You are either going to love it or hate it. Personally I found all the metaphors and crossed out to words, especially in the beginning of the book, difficult to get the flow of. It was a bit too stop and start for me. However, I do understand that this style of writing is essential for the book. Through writing from Juliette's perspective this style of writing provides an incredibly detailed line of sight in Juliette's mind. And the lack of stability that she is experiencing.

The second half of this book is a lot better than the first half, in fact the first quarter of the book almost made me put it down. For the first part of this book I was a little confused as to what was going on, especially the role of Adam and Warner. While I understand that Juliette is confused and therefore so is the reader, at times this caused the story to lack enough insight to hold my attention.

This next part will be a bit spoilery, so if you haven't read the book yet, divert your gaze:

The relationship between Adam and Juliette and even Warner's feelings for Juliette, leave me mildly annoyed and unhappy. To me, I found them both to be quite forced. The relationship between Adam and Juliette happens too fast, it almost insta-love. And I hate insta-love. While later in the book it is established that Juliette and Adam not only know each other from the past, but have always loved each other, this was not developed enough for me, and not developed early enough, for me to loose this feeling of insta-love. At first I questioned whether I had missed a page or two.

The potential for a relationship between Warner and Juliette was also something I struggled with. It is only now as I read the novella following the first book where I have gotten any idea of where a potential relationship between the two stems from. It is only near the end of Shatter Me that it is really hinted at that Warner has been following Juliette's live with interest, border lining obsession. And it is only in the novella that it actually becomes clear what Warner is thinking.

Once again I'm not sure if this is because Juliette thinks this way, so as a reader, so do I (after all, a larger proportion of this book is her internal monologue)...or if the relationships she has with these two boys is just something I find lacking. I will be persevering with this series as I have heard many people claim that the rest of the series is a lot better than the first book. I also feel that Shatter Me is a book you almost need to re-read once you get a better understanding of the series to fully appreciate it. The premise of this book really interests me as well and I am interested it seeing how the Reestablishment side of this series plays out.