Ignite Me {A Review}

Title: Ignite Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: February 2014
Source: Bought
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4.5 stars

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew - about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam - was wrong.

Yeah, I'm going four and a half stars here. I absolutely love this series, though. And I'm super sad it's over. For real.

Let's start off with something Mafi knows how to do: chemistry. If you've read any part of this series, you have to give that to her. My goodness. We'll start with a quick recap of the first two... so if you don't want that, skip two paragraphs. :)

Okay. So quick recap of Shatter Me: Juliette has been imprisoned in an asylum for nearly a year when she is joined by Adam. Who, we later find out, is working with the Reestablishment/Warner. Warner leads Juliette to believe he wants to use her as a weapon of torture. After a bunch of stuff happens, she and Adam escape the headquarters of Sector 45. It ends with Juliette and Adam (who apparently has been working against the Reestablishment and can touch Juliette, which is the first human contact she's ever had, given how she seems to kill/maim anyone she does touch) escaping with Kenji, nearly getting caught/killed, and Juliette shooting Warner with his own gun. Kenji takes them to Omega Point, headquarters for a resistance movement.

Quick recap of Unravel Me: Juliette discovers she's not alone in having supernatural powers and begins training on how to control them. Turns out Adam has a power as well. He can disable the power of others; that's why he can touch Juliette. But if he lets his guard down, he will be hurt... *dun-dun-dun* Some of Omega Point's men are taken captive and Juliette meets with Anderson, the Supreme Commander, to get them back. She shoots him, and they take Warner hostage. Juliette is supposed to interrogate him, but he has her journal from the time she was imprisoned, and they just end up talking about their feelings. Turns out, he has the power to borrow other's energy without getting hurt; so... he can touch Juliette, too! There's a bunch of kissing and whatnot to follow. And then, Warner escapes and the Resistance makes its move. Juliette is taken hostage, Anderson plans to kill her. He brings Warner in to watch (because he (Anderson) is a sick bastard), and then shoots Juliette in the chest. She is on the verge of death when Warner makes Sonja and Sarah (the healing twins) help him to save her. She wakes up in Warner's arms, ready to fight.

Whew. A lot more happened, obviously, but that's the gist of it. Overall I love love love love this series. I love characters, the chemistry. There were even quite a few times I was neither "team Warner" nor "team Adam." I was all "TEAM KENJI"! Seriously. That boy is pretty flippin' awesome. Smart-ass, funny, bad-ass, sensitive, great friend... I just assume he's good lookin' to boot. ;)  If you'd read my Shatter Me review, you'd know I despised Warner. Like, seriously hated the dude. I couldn't get past his seeming inhumanity, his cruelty. But then... then came Destroy Me. And my, oh my. And then Unravel Me. And I was leaning totally toward Warner. This broken, loving man... sheesh. I hated Mafi for making me love him. I wanted to continue hating him. I really really did. And then I read Fracture Me, and I wanted to kill Adam. On the one hand, his brother's safety is extremely important. I mean, James is only ten. But still. He just seemed so put-off by the idea of getting Juliette back.

All that being said, I did really like the way Mafi played out the relationships, and I'm completely on board with how they all came together in the end. I love these characters and her writing so so much. The reason, however, that I knocked the stars down a teeny bit, is that the ending fell a smidgen for me. It seemed a little lackluster for me... after all this buildup... it was a little anti-climactic. Like, oh... ok. That happened. All in all, though, a satisfying read.

I feel like I talked "around" the entire book. I can't say a lot without spoiling things. I want to talk about ALL the THINGS... and I CAN'T! At least, not openly here, due to spoilers and all. ;)

Have you read it? Did you feel strongly one way or the other about the ending?

Smiles,
B

Ignite Me ♥ A Memorable Monday Post

Memorable Monday is a meme hosted by Escape in a Good Book. I'm excited to join in on this one because I love quotes, which was the driving force behind the creation of Memorable Mondays. I thank the ladies at Escape in a Good Book.

So... how do you participate? It's simple ~

1) Share a quote that has captured your interest lately in a Memorable Monday post on your blog.

2) Come back here and leave the link to your post in the comment box below. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to hear read your quote. Leave it in the comment box instead of a link to a non-existent blog. :)

3) Visit other participants if you have time. It's always nice to have visitors. There's no overstaying your welcome this way, and they don't have to offer the obligatory drinks. Or clean.

4) If you tweet your posts, feel free to use the hashtag #MemorableMonday.

This week's choice(s):

 
"Words, I think, are such unpredictable creatures.
No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and flailing to rip their skeletons from our flesh."

~Ignite Me, Tahereh Mafi

Fracture Me {Review}

Title: Fracture Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me (#2.5)
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pub Date: Sept 2013
Source: Bought
Format: eBook
Rating: 4 stars

In this electrifying sixty-page companion novella to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, discover the fate of the Omega Point rebels as they go up against The Reestablishment. Set during and soon after the final moments of Unravel Me, Fracture Me is told from Adam's perspective.

As Omega Point prepares to launch an all-out assault on The Reestablishment soldiers stationed in Sector 45, Adam's focus couldn't be further from the upcoming battle. He's reeling from his breakup with Juliette, scared for his best friend's life, and as concerned as ever for his brother James's safety. And just as Adam begins to wonder if this life is really for him, the alarms sound. It's time for war.

On the battlefield, it seems like the odds are in their favor—but taking down Warner, Adam's newly discovered half brother, won't be that easy. The Reestablishment can't tolerate a rebellion, and they'll do anything to crush the resistance . . . including killing everyone Adam has ever cared about.

Fracture Me sets the stage for Ignite Me, the explosive finale in Tahereh Mafi's epic dystopian series. It's a novella not to be missed by fans who crave action-packed stories with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu.




In case you didn't know, I *loved* Shatter Me, and I *loved* Unravel Me. I am DYING for Ignite Me to come out (in 7 days from when I'm typing this... it'll be 5 when I post, so I'll be even more anxious by then...). So I was pretty excited to read something from Adam's point of view. Especially after reading from Warner's in Destroy Me. I wanted another side of things.

Danielle and I were talking about how excited we were for the upcoming release of Ignite Me, and we got to talking about Unravel Me. That night, I went back and read from *the* chapter (ch 62) until the end. So I was really geared up to read Fracture Me. Which worked out great, given that it starts nearly at the same place as chapter 62 ended. :)

I was really hoping to fall for Adam all over again, like in Shatter Me. Mafi has created such flawed, dimensional characters, and I was hoping to get more to Adam. Which we do. We get to see how things look from his perspective. I was left feeling a bit unsure, though. While I completely understand Adam's decisions throughout this short story, I wasn't left feeling anything different toward him. He's still a good guy. He still loves Juliette, his brother, and, begrudgingly, Kenji. He still risks his life to protect them. But I'm still just not sure...

What I am sure of is how much this little novella made me want Ignite Me in my hands now... sooner, rather than later. I mean, I get that authors need time to write and edit and all that jazz, but c'mon. ;)  I'm really curious to see how it all culminates in the end. Plus, the writing, the world she has created in this series, has yet to disappoint.

What do you think of this series? This particular book?

Smiles,
B

Unravel Me: A Review

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.

 

AARGH! Is it February 2014 yet?!?!?!

***Forwarning: Spoilers will ensue for Shatter Me. If you have not read it, I urge you *not* to read on. Feel free to check out my review of Shatter Me if you're so inclined... :) ***

Okay. Quick recap from Shatter Me: Juliette is imprisoned for nearly a year in an insane asylum because nobody wanted her and she was deemed unsafe for society after she accidentally killed a little toddler boy by trying to help him stand up. She is joined by Adam in her cell who we find out is working with The Reestablishment, namely Warner. Warner wants to use Juliette as a weapon of torture, seeing as how she can maim and kill with just a touch. Within the rest of the story, we discover Juliette also has another power: she can break the unbreakable with her bare hands. She and Adam escape the headquarters of Sector 45 and go on the run. We leave off with Juliette and Adam escaping with Kenji, nearly getting caught, and Juliette shooting Warner with his own gun. The four (including James, Adam's brother) end up at Omega Point, which is headquarters for a resistance to the Reestablishment. Woo-hoo! They're safe!

Or are they? It turns out that within Omega there are other people like Juliette, those who have special gifts and can do inhuman things. Heal, turn invisible, stretch arms, etc. Juliette is happy to know that she's not alone, but Adam is withdrawing from her and she tries to keep to herself because she is so used to people hating her or thinking she is a monster that she's really just afraid to give people a chance. We meet Castle, the head of Omega, who wants to help Juliette hone her abilities, and also decides to test Adam to see if there's any 'special' reason he is able to touch her.

She and Adam do spend some time arguing, but it's mostly due to her reluctance to be with him given certain discoveries and him being adamant that they can deal with it all. We do meet up with Warner again, and suffice it to say I do sort of get where the switch is coming from. Believe it or not, he's not all bad. We get to see some sides of him that I didn't think were there... color me impressed. I think there's a lot more good to him than even he realizes, but I'm still not sure I want her with him. Really, after this book, I think she should be alone since she can't seem to keep herself straight anyway. ;) 

Really, though, for her to be with Warner, for me, he would need to have some more redeeming qualities show up in Ignite Me (seriously, is it Feb 4 yet????).

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the story develops regarding The Reestablishment and the Resistance. The Resistance is extremely outnumbered, or so it seems, and The Reestablishment has years of training and heartless people on their side. They don't care who they kill or what lives they ruin, they just want to be in control. And by 'they' I really mean Anderson. I'm anxious to see how it all comes to a head and explodes and how the Resistance is going to win (because, c'mon, they have to win).

I'm really excited to read Destroy Me now and get more of Warner's story. And then I want the one out with Adam's story. More importantly, I want Ignite Me and I want it now! (Cue Oompa Loompas)  Seriously, though, I am loving the world that Mafi has seduced me with and I can't wait to read more of it! :)

Shatter Me: A Review

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 color.

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.

 

Typically when I go to my shelves to find a book to read, I'll read the first page of a few books and take the one that grabs me the most. I had probably read the first page of this one five times before it won out. And thank goodness. Now I'm dying to read Unravel Me (which, unfortunately, I left at home this morning, so I can't start it until later... boo-hoo!!!!).

I love the way this starts out. At first I really thought the scratching out of things was going to really bother me, but it turns out I actually really liked it. It really helped see into Juliette's head - the things she was thinking that she didn't want to think, the things she wanted to say but didn't. It definitely helped develop her character for me and see the kind of state she was in.

The world that Mafi created is a bleak one. I love that she starts out small; we're only introduced to the cell in which Juliette lives. Slowly we branch out - other parts of the asylum, into Sector 45's headquarters, and slowly beyond. We get introduced to this world as Juliette is being introduced to it and it is beautifully done.

When we're introduced to Adam we don't know anything about him, except that he seems to be more stable than Juliette. We see the slow but obvious connection between the two of them being built. I truly fell in love with him as the story went on... he was such a strong and gentle character. The chemistry between the two leaped off the page and into my heart. I couldn't wait for them to figure things out. The downside is that there doesn't seem to *be* a downside yet. Yes, he has an abusive past, but he's worked to overcome it. There has to be some conflict in there somewhere. Hopefully we'll get the novella soon and be satisfied on that front. Get more insight into the inner workings of Adam.

Warner. Seriously, dude, could tone down the inhumanity a notch? He wants Juliette all to himself, to use as he see fits. He seems to be nothing but a heartless murderer who gets pleasure from torturing others. I hated being trapped there with Juliette and wanted to escape his presence just as badly as she did.

Can't wait to see what happens in Unravel Me. I'm trying to decide how in the world other readers have taken such a leap to be "team Warner." Hmm... 

Memorable Monday ♥ Unravel Me

Memorable Monday is a meme hosted by Escape in a Good Book. I'm excited to join in on this one because I love quotes, which was the driving force behind the creation of Memorable Mondays. I thank the ladies at Escape in a Good Book.

So... how do you participate? It's simple ~

1) Share a quote that has captured your interest lately in a Memorable Monday post on your blog.

2) Come back here and leave the link to your post in the comment box below. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to hear read your quote. Leave it in the comment box instead of a link to a non-existent blog. :)

3) Visit other participants if you have time. It's always nice to have visitors. There's no overstaying your welcome this way, and they don't have to offer the obligatory drinks. Or clean.

4) If you tweet your posts, feel free to use the hashtag #MemorableMonday.

This week's choice:

"We don't have to do anything at all to die. We can hide in a cupboard under the stairs our whole life and it'll still find us. Death will show up wearing an invisible cloak and it will wave a magic wand and whisk us away when we least expect it. It will erase every trace of our existence on this earth and it will do all this work for free. It will ask for nothing in return. it will take a bow at our funeral and accept the accolades for a job well done and then it will disappear.

Living is a little more complex. There's always one thing we have to do.

Breathe." 

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

I realize this is a little longer than usual, but I really, really, really liked it. :) 

Dreaming of the Day...

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine that highlights upcoming releases we're excited about.

There are, as you know, books coming out left and right that we all want to read. One I am looking most forward to is...



So I'm currently reading Unravel Me (Book #2 in the Shatter Me series) and loving it. Although I haven't gotten to the end of it yet, I'm already looking forward to continuing the series when this one comes out (according to Goodreads that will be Feb 4, 2014).

What are you waiting on?

Memorable Monday ♥ Shatter Me

Memorable Monday is a meme hosted by Escape in a Good Book. I'm excited to join in on this one because I love quotes, which was the driving force behind the creation of Memorable Mondays. I thank the ladies at Escape in a Good Book.

So... how do you participate? It's simple ~

1) Share a quote that has captured your interest lately in a Memorable Monday post on your blog.

2) Come back here and leave the link to your post in the comment box below. If you don't have a blog, I'd still love to hear read your quote. Leave it in the comment box instead of a link to a non-existent blog. :)

3) Visit other participants if you have time. It's always nice to have visitors. There's no overstaying your welcome this way, and they don't have to offer the obligatory drinks. Or clean.

4) If you tweet your posts, feel free to use the hashtag #MemorableMonday.

This week's choice:

"Truth is a jealous, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don't tell him. I'll never be okay."

~Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi



Anything strike you lately?

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: A Review by Malissa

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 color.

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.

This was my "mystery book" that Brandy picked for me, so going in I didn't know the title, cover, plot line, nothing. I figured it out about halfway through, not so much because I recognized the story from one I'd heard about but because I saw a cover on Amazon while browsing that had the same cut-in-half letters as my chapter headings. Still, I didn't read any descriptions because I didn't want to know. It's really fun reading that way, and I think gives a bit different experience because you don't have any preconceived notions starting off. 

So what did I think? 

The book starts out keeping readers about as clueless as I was anyway, so it fit the mystery book theme very well. Juliette (though we don't know her name yet) is in a mental institution that's clearly more of a prison. She narrates in a very disjointed way that involves counting everything (breaths, days, heartbeats, fingers) with Arabic numerals rather than written out words, and there are many strikeouts showing what she thinks as opposed to says. It has a journal-like stream of consciousness feel to it, but isn't an actual journal (though at times the journal is mentioned and you're given the impression that it's supposed to be) because she'll often be describing something such as feeling her way down a pitch black hallway in the present tense when she couldn't actually be writing. This odd narration style combined with my cluelessness about the plot and Juliette's insistence that she's not crazy, gave the distinct impression that she might be. I thought for a very long time that we might be dealing with an extremely unreliable narrator ... 

The writing itself is different from the run of the mill because of the numerals, the strikeouts, and the very dramatically descriptive language. Overall I liked it. The strikeouts become more sparse and the narration more stable as Juliette herself became more emotionally stable, and that was a neat effect. Often I enjoyed the very descriptive passages, especially in light of the bleak, dystopian setting (yup, it's another dystopia ...). It was an interesting dichotomy. Passages like "a chocolate river lapping the pale shore of my skin" and "my heart it parasailing in the springtime" give you really strong visual images. On the other hand, it definitely became too much at times. Though it seemed very much like Mafi used that sort of language to excess intentionally as opposed to it being a simple lack of editing or restraint, it still made reading certain passages a bit tedious or unbelievable. For example: "I never would have thought his dark hair would've been so soft. Like melted chocolate." and "The weight of the notebook in my pocket feels like I'm balancing a bowling ball on my knee." I don't even know what chocolate hair would feel like short of slimy and icky, and the bowling ball on the knee thing just sounded silly (I snapped a pic to remember it for my review later). So while I think Mafi is a writer to watch and who has talent and isn't afraid to stray from the easy and ordinary, the writing took me out of the story at times. 

As far as the story itself goes, it was fairly compelling. Despite being yet another YA dystopian setting, I didn't find it too predictable. I wondered what would happen next. Juliette was somewhat hard to get to know because she seemed so trapped in her own mind (and us with her and her strikeout thoughts) for a long time, but I ended up caring about her and rooting for her. Because of the present tense first person POV, and the fact that Juliette herself has been locked up for years and doesn't know the current world well, we don't get much world building until the very end of this book. It's an original way to develop the story, and I liked that, but I missed it too. It's just a personal preference, but I LOVE lots of world building and exploring of what went wrong with society in my dystopias. About the time I really got drawn into the world, the book ended. Well played, Ms. Mafi. Now I *have* to pick up book two ... 

The last point I wanted to address was the romance (because you know there is one ...). I wasn't sure at first how believable I found Juliette's and Adam's complete and utter ... obsession with each other. Especially given their backgrounds which seemed to lead to general distrust of others and loner tendencies. But as we found out  more about them and their history as children (despite never actually speaking to each other), it begins to make more sense. In the end, I bought in. I will say, though, that there's some pretty steamy stuff in this book for YA. At least if you're giving it to actual teens. Nothing "happens," but some very hot and heavy almost occurs a couple of times and promises for the future are made. To illustrate: I lean into his ear, lower my voice. Whisper the words so only he can hear me. "You're going to get better," I promise him. "And when you do, I'm going to show you exactly what choice I've made. I'm going to memorize every inch of your body with my lips." I'm not sure if that would have freaked me out as a 15 or 16 year old or made my head explode (OK it would have definitely freaked me out because I was nerdy and sheltered ...). So I'd hesitate to give this to some of the younger teens who are loving this genre. I don't generally believe books *make* people, young or old, engage in inadvisable behavior, but that much blatant passion seems likely to fire up some ... curiosity to say the least. 

So, I guess despite some flaws, I'm giving 4 stars for creativity, a decent amount of originality, and the fact that I do want to read book two despite being nearly dystopia-ed out. Overall, I'd recommend the book. 

In other news, I kind of hate the cover on this one. Yeah, she's forced into ridiculous dresses for a bit in the book, but really? It represents nothing but a pretty girl in a dress ... Blech.

Have you read it? What'd you think?

Malissa