Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #2
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Romance
Rating: ★★★★★
Pages: 461
Published by HarperCollins on February 5, 2013
Date Read: August 23, 2013
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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.
We’re running out of time, he said.
As if time were the kind of thing you could run out of, as if it were measured into bowls that were handed to us at birth and if we ate too much or too fast or right before jumping into the water then our time would be lost, wasted, already spent.
But time is beyond our finite comprehension. It’s endless, it exists outside of us; we cannot run out of it or lose track of it or find a way to hold onto it. Time goes on even when we do not.
I feel like this excerpt is semi-relevant to how I want to start this review. While reading Unravel Me, I seemed to have experienced loss of time. I started reading around 10 pm, and then I didn't put the book down until 1 am when my feels just couldn't handle it anymore.
Anyway, simply put, time wasn't a concept to me while reading this book, nor was it a problem. I just read and read and read and read until the book was over. And after reading it, I realized that Juliette was absolutely right. Time is beyond our infinite comprehension. It goes on even when we do not. I just felt that I needed to explain myself and why I wanted to put that in there. Let's move on with the review.
I have to admit that at first, I was highly intimidated by the size of this book. Also, I have extremely high expectations for sequels, which prevented me from picking up book two right after finishing book one. Now don't get me wrong, judging by my five star review, you've probably already deducted that this book was perfect to me. Well, it wasn't. Just like every book, there are pros and cons. But by the end, after I put all my emotions to the side, I decided that the pros heavily outweighed the cons.
Tahereh Mafi's writing is simply astonishing, and I love it so much. She continues to cross out lines and phrases in her book, which means to be that Juliette is using sort of a backspace key but for her thoughts. It's quite intriguing, and I found it to be a powerful attribute to her writing. Another thing about Mafi's writing that I simply adore is Juliette's thought process. She just has so much going on in her little noggin.
But now let's talk about Juliette herself. Despite the fact that I love how Mafi portrayed and wrote Juliette, I happen to not like the girl that much. In the beginning, she was very whiny and very annoying. I mean, yes, I understand that you were misunderstood, Warner wanted to use you for your powers, you and Adam haven't had sex yet--but, girl, you need to calm the fuck down and stop crying in your little room just because you can't bend a fucking metal bar at will.
Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest.
Anyway, I didn't like Castle either, the leader at Omega Point or Point Omega, whatever it was called. He's the type of person my family and I like to call a bleeding heart. He reaches out to everybody, regardless of the situation and circumstances. He acts upon emotion and even though he sometimes thinks out things for in the long-run he's very emotionally oriented, which isn't good in his case. Warner is right when he says that his naivety is going to be his downfall (well, Warner said something along those lines).
Now let's talk about Warner. Warner, oh, Warner. How I love thee. There's a scene in this book where Juliette and Warner are talking privately, and he shows her this tattoo that on his hip. It's a Shakespeare quote. I'm too lazy to look it up in the book right now, but I was so giddy when I was reading that scene. I would've put it all in this review, but there were way too many spoilers in it.
I hate that I can't talk about Warner without having spoilers. It's so hard. For those of you who haven't read the book, just read Destroy Me and you'll understand why I love Warner so much.
There was so much depth to Warner as a character, and I think that's because of the novella that Mafi wrote. But regardless of that, Warner is so much more of a man that Adam is or will ever be. At first I was skeptical about saying that Adam is a flat character, but really, he is. There's no dimension to Adam. Warner has feelings and reasons for doing what he does and he's driven by his love for Juliette. Don't get me wrong, Adam is driven by his love for Juliette as well, but I came to that conclusion myself. I just know that because he's constantly telling her he loves her. For Warner, on the other hand, it's his actions that show that he loves Juliette and will pretty much do anything for her. Adam, I just don't know about him. He's such a John Doe. He's every other macho guy that goes soft for the pretty girl that he's been in love with all his live.
Warner is just so much more. He loves Juliette but not because she's a pretty face or because he knew her when he was younger. Warner fell in love with Juliette because she has potential, she has power, she is brave. I just feel like Warner's reasons for loving Juliette are so much purer than Adam's. Feel free to correct me, but don't expect a response. It's 2 am, and that's what I stand by.
This is all probably because I think Warner is just a sexy bastard. But really. They're both book characters. I'm analyzing it way too much, in my opinion.
I spent most of my review talking about Warner, so now let's talk about Kenji. If anything, 75% of my reasoning for loving this book is because of Warner and Kenji. I don't even have to say anything about Kenji. All I have to do is show you excerpts with Kenji in them, and you'll understand completely.
Adam leans into my ear. I feel the soft whispers of his breath just before he begins to speak.
“You guys are disgusting, you know that, right?”
I look up, startled, and kind Kenji frozen mid movement, his spoon halfway to his mouth, his head cocked in our direction. He gestures with his spoon at our faces. “What the hell is this? You guys playing footsie under the table or someshit?”
“You know, if you don’t like it, you can leave. No one asked you to sit here.” [Adam says.]
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Kenji says. “I told you this morning that I had to sit with you guys. Castle wants me to help the two of you adjust.” He snorts. Nods in my direction. “Listen, I don’t have a clue what you see in this guy,” he says, “but you should try living with him. The man is moody as hell.”
[Adam says,] “I am not moody—“
“Yeah, bro.” Kenji puts his utensils down. “You are moody. It’s always ‘Shut up, Kenji.’ ‘Go to sleep, Kenji.’ ‘No one wants to see you naked, Kenji.’ When I know for a fact that there are thousands of people who would love to see me naked—“
“How long do you have to sit here?” [Adam asks.]
[Kenji says,] “You should consider yourself lucky that I’m sitting at your table. I’m making you cool by association.”
"How much do you weigh?” [Kenji asks.]
[I say,] “Wow. Is that how you talk to every girl you meet? That explains so much.”
“I’m about one hundred seventy-five pounds,” he says. “Of muscle.”
I stare at him. “Would you like an award?”
“Well, well, well,” he says. “Look who’s the smart-ass now.”
“I think you’re rubbing off on me,” I say.
Sometimes I wonder about glue.
No one ever stops to asks glue how it’s holding up. If it’s tired of sticking things together or worried about filling apart or wondering how it will pay its bills next week.
Kenji is kind of like that.
He's like glue.
"Have you ever had a girlfriend, Kenji?” [I ask.]
“What?” He looks mortally offended. “Do I look like the kind of guy who’s never had a girlfriend? Have you even met me?”
I roll my eyes. “Forget I asked.
[Kenji says,] “I can’t even believe you just said that.”
“You’re the one who’s always going on about not wanting to talk about your feelings,” I snap.
“No,” he says. “I said I don’t want to talk about your feelings. I have zero problem talking about my own.”
[I ask,] “So you want to talk about your feelings?”
[Kenji says,] “Hell no.”
It's safe to say that this has been one of my 2013 Favorites, and I will definitely be reading this series again sometime soon. Also, I'M SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR THE THIRD BOOK IGNITE ME LIKE WHAT.
Warner's tattoo. That's all I have left to say. Warner's tattoo.
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