Tori's Review: Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #3
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 416
Published by HarperCollins on February 4, 2014
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The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love"

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.

In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was "dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense." Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end.

Ignite Me was one of my top anticipated books of 2014, and it feels great to finally have read it, and to finish another series. I have to admit that I started out Team Adam, but as the book series went along, I was less Adam and more Warner. If you've read Destroy Me, no doubt you felt the same. Tahereh Mafi has a way with characters. She so beautifully crafts their personalities and their voice as well as their mannerisms. Some people think her writing is choppy, but I think it's genius.

Warner absolutely breaks my heart. His character survived a long character arc since Shatter Me, and that makes me really happy. I'm glad that he's made it out not-so-unscathed but alright. Ever since Destory Me, I've been in love with that dude. In Ignite Me, he made my heart break/swoon/ache. Just all of those adjectives. He made me feel.

He smiles like it hurts.

In my opinion, each and every character in this book has their own demons they need to learn to face. In Fracture Me, we as readers learn that Adam does have his own inner anger that he needs to tame and learn to deal with. If it weren't for Fracture Me, I don't think I would've been ready for Adam's hostile personality in Ignite Me. His anger surprised me.

Other than Warner, Kenji was my favorite. I think if you've read Shatter Me and Unravel Me, you'll know that Kenji is hilarious. But in Ignite Me, I really start to see Kenji and Juliette's friendship for what it is—hilarious. Not in a sense that it doesn't work, but in the sense that they work so well together as friends. They feed off each other.

That's because you're not fragile," Kenji says. "If anything, everyone needs to protect themselves from you. You're like a freaking beast," he says. Then adds, "I mean, you know—like a cute beast. A little beast that tears shit up and breaks the earth and sucks the life out of people."

Plot-wise, Ignite Me was lacking. The common thread throughout the trilogy was that Juliette wanted to take down the Reestablishment, right? But it seemed as though Juliette's sudden drive to make a change was sudden. Too sudden. She wanted to take down the Reestablishment after Warner's father, the leader of the Reestablishment, shot her, which was reasonable, but I felt like it could've been improved a lot. This trilogy has been solely based off relationships and character arcs, which I'm perfectly fine with, but I wished that it had more substance.

And lastly, the world-building was pretty much nonexistent. Tahereh Mafi barely touches on how this dystopian world came to be. I think I remember hearing about radioactive events occurring prior to Shatter Me, but I think it should've been covered more thoroughly. Even at the end of the book, I'm left wondering if Juliette ever truly gets a happy ending. Plus, the action happened within the last 20 pages, which more or less irritated me. I feel like endings should be big. This one wasn't.

In conclusion, if I wanted to rate this book not thinking about its faults, it would no doubt have five stars. But sitting down and really thinking about the book, I can't give it more than five stars. It was amazing, but it wasn't all that. Regardless, Ignite Me will be a 2014 favorite.

On a final note, Tahereh Mafi is very good at hot scenes, let me tell you.