{Review} Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2)

Tahereh Mafi

Pages:

Publisher: HarperTeen

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

Age Group: Young Adult

Date Published: February 5, 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.

Holy crap this book was INCREDIBLE. I started it thinking it couldn't get any better than Shatter Me but then it did and I'm so confused like Warner or Adam or Kenji I love the boys in this book and Juliette and I'm crying and I'm happy and I'm so freaking excited for the next book you don't even know. 

I had to get that out. 

I seriously love Tahereh Mafi's writing style. It's eloquent with just the right amount of psychosis thrown in to make Juliette one of the most amazing narrators ever. I love the way she repeats words and stutters in her mind and the way she describes things makes me fall in love with words all over again. I've been having a really hard time reviewing or even reading books because it had started to feel like a chore but then I read Unravel Me in one day and felt completely compelled to share my love of this book with you. The gorgeous way this book was written really pulled me in. I love great storylines, sure, but perfect diction is something that can't be replicated and only belongs to certain people. And Ms. Mafi is certainly one of those people in my opinion. For example:

I beamed.
The sun and moon and the stars call and said, "Turn down the beaming, please, because you're making it hard for us to see," and I didn't listen, I just kept on beaming.

I always dared to identify with the princess, the one who runs away and finds a fairy godmother to transform her into a beautiful girl with a bright future. I clung to something like hope, to a thread of maybes and possiblys and perhapses. But I should've listened when my parents told me that things like me aren't allowed to have dreams. Things like me are better off destroyed, is what my mother said to me.

And the entire book is written like that. Juliette counts things and crosses out her bad thoughts and ignores her past and bottles everything up and gets yelled at and it's beautiful. Truly. Juliette herself is a really interesting character. She pities herself a lot at the beginning- I pitied her too- but then Kenji calls her out and she starts to make an effort to think about everyone besides herself. Yeah, she fails at it sometimes, but she's so gloriously human for someone fictional that she's perfect. She's whiny and flawed, but she's also selfless often and funny without meaning to be and sympathetic towards everyone and she just wants friends but doesn't know how. I found myself getting frustrated for her in the beginning because she just doesn't know how to fit in, because she's never had to. She's forever been an outcast and now this Castle guy expects her to be able to fit in effortlessly? It pissed me off for her. Who would dare to force this poor girl to do anything she doesn't want to at this point? I was furious with Castle and Kenji for a while, but then they became fantastic characters too and oh it's beautiful. My favorite Juliette quote is when she's asked if she knows about Shakespeare and responds with "All I know about him is that he stole my name and spelled it wrong." and I giggled so hard.

And the boys. Oh my goodness. In Shatter Me, Adam was it for me. I loved him, he was my book boyfriend, etc. I didn't even like Kenji that much and hated Warner with a passion. In Unravel Me, though? I'm just as confused as Juliette (though I don't think Kenji is even one her love choices, he's certainly one of mine). We don't see a ton of Adam in this one. He's there, he's still sweet and protective as ever, but Juliette becomes more independent and spends a lot of time with Kenji and then Warner so we get to know the two of them. And even though Warner is evil, I totally understand him and I think I'm Team 62 right now but I don't even know because I love Adam so much too and what about Kenji the snarky guy with a funny name who won't EVER deal with any of Juliette's crap. (Seriously, though? Chapter 62? so hot. dear lord)

I think Warner is really misunderstood by everyone in the books, like yeah he's killed a ton of innocent people, but we meet his daddy in this one and I feel bad for the guy. He had to do it, because that's just how he was raised. But he forgets all of that for Juliette, and she makes him so confused and I just wanna give him a hug, you know? The poor guy. He's so pretty and perfect and evil wonderful that I don't even know what to do with myself. He knows he's a terrible person, he doesn't know how to be any different, but he loves Juliette. I just. He's amazing. And evil.

So, I think I need to go buy both books in this series so I can read them over and over again because they are beautiful and amazing and everything I adore about YA. I didn't think I could love this series any more that I did, but Unravel Me proved that wrong and you just need to read it okay? Obviously five staches' over her.