Unravel Me

From amazon:

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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.

I held strong with the Warner hate through Chapter 62 and that’s all anyone really needs to know about this book.

Kidding! This series is so so close to being AMAZING and I can’t put my finger on what’s not doing it for me. The writing is excellent (seriously, so good), and this mess has pretty much disappeared…is it the x-men vibe? Juliette’s still constant flip-flopping between scared, weak little girl and crazy brave amazingness? Freaking Warner?! Hopefully I’ll be able to pinpoint it by the end of the series.

I definitely feel differently about some characters, so let’s check in with them:

• Juliette: ugh, whiny. I get it, but like…adapt. Overcome your adversity, girl. Forget about Warner and his gross pinkie ring and let Adam do his thang to get strong enough to be with you. This is a war you’re fighting in and you can kill people with guns or your hands, but either way you’re a killer.
• Adam: ugh, whiny. Again, I get it, but it’s not attractive. You could be way worse and still be better than Warner, so you’ve got that going for you. Just do you and get your girl back.
• Warner: EW FOREVER. Chapter 62 was on the verge of becoming an issue, but it ended in the best way possible. Ditch the pinkie ring, expand your color palette, stop being such a weirdo. Maybe someone will like you eventually, or maybe you could keep living with your mom forever.
• Kenji: Seriously over the top to the point of basically being a caricature of a person, but still better than the other three. 2.5 from Kenji’s POV? I’d be down.

Oh great, a cliffhanger. I gave Unravel me by Tahereh Mafi 4 stars on Goodreads. It’s almost a perfect series, but I can’t say for sure why it’s not.

Shatter Me

From Amazon:

“You can’t touch me,” I whisper.

I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him.

He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

This sounded really uninteresting to me for a long time (like two weeks). Then everyone started talking about it because everyone is already on Unravel Me, and it started sounding better.

This book is SO CLOSE to being crazy amazing for me, but I just can’t get there. The crossed out words really bothered me in the beginning, but it got less annoying as I read on – I read House of Leaves, I know annoying. Plus, I have a million questions that don’t seem to be getting any closer to being answered.

Let’s talk about the characters.

• Juliette: I…like her. I don’t think it’s believable that she would be in solitary confinement for 3 years and then immediately fall in love with the first person she sees and be so strong/powerful/angry. Instead of being the damaged/frail girl of her journal and inner monologue, she is outwardly the opposite of that.
• Adam: I’m okay with this. Still, not the most believable that he would love her from afar (while she also loved him from afar) and then spend years searching for her. But one of his most frequent descriptions is tattoos, so I’m on board.
• Warner: I HATE WARNER. WARNER CAN GO DIE IN A FIRE. He wears a pinkie ring. He forces himself on Juliette. Warner is the worst. (Every Warner is the worst, I’m still mad about Legally Blonde Warner.) I’ve seen some people have a change of heart about Warner (and heard all about Chapter 62)…so I’m really nervous. I read Destroy Me, from his POV, and I felt so unclean and skeeved out the whole time. He is so slimy.
• Kenji: Undecided. Seems okay, though.

The ending threw me. I didn’t expect it to turn into that kind of series. I don’t really like the ‘oooh, now you’re a superhero’ comment, but hopefully it was just an off-hand thing.