Review: Unravel Me

As with Shatter Me, I don't have too much to say about this book, but I'll go ahead and tell you what I think anyway. This is classified as: YA Fiction, Sci-Fi, and Romance.

Synopsis: "Juliette has escaped from The Reestablishment. Now she's 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. Haunted by her past and terrified of her future, Juliette knows that she will have to make some life-changing choices. Choices that may involve choosing between her heart--and Adam's life." -the blurb on the back of Unravel Me

Alright, so right off the bat I'm going to say that this review might seem negative, but I truly did enjoy this book. I still don't like Adam and his bland personality. But what I hate even more is the "I want you but I can't have you" dynamic between him and Juliette throughout this book. It's very annoying and I really disliked it. In the first part of the book, Juliette seems to be wallowing in her own self-pity and complaining about everything, but then our star, Kenji, knocks some sense into her and she starts to change after that. I'm glad she does because I really don't think I could stand her otherwise. She's always thinking about herself and HER problems when she's part of a rebellion and should be thinking of others as well.

Just like the last book, nothing of consequence really happens. There are a couple of cool revelations that I didn't see coming, as well as a battle in the middle and end, but they are very short and sparingly described. Unravel Me seems to be focused on Juliette and her thoughts and feelings. The way it goes is this: Juliette feels strong, but then she touches someone or accidentally hurts someone and withdraws back into herself again. She gets up, then falls down, then gets up, then falls down. It's a constant cycle. There's a literal rebellion going on, but none of that is elaborated on or talked about very much. It's ALWAYS about Juliette and I have to say, that got on my nerves.

Now that I've gotten all of that off of my chest, let's talk about what I liked. Most of these are repeats from the last book, by the way. First off, the writing. It was great in the last book, but it was even better in this book. I found myself rereading passages just to admire the prose. Here's an example.

"I'm checking my pockets for spare words and sentences but I'm finding none, not an adverb, not a preposition or even a dangling participle because there doesn't exist a single response to such an outlandish request." -Tahereh Mafi, Unravel Me

There are so many more sentences like this, but I found this one particularly interesting.

I love love LOVE the banter, mostly between Kenji and Juliette. I'm glad there's more of it in this book. I also love Kenji even more than I did in the last book. We know more about him now, and it just adds to the list of things I love about him. He is now on my list of Favorite YA Boys. Just like Shatter Me, this book was addicting. I still have no clue why, though I suspect it's because of the writing. I finished this in a day, which is the same amount of time I spent finishing the last book as well.

I understand why this was such a popular book in its time. When Shatter Me was first published in 2011, the trope of "girl finds out she has magical powers and then realizes she's not the only one" was just beginning, which means that this book was a brand new concept at the time. Now, it's been overused, and I can name two series off the top of my head that deal with the same trope. Red Queen, The Young Elites. I feel like if I read it back when it came out, I would've really loved it, but since I'm reading it right now, it falls just above average. 3/5 stars.