Hello lovelies!

We all have those days when we feel absolutely insane, and it’s super disheartening because we feel like we’re the only one who ever feels like the world is slipping by at a pace far to quick to register what is going. But I’m here to enlighten you on another lost soul much like us: Juliette. She’s this amazingly insane person who we can all relate to in one way or another, and we can find her in Shatter Me, Unravel Me, and Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi.

I’ve already reviewed the first book in series on my old blog, and you can get to it by clicking here. Also, since I will be reviewing the series as a whole, there WILL be spoilers from the first two books, but I’ll try to keep the ending vague, but my feelings on it will be extremely obvious.

This series is by far one of my favorites. And it’s pretty hard to get on that list, but Mafi’s ability to describe such complex human emotions is most definitely my favorite part of this book. I’m going to be throwing quotes in here like crazy, so let’s start:

“Words are such unpredictable creatures. No gun, no sword, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh.” -Ignite Me

^^ This is exactly what I’m talking about. I HATE it when authors attempt to put in deep, philosophical themes and lessons in their novels when it is completely irrelevant to the story, but Mafi is the one author that I have found who can blend these insanely thoughtful and metaphorical lessons into her book, and it fits because it’s the ramblings on a seemingly crazy young girl who sees the world from these twisted and shattered views. And they are heartbreaking because all of them are true, but we never look at things like that. She connects things that would never be connected in regular life, but then it makes complete sense, because Mafi is a freaking genius.

“Someone picked up the sun and pinned it to the sky again, but everyday it hangs a little lower than the day before. It’s like a negligent parent who only knows one hand of who you are. It never sees how it’s absence changes people. How different we are in the dark.” -Shatter Me

God! Doesn’t that just give you chills? Honestly, who would equate the sun getting lower in the sky (something we know just is how the seasons change and how the earth rotates on it’s axis) with an absent parent? It’s a spurious correlation, but it works ridiculously well. It’s true that we behave differently in the dark, or at night when we think that no one can see who we are and what we do. I personally believe that we are more ourselves in the dark. While we may feel more vulnerable in the “light,” it’s in the dark where we let insecurities and oddities eat away at us, until we feel like we are the bare bones versions of ourselves. I guess that it’s this kind of genius that makes both Adam and Warner fall in love with Juliette.

Now, I won’t tell you who she ends up with (because she does choose one at the end of the novel), but I am going to tell you who is the so much better choice. Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong. This isn’t my petulant teenage girl side coming out. No. Anyone with any sense of logic would agree with me, that WARNER is the right choice for anyone, not just Juliette.

Oh, Warner… He’s just… amazing. That’s the only word fit to describe him. Where do I even start? I think I’ll make a list of all of his amazing qualities.

He is blonde (because who doesn’t want to bang a California boy?)

He works out all the freaking time

He’s a super powerful, commander of Sector 45, so umm, major sex appeal

He can touch Juliette, too! Surprise!

Juliette is comfortable with every part of herself when she’s with him. He doesn’t make her feel ashamed of her (sometimes) bloodlust, because he understands what it feels like to not have anyone love you, and to feel so utterly alone with you power and no way to control it

He want’s Juliette to be herself, and to accept her potential, when Adam only wants her to be the shy and ashamed and scared little girl that he fell in love with in the observation center

He has a soft spot for fashion

This list really only scratches the surface of why he is SO much better for Juliette than Adam! Ugh! Nobody even likes you, Adam. Get out.

The final reason why I absolutely adore this series can be described in one word: Kenji. I want you to get a feel for his personality, so I’m just going to leave like 50 quotes here, and let you enjoy.

“Kenji: ‘Are you out of your goddamn mind? You think we can take on two hundred soldiers? I know I am an extremely attractive man, J, but I am not Bruce Lee.’

Juliette: ‘Who’s Bruce Lee?’

‘Who’s Bruce Lee?’ Kenji asks, horrified. ‘Oh, my God, we can’t even be friends anymore.’

‘Why? Was he a friend of yours?’

‘You know what,’ he says, ‘just stop. Just-I can’t even talk to you right now.'”

***

“‘I am going to MURDER YOU-‘

‘No,’ he says, pointing at me as he shifts back ward again. ‘Bad Juliette. You don’t like to kill people, remember? Youre against that, remember? You like to talk about feelings and rainbows-‘”

***

“Three forty-five-pound plates on each side of what Kenji told me is an Olympic bar, which weighs an additional forty-five pounds. I can’t stop staring. I don’t think that I’ve ever been more attracted to him in all the time I’ve known him.

‘So this is what gets you going, huh?’

‘I’ve never seen him in sweatpants before…’

‘I bet you’ve seen him in a lot less.'”

***

“‘Hey! Jazz hands!’ Kenji barks. ‘Get your ass back over here.’ He makes it a point to look as irritated as possible. ‘Back to work. And this time, focus. You’re not an ape. Don’t just throw your shit everywhere.'”

Okay, I’m done. But seriously. Kenji is my soul mate, and I have to end up with someone exactly like him.

So, now that you have met the best character ever to be written, go get yourself some Shatter Me.

xoxo Aubrey