Ignite Me | Tahereh Mafi | Book Review

Ignite Me | Tahereh Mafi | Book ReviewIgnite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Also by this author: Furthermore
Published by HarperCollins on 2014-02-04
Genres: Adolescence, Love & Romance, Science Fiction, Social Issues, Young Adult
Pages: 416
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads
four-half-stars

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.”With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines 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.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and satisfying end.

I stumbled upon the Shatter Me series when I kept seeing it pop up in my twitter feed. I didn’t buy it right away but I added it to my list of wanted books. About two weeks before Unravel Me was released, I went to the local bookstore and finally picked up Shatter Me. Thus began my beautiful journey into the Shatter Me series.

Ignite Me picks right up where Unravel Me left off. Juliette has been shot by Captain Anderson. Omega Point was blown up with all of the people inside. Only a handful of people were lucky enough to have been in the battlefield away from the bombings. The fate of the few survivors is completely unknown and Juliette is in the hands of Warner.

Warner makes it a point to tell Juliette that there are no survivors from the Omega Point bombings, he doesn’t want her to get her hopes up and have her heart broken all over again. At this point, she has no idea that some of the rebels have survived. Upon hearing this news, she immediately breaks down into a deep depression. The only people she has ever trusted or loved are now gone.

After her completely understandable break down, she awakes with unwavering determination. Revenge will be hers, at all costs. It is at this point that Juliette has finally broken out of her shell. She is no longer the meek, shy girl cowering in the corner because she is afraid of what she could unleash. She is a strong, confident young woman and no one will stand in her way. I loved this transformation of hers. It reminds me of myself in some ways. I used to be the shyest kid around, I hated having to present in class. Gym partners were torture and so were band solos. I was even voted most shy in my senior year of high school yearbook. I was always afraid of what people thought of me and how I presented myself. It took years for me to grow out of this and it is still a process. It is so inspiring to see how far Juliette has come. I hope I can one day be that determined and confident.

A majority of the book is about the internal struggle Juliette faces between Adam and Warner. On one hand, Adam was the first person to ever care for her. He saw so much potential in her, even as a scared girl in the corner of a cell. He picked her up at the most trying time of her life and gave her motivation to live again. At the same time, there’s Warner who puts on a cold front to others but is actually one of the sweetest characters on the inside. He understands how Juliette feels and pushes her to be the best that she can be. How does a girl choose between those two?! I’m dying to provide more details but I don’t want to spoil anything. Let me know if you’ve read this book in the comments so we can discuss!

This book was packed full with tension and suspense. I literally couldn’t put it down and read the entire novel in a few hours time. One thing that I loved about Ignite Me is that there were only two main goals: to take down the Reestablishment and kill Commander Anderson. Too often authors try to cram too many plots and climaxes into the final book in a series. I hate that. It just gets to be too confusing and I tend to lose interest. Literally the entire book was building up to the two main goals, but thankfully not in a redundant way.

Ignite Me is a perfect mix of character development and action. Whenever I felt like things were getting a little too dramaish between Juliette, Adam and Warner, something exciting would happen regarding the future rebellion. My only qualm with the novel is that the final battle only spanned 40 or so pages, if I recall correctly. I would’ve liked it to have lasted a bit longer. I would happily have read another hundred pages. Before I knew it, I was done with the book. Despite that, I absolutely loved seeing all of the powerful friends coming together for a common goal.  I am so happy with the conclusion to the Shatter Me series, I don’t think Tahereh Mafi could have ended it any other way. I will leave you with one of my favorite passages from the novel:

No guns, no swords, no army or king will ever be more powerful than a sentence. Swords may cut and kill, but words will 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.

 

What did you think of Ignite Me? Let me know if you’ve read it and let’s discuss the love situation! 🙂

four-half-stars
The following two tabs change content below.
Cassie is a 24 year old working full-time in the marketing industry. In her spare time she likes to play video games, read books, exercise, and cuddle with her cat.

Latest posts by Cassie Conant (see all)

About Cassie Conant

Cassie is a 24 year old working full-time in the marketing industry. In her spare time she likes to play video games, read books, exercise, and cuddle with her cat.

Comments

  1. I’ve read it! Are you still Team Adam?

    • Ahh I’m so happy you’ve read it! I actually was leaning on the Warner Team after reading the novellas. Adam was such a jerk in the last novel! Though I do understand why he was so hurt. It reminded me a lot of my first boyfriend and how it was more of a “wow this person actually cares about me when no one else does” than love. I think Tahereh wrote this internal struggle perfectly. I’m very happy she ended up with Warner. How did you feel??

    • Awesome! I actually switched over to Team Warner when I read the novellas. How do you feel??

  2. I’m excited to read it, mostly because I can’t wait to see Juliette break out of her shell AND because there’s more Kenji. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about the rest of it (especially the romance), but we’ll have to wait and see 😉

  3. What. LOL I didn’t read this whole thing, but I am pretty sure I purchased a paperback of Shatter Me for you for Christmas a year or so ago.