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Review: Ignite Me (#3, Shatter Me) by Tahereh Mafi

My Thoughts

Thrilling. Consuming. Intense.
The exciting conclusion to this utterly absorbing, strikingly original, wholly unforgettable series. I loved every addictive second of it.

Related Posts: 2014 Favorites, Daring Dystopian, My review of Shatter Me (#1), My review of Destroy Me (#1.5), My review of Unravel Me (#2)

Synopsis

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”

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she’ll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined 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.” The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was “dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end.

*This review is spoiler free*

My Review

“I am no longer afraid of fear and I will not let it rule me. Fear will learn to fear me.”

Blown. Away. I just want to scale the mountaintops and exclaim to all the sheer awesomeness of this book! I want to squee and flail and high-five and do a silly little dance because I am so full of adrenaline, my eloquence clearly blown asunder. This book rocked my world. I turned the first page in the morning and kept it permanently attached to my greedy fingers all day, flipping the final page in the evening, still reeling from all the delicious, utterly absorbing turmoil we’ve come to expect from this series. Drama and action and angst…ohmygod… angst. It was everything I wanted, delivered in that incredibly unique and unexpected style of Tahereh Mafi. Some sentences gave me goosebumps for ingenuity and originality alone. But I digress in my nerdiness.

This final installment in the Shatter Me series is gritty and gutsy and packs a heart-palpitating punch. After the culminating events of Unravel Me, followed by Adam’s unsettling perspective in Fracture Me, I honestly didn’t know what to expect, although admittedly, I began this experience wearing my Team Warner shirt with pride. As with the other full-length novels, the story unravels through Juliette’s point-of-view and this chapter of their adventure is very much about her transformation.

After the destruction of Omega Point, Juliette is staggered with the news that everything is gone. All that remains are a million little embers of hope so thoroughly destroyed. So many lives lost including of those she cherished the most. The events leading up to the massacre had been less than ideal, fraught with tension and pain. Warner had saved her, but this new rock bottom forces her to make a life-altering choice.

“… never have I been so thoroughly robbed. Love and possibility, friendships and futures: gone. I have to start over now, face the world again. I have to make one final choice: give up or go on.”

Juliette’s journey has been rife with pain, abandonment, fear and hopelessness. Now she’s at a crossroads, realizing the only choice is to forge forwards. With the equal, but differing help of both Adam and Warner, she’s been able to break free of her past, slowly coming to terms with who she is, or perhaps more importantly, who she chooses to be. For the first time, she’s considering her own intrinsic desires, leveraging the fortitude within and harnessing her innermost powers in efforts to reclaim herself.

~~A girl with a lethal touch.~~

A girl with unfathomable strength.

Potential. Power. Promise.

The promise to seek revenge and right the wrongs too long neglected.

“For some many years I lived in constant terror of myself. Doubt had married my fear and moved into my mind, where it built castles and ruled kingdoms and reigned over me, bowing my will to its whispers until I was little more than an acquiescing peon, too terrified to disobey, too terrified to disagree.

I had been shackled, a prisoner in my own mind.

But finally, finally, I have learned to break free.”

I loved how the writing mimicked Juliette’s state of mind… an emerging confidence and strength as sentences flowed effortlessly, crisply and completely. As her spirit swelled and her determination became fierce, I felt an uprising of emotion myself as if I were growing along with her. And through this mental and emotional evolution, Warner is there for her, day in and day out. Freely giving her time, tenderness and affection. We know their relationship is riddled with complexity and confusion. It’s undefined. Unbound. Dangerous. Illicit?

“The more I discover about him, the fewer excuses I have to push him away. He’s unraveling before me becoming something entirely different, terrifying me in a way I never could’ve expected.”

One of the interesting aspects of them as individuals is that although they’ve had very different lives, they’ve both endured profound pain and there is a connection… a base understanding of the other that pulls them closer together, particularly as Warner becomes more vulnerable to Juliette. The more she sees him… really sees him… the more she understands the person he came to be. He’s been so emotionally tortured that he’s convinced himself to be unworthy, unwanted, unwhole. As the maelstrom of emotion within her swirls and swirls, however, she must work to unravel her feelings about Warner, about herself, and about Adam.

Because as we know already from the previous books, not everyone is dead and once Juliette comes face-to-face with the old gang… including Adam… her emotional wounds are once again flayed open. Juliette and Adam must figure out if they can find a way back to each other as the people they are now. Would the chasm between them widen or fuse back together after the realization that they almost lost each other. Tensions escalate between everyone as new alliances begrudgingly form and a new plan formulates. During this time, intentions diverge, truths are revealed, words wound deeper than bullets and actions speak for themselves. Juliette realizes that despite her tumultuous feelings for Warner and Adam, the focus needs to be on the future.

Fans need not be afraid however, Juliette does make a choice in the end, and for fans of the number 62, I’ll just say my new favorite is 55.

“And we are quotation marks, inverted and upside down, clinging to one another at the end of this life sentence. Trapped by lives we did not choose. It’s time, I think, to break free.”

(Note, this is now one of my favorite sentences from a book. Genius.)

The story culminates in a quick burst of non-stop, heart-pounding action and I loved every second of it. I will say that I wish she’d extended the climax… given me additional chapters as I wanted more.

More.

Nonetheless, it was everything I hoped this final book would be and I can assure you, I’ve spoiled nothing for you. There is so much to experience. You are in for an amazing ride.