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REVIEW: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

February 10, 2014 by Jaime Leave a Comment

IGNITE ME
By: Tahereh Mafi
Publication Date: February 4, 2014
SUMMARY
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.


ABOUT TAHEREH

New York TimesUSA Today
When unable to find a book, she can be found reading candy wrappers, coupons, and old receipts. SHATTER ME is her first novel.


Foreign rights have sold in 25+ territories to-date and film rights have been optioned by 20th Century Fox.


Her work is represented by Jodi Reamer of Writers House, LLC.

Website / Twitter/ Facebook / Goodreads

Jaime’s Thoughts
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay… I started at 4.5 but after further reflection I’m going down to 4… now that the initial glow of finishing has worn off I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on this installment and the series as a whole.

You might notice I picked this book up and didn’t put it down again until it was complete. There was just no other way that I was going to be able to handle it. I needed to know where our beloved characters were going to be by the end and there was no way I was sleeping until I did. I have to say that as a series overall, I am completely happy with the story that Mafi has told. From the first page of book 1 I was enamored with Juliette. She wasn’t perfect and she wasn’t strong and tough… but I could understand why she was who she was. And Adam… *fans self* he was amazing and he was swoony and he was everything that Juliette needed in her life. Book 2 had me doing a complete spin, and by the end of Unravel Me I was solidly on Team Nobody. So, admittedly I went into Ignite Me with an open heart, nothing set in stone and my feelings weren’t going to be put through the ringer based on who Juliette ultimately ended up with. I know that isn’t the case for a lot of people though.

I’ll now be tagging everything below as spoiler to avoid giving anything away…



Ignite Me opens shortly after the Fracture Me novella. Let’s not talk about that. In Ignite Me, Juliette has come to some realizations… and we as readers are along for the ride. She’s stronger, bolder, ready to fight for the things she had taken away from her. And I like it!

Let’s go ahead and start with the things that I didn’t like… because I need to get them out of the way.
First, the end felt completely rushed to me. I am struggling with the idea that we didn’t get much of a confrontation with Anderson… he was made into this big huge bad guy and we got very little explanation and we never really got much of a final show down. I remember being at about 80% thinking ‘what the hell is going on … there isn’t much room left for the fight’, and I was right. I wanted more in that respect. My biggest complaint is that Warner never gets his… or even Adam for that matter. Throughout Ignite Me, we learn bits and pieces of more of the abuse that Warner faced from his father, and yet we aren’t told why… we aren’t given any background on why he was the way he was and why he did the things he did to his family. Additionally he wasn’t really a presence in this book even though he was the ultimate reason for the story. He’s only mentioned in passing as a reason for the training and the planning and the tension, but I didn’t feel that he was that big bad villain because we only got the second hand story. It felt like this story wasn’t about the confrontation… about the over throwing of the re-establishment… instead it was about the relationships.
*SIGH* Next we have Adam. I am conflicted on this. I seriously loved Adam in book 1, and while you expect some character change in a series, I truly felt that this was not the same guy we met in book 1. Juliette even says it several times. ‘That Adam would never say this…’ or ‘That Adam would never do this…’ and it’s true he never would have, and I’m not sure that there was enough in book 2 and even book 3 to warrant the drastic change he went through. I can’t help but think that Mafi made him into this total asshat to justify Juliette’s decisions. And for me, that wasn’t necessary. Ultimately her reasoning and her character evolution made sense enough to me without completely ruining a character I had come to love. Additionally, I never felt like we got any kind of wrap up or resolution for their relationship. I wanted words of understanding and that never truly happens. I know, I know, that’s not entirely realistic in real life… but I just wanted something here to know that despite how shitty he was and the things they said and did to each other, that their friendship was intact by the end.
Now… for the things I liked!
I don’t care who you are, which team you’re on, or who you were cheering for… I don’t believe you can walk away from this book and not see the chemistry that is there between Warner and Juliette. From the infamous chapter 62 in book 2 it just couldn’t be denied. I know that one argument is that he didn’t truly love who she was, he was obsessed with her and what she could do for him and that wasn’t healthy. But I never truly believed that. Especially after reading Shatter Me and it’s only solidified in this book… the things that Juliette thought (and yes, that we thought) he wanted her for were never really true… were never really accurate. It made sense to me that they would have this connection. Mafi does an amazing job, as I said above, about explaining Juliette’s evolution and what Adam meant to her both then and now.
I love that Juliette comes into her own… As you see Juliette’s character change and get stronger, that’s when the issues seem to arise between Adam and Juliette and there is one section I highlighted where Juliette comes to a realization about Adam’s feelings for her versus Warner’s feelings for her and I found myself nodding while reading it. One of my favorite passages from her was this:

“This isn’t about Adam or Warner,” I tell him, “This is about me and what I want. This is about me finally understanding where I want to be in ten years. Because I’m going to be alive, Kenji. I will be alive in ten years, and I’m going to be happy. I’m going to be strong. And I don’t need anyone to tell me that anymore. I am enough, and I always will be.”

Kenji should be on every single person’s favorite person ever list. Ignite Me focuses on some heavy things going on with our main characters… there is a lot of anger and sadness and struggle, yet I found myself laughing and enjoying almost every single scene that Kenji was in. He brought a bit of levity to the whole thing. I love his obnoxiousness, his ego, his sarcasm and how he knows just how to work a scene.

“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.”

I loved everything about Warner in this book – he has lived a solitary life where he was abused and never had anyone to lean on and that’s evident in his personality in so many ways. He doesn’t do friends, he doesn’t do family, and despite that he has bent over backwards for Juliette knowing she didn’t return his feelings and the hurt that causes him is much more apparent in this book, yet… he never truly gives up on her. He consistently is there for her and does things to benefit her… not just him and he’s not as selfish as we’ve previously been led to believe. The way he views himself is a bit heartbreaking. He’s never had anyone to tell him he was important, that he was loved and that he’s more than just a soldier in an army.

“I have no one to impress,” he says. “No one who cares about what happens to me. I’m not in the business of making friends, love. My job is to lead an army, and it’s the only thing I’m good at. No one,” he says, “would be proud of the things I’ve accomplished. My mother doesn’t even know me anymore. My father thinks I’m weak and pathetic. My soldiers want me dead. The world is going to hell. And the conversations I have with you are the longest I’ve ever had.”

Mafi has an amazing way with words… putting them together to make beautiful sentences and paragraphs and there were a lot of passages that I highlighted just because the words were so pretty! I mean… I don’t think anyone else in the world could have created some of these passages…

“Every vertebra, every knuckle, both kneecaps, both hips. I am a pile of bones on the floor and no one knows it but me. I am a broken skeleton with a beating heart.”

Show/hide


I think what makes me happiest when all is said and done is that this series has a bit of something for everyone … action, tension, thrills and some definite swoons. I truly don’t think that this series is meant to be as much about the world around Juliette, instead it’s her story of finding the love and acceptance that she has wanted her whole life, and if you go into it with that in mind, I think that you will be happy when you turn that final page. Overall, I’m incredibly pleased with where Mafi took this series. Was it perfect… no, not in my world, but I was entertained and riveted to the story and emotionally invested in the characters… and for the most part, that’s all I ask when I pick up a book.


If you’re looking for a complete Dystopian/Paranormal series to read, this is one to consider. Overall rating for the series would probably be 4 (minus the last novella – ignore that one lol)

Erin’s Thoughts

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’m not really sure where I want to start this review and I will do what I can to not give anything away. Overall Mafi did a great job with this series and although there were some things I didn’t love in book three, there were some things I did and to be perfectly honest, not everyone will be happy with this book. I mean, there was a definite love triangle here and you know either the Adam or Warner supporters – whoever Juliette doesn’t end up with – will definitely be upset. 

[View Spoiler]

Overall this is still one of my favorite dystopian series and I would give the whole thing a 4-4.5 rating. I love the story and the character evolution (for some) and despite my feelings about certain things in this book, I thought the whole series was well done. I have said it before and will say it again; I don’t envy authors who have to wrap up a series. It is tough to make everyone happy and when you have a love triangle, you are immediately destined to make some of your fans angry. For me, it wasn’t so much who Juliette ended up with as the path some of the characters took.









(view spoiler)[
First, characters – Kenji is still one of my favorite characters of this series. He isn’t afraid to call people out on their crap and that includes Juliette. I had 3 highlights in this book and 2 of them were quotes from Kenji.

”Back to work. And this time, focus. You’re not an ape. Don’t just throw your shit everywhere.”

I do feel like Juliette actually figured out who she is in this book which I liked. She finally realized what she is capable of and what that means. She’s no longer the girl who was sitting in a cell wondering whether she would live or die. Her voice absolutely evolved and although I missed a little bit of her “crazy” I thought her growth fit where the story needed to go. It also impacts who she ends up with and based on that, it made sense.

I started to love Warner (Yes, I admit it…) when I read his novella. Don’t get me wrong – I still loved Adam but again, I started to appreciate him and realize he really does have feelings for Juliette. The way Mafi makes him so vulnerable in Ignite Me made me like him even more.

Adam – I don’t have words. I felt like his character is the one that took the biggest hit in this book and I don’t see why it had to be this way. I really wish that this wasn’t the way Mafi had him go and to be perfectly honest, this is the one thing I despised in this book. This Adam was not the Adam from book one or two and it just didn’t make sense. Yes, he was angry about things but in my heart I don’t think he would have ever acted the way that he did. I am happy he started to come around toward the end but again, this was the most disappointing piece to this book for me.

I do think the end felt rushed. The face-off with Anderson never really went anywhere and the majority of the story focused on the relationships between Juliette, Adam, and Warner. There was a small section that addressed the additional training but I wanted more story around the take down of The Reestablishment.

(hide spoiler)]

Overall this is still one of my favorite dystopian series and I would give the whole thing a 4-4.5 rating. I love the story and the character evolution (for some) and despite my feelings about certain things in this book, I thought the whole series was well done. I have said it before and will say it again; I don’t envy authors who have to wrap up a series. It is tough to make everyone happy and when you have a love triangle, you are immediately destined to make some of your fans angry. For me, it wasn’t so much who Juliette ended up with as the path some of the characters took.

View all Erin’s reviews

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Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: Dystopian, Reviewed By Jaime

About Jaime

Avid reader and book blogger, lover of music, writing, my kid & my cats. Master of sarcasm and snark and doing what makes me happy.

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