Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dear goodreads you don’t have enough stars here for me to use…. please fix that, I probably need like eleventy billion. AND I’m just going to spoiler tag this whole damn thing because I’m sure I’m going to give something away!!
From the moment I got this book til the second I turned the last page I was riveted.
I found myself trying to read faster just to find out what was going to happen next and then I’d have to remind myself to slow down!
I love Tahereh Mafi’s style… the sentences she crafts and the story she weaves yanks me in and doesn’t let me go. Unravel Me starts just after the end of Shatter Me. Right from the beginning I found myself hurting for Juliette and how she’s once again begun to feel like an outcast. She still has a wall up and is struggling to fit in at the compound and Castle calls her out on it. But what hurt me and made me feel the anguish that Juliette does, is this inner monologue she has while Castle is telling her that she has to try more. Just like in Destroy Me, I found her words so incredibly heartbreaking and captivating. Adam, while still her Adam, is busy with research and testing to find out what his ‘talent’ is.
The first scene of them together in this book though…
His lips are on my neck. His lashes tickle the skin under my chin and he says something, something that sounds like my name and kisses up and down my collarbone, kisses along the arc of my shoulder and his lips are searching the curves and slopes of my body and his chest is heaving when he swears and stops and he says ‘God you feel so good’ and my heart has flown to the moon without me.
Are you kidding me… But then something happens that could tear them apart. Something that you might expect, yet the reasons behind it were quite unexpected for me.
This is where I get mad at Adam. I know it’s hard to imagine, but why dear god man, didn’t you tell her what was going on?
Adam has the ability to turn people’s power off in a way. He basically makes someone’s powers ineffectual and this is how he is able to touch Juliette, but what they didn’t realize was that as he got more and more comfortable with Juliette, his guard would go down and her touch is starting to hurt him.
*cue tears*
“There’s never been anyone else,” he says, not bothering to keep his voice down anymore, not caring that his words are echoing through these tunnels. His hand is shaking as he covers his mouth. Drags it across his face, through his hair. “There’s never going to be anyone else – I’m never going to want anyone else- “
“Stop it – you have to stop -” I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe “You don’t want this – you don’t want to be with someone like me – someone who will only end up h-hurting you-“
“Dammit, Juliette-” and he turns to slam his palms against the wall, his chest heaving, his head down, his voice broke, catching on every other syllable, “you’re hurting me now,” he says. “You’re killing me -“
“Adam-“
“Don’t walk away,” he says, his voice tight, his eyes squeezed shut like he already knows I’m going to. Like he can’t bear to see it happen. “Please,” he whispers, tormented. “Don’t walk away from this.”
In Unravel Me we start to get more of an understanding of the full extent of Juliette’s powers and how she can use them. She begins to work with Kenji to try to control them and can I just say how much I adore Kenji? Apparently I’m not the only one. The entire compound loves him.
You guys are disgusting, you know that right? I look up, startled, and find Kenji frozen mid-movement, his spoon halfway to his mouth, his head cocked in our direction. He gestures with his spoon at our faces. “What the hell is this? You guys playing footsies under the table or someshit?”
The boy has no filter and I love that about him. But he’s not only the comic relief in this book. We learn so much about him, where he came from, who he is in this part of the rebellion and what he stands for. Quite often I found that he was the one giving Juliette a kick in the ass with some reasonable words of wisdom and I loved it.
Then 4 fellow soldiers are taken hostage by Warner’s father. Juliette is who he wants and so she offers to go, meeting him at the established address she comes face to face with this monster of a man and then Warner appears as well.
God … Warner. I am so in love with his character. I am completely fascinated by him. In Shatter Me we see him as this monster who wants to control Juliette and use her as a weapon. We eventually see his feelings for her emerge, and then I read Destroy Me and OMG to see this man who has such complete control over every aspect of his life and learn his story was amazing. So coming into Unravel Me I had a completely different perspective of him than I ever expected I would. Warner never claims to be anything better than what he’s shown us he is, and I respect that about him. You can see how his life has been sculpted by his father’s disdain.
“Does she make you feel brave, boy?” He’s wearing an easy, lazy grin, his grip on the gun in his hand so deceptively casual. “Does she make you feel strong?” Warner says nothing.
“Does she make you wish you could be a better man?” A little chuckle. “Has she filled your head with dreams about your future?” A harder laugh. “You have lost your mind,” He says, “over a stupid child who’s too much of a coward to defend herself even with the barrel of a gun pointed straight at her face. This,” he says, pointing the gun harder in my direction, “is the silly little girl you’ve fallen in love with.”
Well… Juliette goes all she hulk on Supreme Commander Anderson.
but then… this happens…
HAH – I’m not going to tell you, but just know that I never in a million years would have expected this reveal.
Adam and Kenji decide to take Warner with them to the compound as a bargaining chip, never considering the idea that his father could care less about him. But it’s soon revealed to Juliette that Warner has her notebook… the notebook that Adam refused to read because of all her personal thoughts revealed. Warner had no such feelings and actually has memorized it and now I have no idea who I need more of in my life.
I feel like I’ve told you the whole story, but I know that I’ve only touched on a few major points that are revealed in book 2. So I’m going to be wrapping this up. By the end, the war has begun… and I’m happy to say that by the end of this book I was so proud of Juliette’s growth and new found strength, and I know you will be too.
I don’t know how the heck I’m going to be able to wait for the final book in this series. I hope Tahereh knows that I’m available for pre-reading if she needs me.
If you haven’t started this series… do it. If you wanna wait til it’s done that’s cool too, but whatever you do, make sure you put the series on your to read list. You won’t be disappointed!!
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