Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite me by Tahereh Mafi  
Dani's Rating: 4 stars

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 416
Publication Date: February 4, 2014
Publisher: Harper Collins

Goodreads 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

Dani's Review:

*Spoilers if you have not read Shatter Me or Unravel Me. But I don't know why you're looking at this review if you haven't read the first 2 books.*

I have been waiting for this book to come out for months, and I was so happy when I finally got my hands on it last week! Ignite Me is a stunning and dramatic finale to the Shatter Me series, but it was not without its faults.

Unravel Me left off with Andersen, the dictator of the Reestablishment and Warner's father, badly injuring Juliette with a shot to her stomach. Ignite Me begins with Juliette's recovery, saved by none other than the maybe-he's-evil-but-maybe-he's-actually-a-nice-guy: Warner. Or should I start to call him Aaron, his first name? I love the name Aaron so much more than Warner! As Juliette ponders her life and the fate of her friends who may have died at the Base (their HQ), she has an epiphany. She realizes that she should be the one to lead the Reestablishment. She isn't the helpless little girl she was when Warner tortured her and Adam picked up the broken pieces of her mind. She has power, and now she knows how to use it. She is sick of hiding in the back, waiting for others to defend her. She is Juliette Ferrars.

Again, Ms. Mafi triumphed in creating Juliette's unique voice, tone, and reaction to the world. I think the strongest part of her writing is her ability to transport the reader into Juliette's head and really understand what Juliette is thinking. Her character development of Warner is also fantastic. I loved reading about Juliette slowly "unraveling" Warner's life and learning that he isn't actually such a bad person. He is just a nineteen-year-old boy who has been abused by his father all his life. I was Team Adam, but I quickly converted to Team Warner at the start of this novel. Trust me, your heart will also go out to Warner.

Adam is so annoying in this entire book. He is constantly complaining, yelling, and begging Juliette to get back together. Talk about clingy. Where is the sweet, benevolent boy from Shatter Me?

I loved the relationships that Warner developed with each character! Shocker: After a long talk, Adam and Warner do not completely abhor each other anymore! Surprised? Juliette and I certainly were. Another big surprise is that Warner and James, Adam's brother, also began to develop a relationship. James is fascinated with the elusive Warner and peppers him with personal questions, many pre-teen boys will do. Warner tries his best to evade James's questions, but some of them just have to be answered.

As usual, Kenji is an absolutely hilarious character. He does have a few serious moments and almost had an emotional breakdown, but he's still the same old 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.”

“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.”

The reason I knocked off 1 star in this review is because I extremely disliked the ending. The final battle/war was so short and void of suspense or drama. I would like to have read about a more drawn out "final battle", but it was almost too easy for the protagonists. They were like, "Oh, I'll just levitate these people over here and knock them out! Easy as pie!" Do they not get tired from using all those superpowers? I still have many questions about various things in the Shatter Me series, and several loose ends are left untied. We never find out exactly what happened to a certain character that made him so short-tempered and mean to his previous best friend, and we never find out what kind of government is established after the Reestablishment. Maybe Taherah Mafi plans to write some sequels? I just thought the ending was not wrapped up well. I have read better "open endings" than this one.

But overall, Ignite Me is a book worth reading! If you were disappointed by Unravel Me (I was!), you will be surprised by how much better Ignite me is! 

P.S. Have you ever wondered what happened to Warner's mother? ;)