Review--Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

One day I might break
One day I might
b r e a k
free

Nothing will ever be the same.

The fate of Omega Point is unknown. Everyone Juliette has ever cared about could be dead. The war could be over before it ever really began.

Juliette is the only one standing in The Reestablishment's way. She knows that if she's going to survive, The Reestablishment cannot.

But to take down The Reestablishment and the man who very nearly killed her, Juliette will need the help of one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together to bring down their enemy, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew--about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam--was wrong.

WARNING: Some minor (for Ignite Me) spoilers from Unravel Me in the second to last paragraph. (It's like the third to last sentence)


Where to begin, where to begin...Ignite Me is the conclusion to Tahereh Mafi's bestselling Shatter Me series. And I have to admit, it was pretty good. But this last one, while enjoyable, still left me wondering a few things. And if you know me, I hate to wonder about anything when a series comes to an end. I like knowing that the characters will move on, have more adventures, live happily ever after, all that jazz, once the book is over. But what I don't like is wondering about the characters in the now. I feel like a few of them still had some unresolved issues and there's just nothing left now.

But let's get onto the good stuff first! The book pretty much picks up where we left off in Unravel Me. Juliette is healing from being shot and then healed by the twins. Warner is taking care of her. He treats her kindly and everything. Basically challenging everything she thought she knew about this guy. She learns pretty quickly, Warner is not who he appears to be. There's more to him then what he shows the world. He's a very caring and considerate person, when he chooses to act as such. This we all saw in Unravel Me as well.

Juliette's sole focus soon becomes in taking Anderson down. Permanently. Killing him. She believes the world could be a better place if it just had the chance. The Reestablishment will cease to exist, if she succeeds. But she's going to need help. In come her awesome friends, but of course Adam is there too. Adam, who thought her dead. This is where we get a lot of serious relationship issues going on. I found myself already drifting from Adam during Unravel Me and even more so in Fracture Me. He's definitely changed a lot since Shatter Me. And this in turn, dramatically changed the relationship between Juliette and Adam. But Juliette's changed too. She's no longer the scared and timid girl Adam fell in love with. She's stronger and coming into her powers. She's different.

Basically all those changes leads to some big relationship drama between the two. I mean big. It was almost sickening in some sense. On several points. That once again we have teenagers so wrapped up in their feelings and then overreacting. There's an argument of epic proportions once Adam and Juliette are reunited and I guess Adam's beliefs and behavior was just nagging at me wayyy too much. I couldn't stand him anymore. Kenji though, was the lifesaver. He continues to be a great friend to each of them. He moreso sides with Juliette, but Adam is still his friend and he does what he can to help him get himself under control, but it's more of a problem Adam has to work out on his own.

And then there's Warner. Warner the guy who completely skeeved me out in the first book, what with his declarations of love and wanting Juliette by his side forever and yadda yadda yadda! He's a character that definitely grows on you as time moves on. Tahereh finally lets us all see the more human side to Warner. It's a realization finally. We saw it progress in the last book, but now it's for real!

So yeah, that's all I'll touch on with romance. I know many have already read this series, including this one, but I don't want to say anything more about the romance and Juliette's choices!

What did kind of bug me was the ending. It was very intense, and the pacing was pretty good and then it's over. I was kind of thrown back. Juliette and her friends have been working all this time to plan their attack and kill Anderson. And then poof, the book is done. It was a bit anticlimactic. I mean Juliette was racing to find the guy and battling it out with his soldiers, but then when it came to the final showdown with Anderson, it went pretty quick. Not only that, but I was left wondering about our other guy. Juliette made her choice, but there was still a lot left unsaid I feel like. I mean where does he stand now? And the whole brothers thing between Warner and Adam really didn't get much exploration either, just a reveal and then stepping aside to see how we feel about that. So yeah, a tad disappointing. There were these emotional upheavals from these rather impacting events I was expecting and not much came from them.

But other than those few hangups, this was a rather enjoyable novel. The trilogy as a whole was fairly good. I liked it. Maybe not loved it, but I definitely enjoyed myself! And I would most likely read more from Tahereh if she has something new for us next year!
 

Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars--really it was the questions I had after that ending that stopped me from giving a higher rating