Unravel Me (Shatter Me, #2)

by Tahereh Mafi

[Angie]

This is the honestly the hardest review I have written. I had no words when I finished reading Unravel Me except for “All of the stars!” because really, this book deserves way more than that measly five. I actually had to sleep on it, to come down from the high it gave me, so that I could even form a coherent thought. Now I’m here, and I’m telling you all that Unravel Me is the best book of the year so far. At least for me. I don’t even care that I’m not really a fan of the flowery writing. In fact, I think it feels kind of out of place amongst all of the action and ass kicking. But Tahereh Mafi is some kind of storytelling genius. I could not get enough of this.

Unravel Me had me feeling way too many feelings. I cannot even identify them all, but one that I am sure of is giddiness. I could just feel myself getting more and more giddy the more pages I turned. I was getting light headed from anticipation, and I probably could have passed out at any time. That might be a really unhealthy reaction to have to a book, but I couldn’t control it. I received this book on a Tuesday, and read it straight through the very next day. I only took breaks to update my GoodReads and Twitter statuses. And to eat a brownie, which gave me tummy ache that I’m choosing to interpret as “Serves you right for putting the book down!”

Juliette starts out as a timid little mouse with rabies. You’re afraid she’ll bite you, but you don’t really think she will. Then she morphs into a jaguar with rabies, and you nearly pee your pants. Now she wants to bite you and she probably will, but you can’t turn away from her because she’s just so majestic. She’s scary. Juliette is so afraid of being seen as a monster and hurting someone, but she is downright terrifying in Unravel Me. I also feel like she’s quite unstable. That makes me a little happy because Warner is quite unstable, and then they can be unstable together, and everyone knows that two negatives make a positive. At least if you multiple them, but whatever. Juliette is bad ass, but I think she owes that to Kenji.

I was always oddly suspicious of Kenji, but now I adore him! He’s so full of himself and hilarious. He stole nearly every scene that he’s in. But he’s not only the jokester. He’s a great support for Juliette while she’s in emo mode. He essentially tells her to stop crying and put on her big girl panties. He’s not her babysitter. Juliette needs to take control of her powers before she kills someone, and Kenji knows all to well what her powers can do to a person.

Everything about this book is better than Shatter Me. Shatter Me does not even compare. I would say that Unravel Me is 62 times better than its predecessor, which I gave 4 stars to, so that means Unravel Me really gets 248 stars. It’s that simple. My biggest issue with the first book was quickly resolved in this one, and it made me super happy! Well, it made me kind of sad for Juliette and Adam, but I was glad that things weren’t that simple. I may not be on Adam’s team, but I still like him. I actually really enjoyed the romance, but I was really just waiting for Warner to show up…

CHAPTER 62!!! Warner doesn’t just magically appear that far in. He’s around much earlier than that making my heart flutter. But holy crap Chapter 62. Unravel Me was fantastic before I got that far. The rating in my head was hovering around 4.5 and 5 stars already, but that chapter just pushed it over the edge. I was ecstatic to get so much Warner. My feelings were floating on a warm Spring breeze beneath a rainbow and a unicorn flew by, then a tornado hit and shredded my feelings, deposited them in an abandoned field where they were promptly set on fire and turned to ash, then I inhaled the ash and couldn’t breathe. Then I died a little. That’s a pretty accurate description. There’s one quote that I really want to share, but it’s like a giant spoiler monster! It’s just so amazing! But I won’t, because you all need to go read it for yourself! It’s the bottom paragraph on page 394 of the US Hardback for those curious.

I might be rambling, but I beyond loved Unravel Me. When I finished I felt like sobbing. It’s not that the ending was particularly sad. I just didn’t want it to be over, and I was on emotional overload. I’m not even eager for the next book, because I’m still stuck in the pages of this one.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.