BookNook — Young Adult book reviews
This book is ridiculous confusing. And I mean that in the best way. For starters, Tahereh Mafi drops about 8 bombs on us in this book. It's like BAM big reveal, BAM bigger reveal, BAM your mind = blown. But beyond that, Unravel Me is a book that will, somehow, force you to love the bad guy despite your better judgement.
To be honest, I think it helped that it had been months and months since I'd read Shatter Me, so I'd actually forgotten how cruel Warner really was. In Unravel Me we see a completely different side to him, but since I didn't remember many details from Shatter Me, it was like I was seeing Warner for the first time... and maybe he wasn't so bad. And this is one of the reasons why Unravel Me has left me completely confused. Which guy am I rooting for?
"Is it even possible," he whispers, "that you can't feel this fire between us?"
—Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Page 391
I think the 'problem' with Unravel Me is that the book itself feels very much in Warner's favour. While Adam is definitely still there, he's portrayed as a much weaker, insignificant character than Warner is. I wanted to love Adam, but then Warner was here and he was stronger, and hotter, and—ignoring his psychopathic tendencies—he felt like the more logical choice. MIND = FUCKED. I kind of loved him. Then there would be a passage that was like, "Oh, remember the time Warner tried to kill Adam in a slaughter house?" and I was like... oh... this guy is actually messed up. But then, Warner would be all deep and emotional and sexy and badass-y and I'd start drooling a little.
Because of Warner's total fucked up-ness and his complicatedness, he was my favourite character. The others... I wasn't quite as keen on. Juliette is definitely a complicated character. She has every right to be messed up and a little depressed, but it did get frustrating after a while. Sometimes I just wanted to tell her to grow up and deal with it. Quit complaining, quit moping, and deal with the card you've been given.
And then there's Kenji. Everyone and their mother loves Kenji. Me... not so much. Kenji is an arrogant, cocky loud-mouth. To a certain extent, I can see where people like him. If you ignore his arrogance, his blatant (and probably half joking) "everyone loves me and I'm so cool" attitude, he is certainly a fierce and loyal friend (and sometimes a little funny&mdah;see quote below). But I always have a hard time looking past the arrogance. Arrogance and too much cockiness are qualities that I have a hard time looking past. It's just who I am.
"Mmmmmmm," he said. "You're like a sexy, super-scary plant."
—Kenji, Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, Page 173
My only other problem with Unravel Me was the internal stream of consciousness. To a certain extent, being inside Juliette's head is awesome. The metaphors are insane and there are so many highlight-able passages. Tahereh Mafi's writing overall is gorgeous and flows really well. But there's just so much THINKING. I enjoyed parts of it, but in other parts I could help but skim skim skim. There's so much of Juliette just talking to herself, rambling on and on, or making weird observations about the world around her. I like it in small chunks, but in Unravel Me it did cross a little bit into 'too much' territory. If you were to cut out all of the stream of consciousness bits, I bet this book would have been 250 pages instead of 480.
But overall, I did enjoy Unravel Me. It's true that a few things didn't quite sit well with me, but I enjoyed it as a whole. The twists and surprises were intense and super fun to read about. I LOVE having bombs dropped on me and Tahereh Mafi absolutely rocks at weaving those in. Also, that ending. THAT ENDING! I wouldn't say it's a cliffhanger, but it's extremely satisfying and you'll be totally wanting to read more. Juliette finally grows some balls and I was totally rooting for her!
I have a feeling that book 3 will be epic.