The Juliette Chronicles (Shatter Me, Destroy Me, Unravel Me, Fracture Me, Ignite Me) Review

This review contains SPOILERS...

So...
I have been completely swept away by these books.
They are so beautiful.

I was very hesitant to read these books. I have been reading A LOT of dystopian novels lately. (For the last two years.) And I was beginning to feel like perhaps I had read all the good ones. I also, and I am ashamed to admit this judged these books by the original cover of Shatter Me. I know, I know! "Never judge a book by it's cover." But in the past I have read books that had crappy covers, and the contents inside matched the outside. And I guess I also didn't want to be disappointed by another book that others had raved about. I just finished Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge before I picked up Shatter Me. And let's just say my hopes were "Shattered" (pun intended) by the aforementioned novel. But I will get into that later if I end up doing a review for Cruel Beauty. 

But, my goodness am I ever so happy that I decided to give it a chance. From the first pages of Shatter Me I was hooked. I could not put these books down. Like I actually could not because I read all three novels and both novella's in less than THREE days... yes you read right three (3). Which is one thousand three hundred and eighty six pages! Which is more pages than the last book in the Inheritance Cycle which was 860 pages. Needless to say I am very proud of myself. I loved the way Tahereh Mafi wrote Juliette's thoughts. It was almost like she had taken those words from my own way of thinking but not so depressing. Oh how I loved Adam in the first book and absolutely loathed Warner. I think what I most liked about this story is the way the characters evolved through the books. Especially Warner. I really enjoyed seeing the evolution of Aaron's character and how the story unfolded his history. Behind every villain is a story that made them that way. I did truly enjoy how confident he was in himself but yet  how little he thought of himself when it came to relationships and interactions with others. I think why I enjoyed Juliette and Warner's relationship so much is because it reminded me of two story's I have always loved; Beauty and the Beast and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It reminded me of these two beloved story's in the way that the two of them started out as enemies, Juliette seeing Warner as a monster, like in Beauty and the Beast. As well Warner's affection for Juliette being disguised as a negative motive, like in Pride and Prejudice. I really think I like to see the redemption of characters and see how people can change. Warner's character was definitely redeemed for me. The way Mafi unfolded his story was done so eloquent and unexpected. As well proving that there is more to a person than what they project into the world.

As well I thoroughly enjoyed Kenji's character. He was such a hilarious character but was not not just there for comedic relief but actually had substance and a responsiblity to the telling of the story. I admired Juliette and Kenji's friendship. It at first seemed like every male character that came into Juliette's path became a potential love interest for her. When Kenji appeared I expected another man going after Juliette but instead they formed a strong friendship. Even though Kenji does have his serious moments that are monumental, he also has his absolute laugh out loud moments in the story too which made me love his character even more.

“

Kenji crosses his arms. “Yeah, it sounds like we’re going to go all peacock and hope they find us attractive enough to mate with.”

"Gross." Brendan frowns.

”

—	Chapter 36, Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

It was also interesting to see a love triangle that so quickly dissolved. Normally I am on the fence of which guy should get the girl. But in Unravel Me it immediately became clear to me how wrong Adam was for Juliette. It was also refreshing for there to be a solid explaination for why Adam and Juliette were not right for each other. As Adam said, "This kind of shit doesn't just happen overnight. You don't just fall out of love with someone like that.” Juliette and Warner's relationship didn't just happen overnight, it slowly built itself from the first moment they met to the last page of Ignite Me. As well their relationship was so full of passion and feeling. A love story that truly pulled at my heart strings and emotions. 

Here are some of my favourite "Warnette" quotes:

“You don’t love him at all?" Warner asks me.
My voice is being stupid. “Romantically?”
He nods.
“No.”
“You’re not attracted to him?”
“I’m attracted to you.”
“I’m serious,” he says.
“So am I.
Warner’s still staring at me. He blinks, once.”

—	Chapter 40, Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

"Warner isn't a fan of my plan.

He's now standing in front of us, blocking our path and I look at him despite my best intentions only to see something I've never see before. Not to this degree, not like this.

Pain.

"Move," Adam snaps at him, but Warner doesn't seem to notice. 

He's looking at me. He's looking at my hand clenched around Adam's covered arm and the agony in his eyes is breaking my knees and I can't speak, I shouldn't speak, I wouldn't know what to say even if I could speak and then he says my name. He says it again. He says, "Juliette--""

--Chapter 56, Unravel Me

“I don’t want you to be repulsed by me," he says quietly.
I spin around, stunned. Mildly horrified. “You’re not serious.”
His eyes say that he is.
“Have you ever looked in the mirror?” I ask, angry now.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re perfect,” I tell him, so overcome I forget myself. “All of you. Your entire body. Proportionally. Symmetrically. You’re absurdly, mathematically perfect. It doesn’t even make sense that a person could look like you,” I say, shaking my head. “I can’t believe you would ever say something like that—-”

—

Chapter 32, Ignite Me “His hands are holding my cheeks, and he pulls back just to look me in the eye and his chest is heaving and he says, "I think," he says, "my heart is going to explode," and I wish, more than ever, that I knew how to capture moments like these and revisit them forever.  Because this. This is everything.”  --Chapter 55, Ignite Me “Warner." I'm feeling nervous now. Anxious. Worried. Shivering a little and not from the cold. "What's going on? Why are you here?"  Nothing. Still nothing.  Suddenly. A tight breath. "I want you to come with me." The world stops spinning. "When I leave tomorrow," he says. "I want you to come with me. I never had a chance to finish talking to you earlier and I thought asking you in the morning would be bad timing all around." "You want me to come with you." I'm not sure I'm still breathing. "Yes." "You want me to run away with you." This can't possibly be happening. A pause. "Yes." "I can't believe it." I'm shaking my head over and over and over again. "You really have lost your mind." I can almost hear him smile in the dark. "Where's your face? I feel like I'm talking to a ghost." "I'm right here." "Where?" I stand up. "I'm here." "I still can't see you," he says, but his voice is suddenly much closer than it was before. "Can you see me?" "No," I lie, and I'm trying to ignore the immediate tension, the electricity humming in the air between us. I take a step back. I feel his hands on my arms, I feel his skin against my skin and I'm holding my breath. I don't move an inch. I don't say a word as his hands drop to my waist, to the thin material making a poor attempt to cover my body. His fingers graze the soft skin of my lower back, right underneath the hem of my shirt and I'm losing count of the number of time my heart skips a beat. I'm struggling to get oxygen to my lungs. I'm struggling to keep my hands to myself.  "Is it even possible," he whispers, "that you can't feel this fire between us?” His hands are traveling up my arms again, his touch so light, his fingers slipping under the straps of my shirt and it's ripping me apart, it's aching in my core, it's a pulse beating in every inch of my body and I'm trying to convince myself not to lose my head when I feel the straps fall down and everything stops. The air is still. My skin is scared. Even my thoughts are whispering. 2 4 6 seconds I forget to breathe. Then I feel his lips against my shoulder, soft and scorching and tender, so gentle I could almost believe it's the kiss of a breeze and not a boy. Again. This time on my collarbone and it's like I'm dreaming reliving the caress of a forgotten memory and it's like an ache looking to be soothed, it's a steaming pan thrown in ice water, it's a flushed cheek pressed to a cool pillow on a hot hot hot night and I'm thinking yes, I'm thinking this, I'm thinking thank you thank you thank you before I remember his mouth is on my body and I'm doing nothing to stop him. He pulls back. My eyes refuse to open. His finger t-touches my bottom lip. He traces the shape of my mouth, the curves the seam the dip and my lips part even though I asked them not to and he steps closer. I feel him so much closer, filling the air around me until there's nothing but him and his body heat, the smell of fresh soap and something unidentifiable, something sweet but not, something real and hot, something that smells like him, like it belongs to him, like he was poured into the bottle I'm drowning in and I don't even realize I'm leaning into him, inhaling the scent of his neck until I find his fingers are no longer on my lips because his hands are around my waist and he says  "You," and he whispers it, letter by letter he presses the word into my skin before he hesitates.  Then. Softer. His chest, heaving harder this time. His words, almost gasping this time. "You destroy me." I am falling to pieces in his arms. My fists are full of unlucky pennies and my heart is a jukebox demanding a few nickels and my head is flipping quarters heads or tails or tails heads or tails heads or tails "Juliette," he says, and he mouths the name, barely speaking at all, and he's pouring molten lava into my limbs and I never even knew I could melt straight to death. "I want you," he says. He says, "I want all of you. I want you inside and out and catching your breathe and aching for me like I ache for you." He says it like it's a lit cigarette lodged in his throat, like he wants to dip me in warm honey and he says "It's never been a secret. I've never tried to hid that from you. I've never pretended I wanted anything less." "You-- you said you wanted f-friendship--" "Yes," he says, he swallows, "I did. I do. I do want to be your friend." He nods and I register the slight movement in the air between us. "I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. I want to be that kind of friend," he says. "The one who will memorize the things you say as well as the shape of your lips when you say them. I want to know every curve, every freckle, every shiver of your body, Juliette--" "No," I gasp. "Don't-- don't s-say that--" I don't know what I'll do if he keeps talking I don't know what I'll do and I don't trust myself "I want to know where to touch you," he says. "I want to know how to touch you, I want to know how to convince you to design a smile just for me." I feel his chest rising, falling, up and down and up and down and "Yes," he says. "I do want to be your friend." He says "I want to be your best friend in the entire world." I can't think. I can't breathe "I want so many things," he whispers. "I want your mind. Your strength. I want to be worth your time." His fingers graze the hem of my top and he says "I want this up." He tugs on the waist of my pants and says "I want these down." He touches the tips of his fingers to the sides of my body and says, "I want to feel your skin on fire. I want to feel your heart racing next to mine and I want to know it's racing because of me, because you want me. Because you never," he says, he breathes, "never want me to stop. I want every second. Every inch of you. I want all of it. And I drop dead, all over the floor. "Juliette." I can't understand why I can still hear him speaking because I'm dead, I'm already dead, I've died over and over and over again He swallows, hard, his chest heaving, his words a breathless, shaky whisper when he says, "I'm so-- I'm so desperately in love with you--" I'm rooted to the ground, spinning while standing, dizzy in my blood and in my bones and I'm breathing like I'm the first human who's ever learned to fly, like I've been inhaling the kind of oxygen only found in the clouds and I'm trying but I don't know how to keep my body from reacting to him, to his words, to the ache in his voice. He touches my cheek. Soft, so soft, like he's not sure if I'm real, like he's afraid if he gets too close I'll just oh, look she's gone, she's just disappeared. His 4 fingers graze the side of my face, slowly, so slowly before they slip behind my head, caught in the in-between spot just above my neck. His thumb brushes the apple of my cheek. He keeps looking at me, looking into my eyes for help, for guidance, for some sign of a protest like he's so sure I'm going to start screaming or crying or running  away but I won't. I don't think I could even if I wanted to because I don't want to. I want to stay here. Right here. I want to be paralyzed by this moment.  He moves closer, just an inch. His free hand reaches up to cup the other side of my face. He's holding me like I'm made of feathers. He's holding my face and looking at his own hands like he can't believe he's caught this bird  who's always so desperate to fly away. His hands are shaking, just a little bit, just enough for me to feel the slight tremble against my skin. Gone is the boy with the guns and the skeletons in his closet. These hands holding me have never held a weapon. These hands have never touched death. These hands are perfect and kind and tender. He leans in, so carefully. Breathing and not breathing and hearts beating between us and he's so close, he's so close and I can't feel my legs anymore. I can't feel my fingers or the cold or the emptiness of this room because all I feel is him, everywhere, filling everything and he whispers "Please." He says "Please don't shoot me for this." And he kisses me. His lips are softer than anything I've ever known, soft like a first snowfall, like biting into cotton candy, like melting and floating and being weightless in water. It's sweet, it's so effortlessly sweet. And then it changes. "Oh God--" He kisses me again, this time stronger, desperate, like he has to have me, like he's dying to memorize the feel of my lips against his own. The taste of him is making me crazy; he's all heat and desire and peppermint and I want more. I've just begun reeling him in, pulling him into me when he breaks away. He's breathing like he's lost his mind and he's looking at me like something has broken inside of him, like he's woken up to find that is nightmares were just that, that they never existed, that it was all just a bad dream that felt far too real but now he's awake and he's safe and everthing is okay and I'm falling I'm falling apart and into his heart and I'm a disaster. He's searching me, searching my eyes for something, for yeses or nos or maybe a cue to keep going and all I want to is to drown in him. I want him to kiss me until I collapse in his arms, until I've left my bones behind and floated up into a new space that is entirely our own. No words. Just his lips. Again." -Unravel Me

But, I can confidently say that this series of books will go down as one of my most favourite books. I suggest them to anyone who enjoys a good story set in a dystopian setting and a plot that is very much driven my it's characters evolution. 

My Rating: infinite stars!