REVIEW #77: Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Unravel Me

Series: Shatter Me #2
Author: Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Date: February 5, 2013

Pages: 461, Hardcover

Summary from Goodreads:

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it's almost
time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

 

So Kenji is going to help me explain my thoughts on Unravel Me, particularly my thoughts on Juliette, because he and I seem to see eye to eye on the situation and he already said it so damn perfectly...

This is how I we felt about Juliette:

"'All you do is sit around and think about your feelings. You've got problems. Boo-freeking-hoo,' he says. 'Your parents hate you and it's so hard but you have to wear gloves for the rest of your life because you kill people when you touch them. Who gives a shit?' He's breathing hard enough for me to hear him. 'As far as I can tell, you've got food in your mouth and clothes on your back and a place to pee in peace whenever you feel like it. Those aren't problems. That's called living like a king. And I'd really appreciate it if you'd grow the hell up and stop walking around like the world crapped on your only roll of toilet paper. Because it's stupid,' he says, barely reining in his temper. 'It's stupid, and it's ungrateful. You don't have a clue what everyone else in the world is going through right now. You don't have a clue, Juliette. And you don't seem to give a damn either.'"

(meanwhile I'm like)

"'Now I am trying,' he says, 'to give you a chance to fix things. I keep giving you opportunities to do things differently. To see past the sad little girl you used to be - the sad little girl you keep clinging to - and stand up for yourself. Stop crying. Stop sitting in the dark counting all out all your individual feelings about how sad and lonely are. Wake up,' he says.

(...)

"'Make a choice and stop wasting everyone's time. Stop wasting your own time. Okay?'"

(YES PLEASE OK)

As I hope you can tell, this book has a lot everything to do with Juliette and her feelings about her oh-so-difficult life. Even though Kenji's speech was given just over 30% into the book, I didn't see a difference in Juliette's behavior until the very end and only meager glimpses of change throughout. I was very frustrated while reading because I went into this book so so excited. There was so much potential here and I saw none of it lived up to. I really felt like 98% of this book was talk and 2% was action. Now, the action (when it did occur) was exciting and awesome and everything I wanted to see in this book, it was just so exceedingly rare to not make much of a difference. 

Now I know with Tehereh's writing you either love it or hate it. I enjoyed her style in Shatter Me - I thought it really helped to emphasize Juliette's delicate state of mind. But in Unravel Me, and with all the talk about feelings, I just felt like it added 200 pages of fluff to the book. I grew tired of her descriptions and began to see much of the same reappear.

The fact is that I just grew very impatient with Unravel Me. It was too much talk and not enough action. I obviously didn't dislike the book - I LOVED Kenji and Warner, and the plot twists and action we do see indicate good things to come - but it didn't live up to my expectations at all. I felt like I spent most of this book waiting, 

waiting, 

waiting. 

(See what I did there?) Ok I think i've made my point.