Review: Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

HOLY. CRAP. SO MANY FEELS. I’m not sure anything I say could really do this book justice. But here goes…

I liked Shatter Me. Liked, not loved. But I still wanted to read Unravel Me, although I wasn’t sure I was going to love it as much as everyone else that had been raving about it all over the internet. I WAS SO INCREDIBLY WRONG. It was absolutely amazing! I would have never thought I’d love this book as much as I did. I devoured all 465 pages in one single day! That doesn’t happen very often for me (ok, pretty much never). The only time I ventured out of my reading cave was to check on my laundry and feed myself. Other than that, I sat on my arse all day because I didn’t want to put this book down. It was almost midnight by the time I finished, and I was seriously up until at least 2 in the morning because I couldn’t sleep for thinking about it!! Even now my brain is like WARNERWARNERWARNERWARNER. I wish I could bottle up how I felt while reading this I wish I could unread it just so I can read it for the first time all over again!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much emotion I felt while reading this. Happiness, sadness, shock, outrage, disappointment, excitement, anger, adoration, and…er….other things…inappropriatethingsthatshallremainunnamed. I gasped, I laughed, I very nearly cried (it takes a lot though), I stared agape at the ceiling for immeasurable amounts of time. There were spans that were so intense that I was engrossed, enraptured, enchanted, my heart was pounding, I couldn’t have put the book down if I had to, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!

WARNER. OH MY FREAKING GAWD. Be still my beating heart!! He is such a deep and complicated character with many layers and facets! And since I read Destroy Me right before starting this one, I was still stuck in his head. It was hard for me to switch to Juliette’s POV, and not gonna lie, I had a bit of Warner withdrawal for the first half of the book. After a glimpse inside his head, I was DYING to see him come face to face with Juliette again.

The dog scene!!! ERMAHGERD. It was in Destroy Me, so I already knew exactly what was going to happen, but I got to see it from her perspective. Knowing where it was going, waiting to see what she thought of it – my heart was pounding SO HARD. (Okay, so my heart almost beat out of my chest a million times in this book, but still) The scene – to me, at least – is monumental.

CHAPTER 62 OMG OMG OMG I forgot how to breathe, I almost had a heart attack I think I need a cold shower. I had NO idea what was really in store for me in Chapter 62 because I plugged my ears to all of the spoilers and ignored this video entirely (seriously, don’t watch it until you read Unravel Me, it will totally ruin it). Although I knew exactly what I hoped it would be (I pretty much knew the what, it was the who I was dying to figure out for myself in a completely spoiler-free way)!
I thought my ovaries head was going to explode. I almost burst into flame. That’s all I’m going to say!

Chapter 52 was huge, too. Almost as huge for me as 62 was. Warner’s apology just about had me in tears! And his tattoos! OMG. I’m so madly in love with this guy it’s not even funny!
I mentioned his feelings for Juliette in my review of Destroy Me, so I’m not going to elaborate that again – only to say that the way he regarded Juliette made me love him so much! She was the beauty that tamed the beast.

Even though Destroy Me firmly shoved me into Team Warner territory, the scenes between Adam and Juliette were so heartbreakingly tragic that I felt the sadness, the anger, the unfairness right down to my bones. I hated how unfortunate Juliette’s situation was, and I felt absolutely terrible for her and everything she’s been through. She was always the outsider, always regarded with fear and mistrust for the destructive ability that she didn’t even ask for. I was so caught up in the way she was feeling, I didn’t even realize it had become a pity party until Kenji pointed it out. And then I felt shame and embarrassment right along with Juliette. I connected with her to the point that I pretty much felt everything she did.
Although SOMETHING she did in one scene to totally KILL my buzz….ARGH. I wanted to cry. Or smack her. Or both.

Speaking of Kenji. I freaking love this guy!! (Not nearly as much as Warner, of course.) He was sarcastic, funny, and arrogant – which is usually a bad thing but his narcissistic moments were hilarious! Plus he would randomly go off on tangents and ramble on and on. I loved it!
Despite being a bit of a jokester – because ‘The world is going to hell out there and I suppose if I’m going to be shot dead before I’m twenty-five, I’d at least like to remember what it’s like to laugh before I do.‘ – he was still capable of being serious when necessary. He wasn’t afraid to tell Juliette the brutal truth, or that she needed to keep her head in the game and stop wallowing. And he made her stronger because of it. He pushed her to be stronger and I loved him for that.

I am entirely blown away by how much Tahereh Mafi’s prose has improved. One of my major complaints from Shatter Me was that there were too many metaphors, so many in fact that it bogged down the story and distracted me. The use of metaphors was drastically lower in Unravel Me, and when they were used, it was perfect. There are many run-on sentences, unfinished sentences, missing punctuation, and of course the strike-through text. But it works. Oh my goodness, it really works. Mafi has such a fabulous way with writing in pure emotion, and so many scenes were so raw and cracked open that I felt it.

“You’re going to go on to do incredible things,” he says. “I’ve always known that. I think I just wanted to be part of it.”

I didn’t realize until after reading this that Shatter Me #3 doesn’t come out until FEBRUARY 2014. I think I may die I’m going to rip out all of my hair. Until then, you can find me huddled in a dark corner, hugging my knees while rocking and mumbling to myself. *assumes fetal position*

**Note: I highly suggest reading Destroy Me BEFORE reading this one!