Author : Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: YA dystopian
Pages: 435
Rating: 5/5 stars
Synopsis:
“Juliette Ferrars thought she’d won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she’s still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch—and now she’s got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?”
I am nothing but a puddle of feelings melted on the floor. Going into this book I already knew it would be painful to my nerdy heart, but it was so much more painful than I expected. It was such a beautiful mess of anxiety and I have never EVER been this worried about book characters before. Every chapter felt like a delicate balance and I was so flipping anxious the entire time. The tensions were so high and everything that was happening with the characters…. (insert loud screaming and sobbing here).
The duel POVs in this book added so much to the story and I adored it!! I don’t think this book would have been nearly as powerful without this new aspect. I loved getting to understand Warner better as a character and seeing him coping with the difficulties of how he was raised/ the death of the cruel man his father was. Seeing the story from both Juliette and Warner painted better, well rounded picture of the world and made my heart hurt. The characters were so relatstic in this book with all their flaws and I’m here for this!!!
Speaking of my kiddos: KENJI. Oh my gosh, I love this dorky little cinnamon roll. Watching him turn into an awkward lil bean while having a crush was freaking adorable. The development of his relationship with Warner has officially sparked my new #bromance. From his humor to his soft moments Kenji has to be one of my all time favorite characters. I lovvveeeddd getting to learn more about his backstory in this book too, even if it hurt my heart. I’m looking forward to getting to know more about him in Defy Me (and even though the wait isn’t too long from when I’m writing this, I’m dying for this book. The pain is real).
The side characters in this book really bothered me. The few new additional characters in this book felt like they had been tossed into the mix hazardously . I hardly remember most of their names. They hardly did anything. The contributions they added to this story include: possible tension between Juliette and Warner, transphobia, and Spanish that sounded straight from google translate. I feel like their introductions were rushed and forgettable.
The plot holes in this book really bothered me. I’m not going into all of them, but overall they really made the plot a mess. I hated how little there was behind when someone was shooting at Juliette. It felt like a massive plot hole mess without much explanation that got closed too quickly. Moments like that throughout the story made the reading bumpy.
The rep in this book was SO GOOD. The Warner anxiety rep made me so unbelievably happy because it’s so rare that I can relate to a character that way. It’s indescribable how amazing it is to connect to a character like that. Also, I’m here for all the social standards/ political justice topics that were pushed around in this book.
Last, this book turned me into a mess (reinsert the sobbing here). I hardly ever get THIS anxious while reading but the entire book felt like tension was getting wound tighter until I wasn’t breathing in the final pages. This book should have honestly been called Destroy Me because that’s pretty much all it did. If you don’t see me for the next few weeks it’ll be because I’m too busy crying under my bed to be a functional human being.
Okay, actually last, this freaking quote from Warner. It goes back to his mental illness rep and was something I really connected to immediately after reading it, so I couldn’t not share it here:
“I think too much. I feel, perhaps, far more than I should. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that my goal in life is to outrun my mind, my memories.”
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