IGNITE ME BY TAHEREH MAFI

Genre: YA, Dystopian

“In this world you’re either alive, about to die or dead. There is no romance in it. No illusion.”
-Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me 

Series: Shatter Me Trilogy
Shatter Me (#1 in Shatter Me Trilogy)
Unravel Me (#2 in Shatter Me Trilogy)
Destroy Me & Fracture Me (Novellas in Shatter Me Trilogy)

Synopsis: 
The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, called “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love.”

With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.

The Shatter Me series is perfect for fans who crave action-packed young adult novels with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu. Tahereh Mafi has created a captivating and original story that combines the best of dystopian and paranormal, and was praised by Publishers Weekly as “a gripping read from an author who’s not afraid to take risks.” Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and satisfying end.[Goodreads]

*Warning this is the third and final book in the series and this review might contain spoilers*

Tahereh Mafi has followed the trend of many other writers lately (Veronica Roth). The third and last book in the series has fallen short and more often than not has been a total let down. For me the only thing that saved this book besides something actually happening during the last 100 pages was the way in which Mafi writes. Her use of words and literary devices create beautiful pictures.

“I want to laugh because all I can think is how horrible and beautiful it is, that our eyes blur the truth when we can’t bear to see it. ” 

There are many let downs that took place and changes that I was not happy with. Mafi is not very great at world building, but I came to realize that it wasn’t the purpose of the story. The story being told was the personal journey of Juliette. This makes the fact that Mafi discontinued to carry out strikeout throughout the novel upsetting. Her use of strikeout gave a more dramatic effect to Juliette’s narrative. I think in a way she didn’t include it in order to show that Juliette had changed and grew. But I do not believe this fully took place until the end of the story when she defeated Anderson and was totally confident in herself and her abilities.

I love the growth between the friendship of Juliette and Kenji. Love that she was actually able to expand a relationship outside of the love triangle of her, Adam and Warner. Adam and his attitude completely annoyed me, but what do you expect when you fall in love with the other lead male character. I thought that the whole first half of the book was annoying and useless. The whole woe is me drama took place between all of the characters and the same speech was taking place the whole time. 

“I am a broken skeleton with a beating heart”

But I loved that Mafi continued to incorporate the words from the titles throughout the whole book. It really did a good job tying together the whole series. I am very picky about endings and thought I would hate how Mafi was going to end this book. Seeing as I thought most of the book was a waste of time, she did surprise me with the ending. Although I thought it was a weird place to stop the story. When you look at what Mafi was trying to accomplish and how it was a personal journey for Juliette, it ended perfectly. With her finally completing her transformation and going from the quite cowardly girl to a strong, confident and unstoppable one.