Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #3
Published by HarperCollins on February 4th 2014
Pages: 408
Genres: Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic, Romance
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Amazon
Goodreads

Also by this author: Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Fracture Me

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.

Shatter Me series

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) {Purchase – My Review}
Destroy Me (Shatter Me #1.5) {Purchase}
Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) {Purchase – My Review}
Fracture Me (Shatter Me #2.5) {Purchase – My Review}

YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

Yes, I ended this with a smile on my face. But for all the wrong reasons. I was smiling because I would no longer have to subject myself to reading more of these books in hopes that they’ll finally start being worth the time and in hopes it’ll start giving me the answers I’ve yearned for. The end did not give me all of those answers but whatever, I’m done with it.

Let’s talk about Adam. I touched on this in my review of Fracture Me but I’m feeling the need to discuss it further because I clearly missed the part where Adam got hit in the head with a semi and all his brain pieces got jiggled around causing him to transform into a completely different person. That happened, right? Because that’s the only excuse I’m willing to accept. I can’t for one second buy that this has been Adam’s ‘true self’ this whole series because he did a complete 180 from anything I’ve come to expect from him. Ohhhhhh… maybe he was abducted by aliens? I might be willing to accept that too. But seriously, he’s supposed to care about Juliette. I could understand some animosity between the two since they did break up but he still claims to care about her. Something tells me you’re confused.

“[…] Adam-I’m not stupid-“
“Are you sure?”
“What?” I can’t believe he just insulted me.
“I asked you if you were sure,” he snaps. “Because you’re acting pretty damn stupid right now […]”

or

“No-you don’t understand anything,” he snaps. “You don’t understand me, you don’t understand yourself and you don’t understand that you’re acting like a stupid child […]”

or

“I was happier,” Adam says, “when I thought she was dead.” […] He finally looks at me. “Thinking you were dead,” he says to me, “was so much better. It hurt so much less than this.”

You get the picture. What made it even worse was there were people standing around while all this is going on. Listening to him verbally abuse her again and again. Kenji KIND OF sticks up for her but for the most part they let him rant and rave and treat her like she’s a piece of trash. Hello? You just going to let that happen? I kept reading in hopes that either someone (or Juliette) would finally stand up to the prick and say:

Now onto Warner. Let’s talk about the fact that every time he called Juliette ‘love’ he only succeeded in making himself sound like a pretentious blowhard. I mean seriously, unless you’re British I don’t think you can really get away with calling anyone ‘love’ and since there was no reference to his British-ness then pretentious blowhard it is. Warner becomes Mr. Perfect in Ignite Me because the love triangle problem needed to be solved suddenly every issue is revealed to have been one giant misunderstanding this entire time!

“…do not presume to understand my actions. […] Because if you do, I can assure you you’ll only be met with disappointment. And if you insist on continuing to make assumptions about my character, I’ll advise you only this: assume you will always be wrong.”

Yes, so basically he was maintaining pretenses this entire time. Naturally. But it was pretty ridiculous that he managed to be as shocked as he was that Juliette thought so little of him. Because really what did he expect? Oh, he just shot his soldier in the head. It was seemingly done for no legit reason. Oh, he just almost made me kill a baby. No explanation given. She was really supposed to surmise that it was all a simulation? Add to that there were so many other things that Warner did do wrong yet because all of his larger misdeeds were explained and forgiven everything else was brushed under the rug? No bueno.

And as a side note, how come we’re ignoring the fact that the only reason he even knows Juliette is because he stole her extremely personal diary? It’s not like they spent quality time together having conversations and getting to know one another. He literally knows nothing about this girl that he claims to love other than what was written in the pages of her diary. And what a terrible invasion of privacy! Even when she tries to take it back from him he claims he’s not done reading and promptly takes it from her again.

I’ve never been Team Adam or Team Warner because I don’t do teams, sorry. But I didn’t expect Adam to start acting completely out of character for no legitimate reason and I didn’t expect a nice, neat resolution to redeem Warner for all his wrong doing. It just felt like a quick resolution and was the ultimate of cop-outs.

Fairly exciting stuff finally starts happening in the last like, 75 pages. They’re going to battle and Juliette is acting like a total badass and I’m loving it. I understand Juliette needed to develop in order to become this newly empowered individual but the last 75 pages of the last book in the trilogy?? Too. Freaking. Late. And that’s what upset me the most and what caused my rock bottom rating: those final pages afforded me a glimpse of what could have been. It was exciting and thrilling with characters I really enjoyed. It made me dislike the other 1,000 or so pages of this series even more than I already did. It could have been an awesome ending to a trilogy and while it was admittedly the best part of the entire series for me, it was still incredibly rushed. If the ending wasn’t quite so rush, if Adam’s character hadn’t been completely razed, if there was more focus on the craziness of the world and not the craziness of Juliette’s ridiculous love-life this could have been an impressive series. If, if, if. I know. But those last pages did showcase the potential that Mafi has and regardless of my opinion of this book or the overall series as a whole I would not be against giving her future novels a shot. I can only hope and pray that the exciting bits happen much, much sooner.