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camillou 's review for:
Restore Me
by Tahereh Mafi
— 4 stars —
Restore Me was a captivating and really interesting book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great book, with some good things, some mind-blowing things, but also some others that, unfortunately, were a disappointment, or didn't meet my expectations.
Also, quick disclaimer: there will be SPOILERS of the previous books! If you haven’t read them, don’t go any further. Thank you :)
Tahereh Mafi's writing is fluid, easy to read, and the way the sentences are cut sometimes makes the reading even more dynamic in my opinion. It was a fast read.
I also really like the balance between Juliette's and Warner's point of view. It brought a whole different story dynamic and I really enjoyed that.
• The characters.
Tahereh Mafi has really interesting characters. I love some of them more than others, like everyone else, but that doesn't mean they are not interesting to me.
The opening scene with Juliette, Kenji and Warner was, in my opinion, hilarious.
I can’t help but find Warner so much more interesting and complex than Juliette, so of course I liked his parts better. But boy, that man is sad. So sad. I just wanted to hug him. And I understand that grief he feels. He’s allowed to feel it. There’s nothing wrong about that at all.
Juliette, on the other hand, was back to her Shatter Me/Unravel Me self and… well, that’s not my favorite Juliette. Where is the confident woman from Ignite Me? Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand her doubts and everything but it’s been only two weeks since she took over. Rome wasn't built in a day, and even then, it was only a city. I cannot start to imagine what it would be like to give another shape to an entire continent.
Also, I’m so happy that it wasn't easy. Ruling an entire country—hell, a freaking continent— is not an easy task. DUH. And even Warner, who has been raised for this, never wanted that responsibility.
But I still really liked her. She's annoying sometimes, she makes mistakes, she whines, she wants to be free, but is stuck in this impossible position for someone so young and so new to all of this. And in a way, she's also so relatable. She's not an adult, she never had that much responsibility. It's like having to run a freaking marathon all of a sudden, when you didn't even know that you could walk (and even less being able to). She was thrown in something so much bigger than her.
Kenji. Kenji is my favorite character. An amazing friend, an even more amazing person. He deserves love and happiness. He stayed the exact same, if not even more fantastic, and I love him. He’s this breath of fresh air in this awful world, this sliver of light in the dark. He’s everything and I CANNOT WAIT FOR HIS NOVELLA.
• The story and the many plot-twists.
But what I adored was all the revelations. They just blew my mind with each new sentences.
Juliette’s past, her family, everything. I kept being in awe every time something new was explained. And I loved it!
First of all, she has a sister. A sister who's still being tortured after 12 years. Turns out she also has been adopted, and her biological parents aren't nice people at all. And they're both supreme commanders? Why all the supremes are crazy?
But then, THAT ENDING. It was too much for my little heart.
Why Juliette's parents act like they're the perfect little family? What happened with the team being emprisonned? Was Juliette—again—just a pawn in something? Was her breakdown at the symposium somehow planned by the other supremes?
Adam and Juliette knew each other when they were children? They're in A PICTURE TOGETHER! But why doesn’t he remember? Did is Dad wiped his memories too? And why Nazeera is the only one who seem to recognize Juliette?
Argh... so many questions, once again!
• Other things I loved.
- Kenji/Warner:
I need more of them together. They’re everything to me right now.
- Warner/Adam:
That was the surprise of this book. The way they tried to come around the idea that they are related, that they’re brothers. I loved the little scenes we had and I honestly wanted more. Two people who hated each other, wanted the other dead (hell, try to kill the other), actually related. It’s an interesting dynamic and I hope I will see more of them in the 5th installment.
I'm also including James here too, because I'm here for them three and I want them to be a family—a weird and dysfunctional one, maybe—, but a family nonetheless. I love the scenes with James and Warner, James and Adam and Adam and Warner (in this book). I'm sure they can make this work.
- Adam:
I appreciated him apologizing for his weird and annoying behavior in the previous books. Like everyone else, he’s been through a lot. They all have different story and different ways to cope with their pasts. His was just plain wrong and I’m glad he realized that.
- The new characters, and especially Nazeera:
More powerful women? YES PLEASE! And I can't get this idea out of my head that Haider also has some kind of powers too. And I'm curious to see how his relationship with Warner will be developed.
- Juliette and Nazeera:
YES YES YES. I love women supporting each other and I hope that's the kind of friendship I'm going to see!
- Juliette's new power:
WHAT!?
I’m still so lost in this world, though we got a bit more informations than in the last books in my opinion. Silly me didn’t understand that in killing Anderson in Ignite Me, Juliette became the supreme commander of an entire continent. I thought she was just like the president of the US. Now, I can picture it a bit better.
• Absence of older characters, or them being super weird after being so supportive.
(long name for a tiny part, sorry!)
- Castle.
Do I need to say more? I didn't like him in this book. He was the opposite of what I imagined him to be and it was weird.
- Where are the other characters from the previous books? Why not use them a bit more (especially to end up killing them in the end. I kinda felt nothing for them, because they sort of disappeared throughout the entire book...).
- Adam and James disappeared too, except for a scene here and there. Like I keep saying, I’m not a huge fan of Adam. But after Ignite Me, I kinda expected to see him more, building his relationship, either with Warner, Kenji, try to be friendly to Juliette or start something new with Alia (I was rooting for them at the end of Ignite Me but I guess it’s too late now. Maybe Lena will be the one for him, who knows).
• Feelings, feelings, feelings.
- It was a tad too feelings-focused. I guess I wanted more action, more Juliette commanding and ruling. Maybe see more concrete, tangible actions, instead of the behind the scenes. I loved Ignite Me so much that I must have raised my expectations a little too much.
- And that scene with drunk!Juliette made me badly cringe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was not perfect (the beginning was bit slow for me) but it was a quick, gripping and really interesting read.
Now, I need answers to my questions!
If you're still here after this "review", thank you for reading my messy thoughts, and have a wonderful day :)
1st read: October, 24th 2018 > October, 24th 2018
Restore Me was a captivating and really interesting book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a great book, with some good things, some mind-blowing things, but also some others that, unfortunately, were a disappointment, or didn't meet my expectations.
--------------------This review will probably make no sense and I'm mostly writing it for myself, because I felt so much stuff reading this book and I needed to externalize my thoughts. Sorry in advance!
Also, quick disclaimer: there will be SPOILERS of the previous books! If you haven’t read them, don’t go any further. Thank you :)
--------------------
WHAT I LOVED• The writing.
Tahereh Mafi's writing is fluid, easy to read, and the way the sentences are cut sometimes makes the reading even more dynamic in my opinion. It was a fast read.
I also really like the balance between Juliette's and Warner's point of view. It brought a whole different story dynamic and I really enjoyed that.
• The characters.
Tahereh Mafi has really interesting characters. I love some of them more than others, like everyone else, but that doesn't mean they are not interesting to me.
The opening scene with Juliette, Kenji and Warner was, in my opinion, hilarious.
I can’t help but find Warner so much more interesting and complex than Juliette, so of course I liked his parts better. But boy, that man is sad. So sad. I just wanted to hug him. And I understand that grief he feels. He’s allowed to feel it. There’s nothing wrong about that at all.
Juliette, on the other hand, was back to her Shatter Me/Unravel Me self and… well, that’s not my favorite Juliette. Where is the confident woman from Ignite Me? Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand her doubts and everything but it’s been only two weeks since she took over. Rome wasn't built in a day, and even then, it was only a city. I cannot start to imagine what it would be like to give another shape to an entire continent.
Also, I’m so happy that it wasn't easy. Ruling an entire country—hell, a freaking continent— is not an easy task. DUH. And even Warner, who has been raised for this, never wanted that responsibility.
But I still really liked her. She's annoying sometimes, she makes mistakes, she whines, she wants to be free, but is stuck in this impossible position for someone so young and so new to all of this. And in a way, she's also so relatable. She's not an adult, she never had that much responsibility. It's like having to run a freaking marathon all of a sudden, when you didn't even know that you could walk (and even less being able to). She was thrown in something so much bigger than her.
Kenji. Kenji is my favorite character. An amazing friend, an even more amazing person. He deserves love and happiness. He stayed the exact same, if not even more fantastic, and I love him. He’s this breath of fresh air in this awful world, this sliver of light in the dark. He’s everything and I CANNOT WAIT FOR HIS NOVELLA.
• The story and the many plot-twists.
But what I adored was all the revelations. They just blew my mind with each new sentences.
Juliette’s past, her family, everything. I kept being in awe every time something new was explained. And I loved it!
First of all, she has a sister. A sister who's still being tortured after 12 years. Turns out she also has been adopted, and her biological parents aren't nice people at all. And they're both supreme commanders? Why all the supremes are crazy?
But then, THAT ENDING. It was too much for my little heart.
Why Juliette's parents act like they're the perfect little family? What happened with the team being emprisonned? Was Juliette—again—just a pawn in something? Was her breakdown at the symposium somehow planned by the other supremes?
Adam and Juliette knew each other when they were children? They're in A PICTURE TOGETHER! But why doesn’t he remember? Did is Dad wiped his memories too? And why Nazeera is the only one who seem to recognize Juliette?
Argh... so many questions, once again!
• Other things I loved.
- Kenji/Warner:
I need more of them together. They’re everything to me right now.
- Warner/Adam:
That was the surprise of this book. The way they tried to come around the idea that they are related, that they’re brothers. I loved the little scenes we had and I honestly wanted more. Two people who hated each other, wanted the other dead (hell, try to kill the other), actually related. It’s an interesting dynamic and I hope I will see more of them in the 5th installment.
I'm also including James here too, because I'm here for them three and I want them to be a family—a weird and dysfunctional one, maybe—, but a family nonetheless. I love the scenes with James and Warner, James and Adam and Adam and Warner (in this book). I'm sure they can make this work.
- Adam:
I appreciated him apologizing for his weird and annoying behavior in the previous books. Like everyone else, he’s been through a lot. They all have different story and different ways to cope with their pasts. His was just plain wrong and I’m glad he realized that.
- The new characters, and especially Nazeera:
More powerful women? YES PLEASE! And I can't get this idea out of my head that Haider also has some kind of powers too. And I'm curious to see how his relationship with Warner will be developed.
- Juliette and Nazeera:
YES YES YES. I love women supporting each other and I hope that's the kind of friendship I'm going to see!
- Juliette's new power:
WHAT!?
WHAT I DIDN'T REALLY LIKED• The "lack" of world building.
I’m still so lost in this world, though we got a bit more informations than in the last books in my opinion. Silly me didn’t understand that in killing Anderson in Ignite Me, Juliette became the supreme commander of an entire continent. I thought she was just like the president of the US. Now, I can picture it a bit better.
• Absence of older characters, or them being super weird after being so supportive.
(long name for a tiny part, sorry!)
- Castle.
Do I need to say more? I didn't like him in this book. He was the opposite of what I imagined him to be and it was weird.
- Where are the other characters from the previous books? Why not use them a bit more (especially to end up killing them in the end. I kinda felt nothing for them, because they sort of disappeared throughout the entire book...).
- Adam and James disappeared too, except for a scene here and there. Like I keep saying, I’m not a huge fan of Adam. But after Ignite Me, I kinda expected to see him more, building his relationship, either with Warner, Kenji, try to be friendly to Juliette or start something new with Alia (I was rooting for them at the end of Ignite Me but I guess it’s too late now. Maybe Lena will be the one for him, who knows).
• Feelings, feelings, feelings.
- It was a tad too feelings-focused. I guess I wanted more action, more Juliette commanding and ruling. Maybe see more concrete, tangible actions, instead of the behind the scenes. I loved Ignite Me so much that I must have raised my expectations a little too much.
- And that scene with drunk!Juliette made me badly cringe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It was not perfect (the beginning was bit slow for me) but it was a quick, gripping and really interesting read.
Now, I need answers to my questions!
If you're still here after this "review", thank you for reading my messy thoughts, and have a wonderful day :)
**********2nd read: March, 29th 2019 > March, 31st 2019
1st read: October, 24th 2018 > October, 24th 2018