Update: Re-read April, 2019
I stand by my rating and everything I said in the review below, but I have to say I enjoyed my second experience with this book more than the first. It's probably closer to a 3.5 star rating, but since that's not a thing here (Seriously? Still not a thing, Gooreads?) my originally rating stands.

I listened to the book this go-around on audio, and I thought it was done pretty well. I will say, there are some inconsistencies with character accents when the POV flips from the Juliette voice actor to the Warner voice actor. I noticed this specifically with Nazeera. Other than that, I thought both actors did a nice job.

I think I enjoyed it more because I had no expectations for it to be anything other than what it was. I know the issues I had with it and those are still valid for me, but I was able to accept them this time and just take the book for what it was.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I am relatively new to the Shatter Me craze. I read the first three books in 2016. I thought they were good, especially the third book. Good, not phenomenal. When the series ended, I was pretty satisfied and was able to see its (many) faults and still appreciate the things it did well.

When I heard that the author was penning three new installments of this series, I was skeptical. While the first trilogy did end on a somewhat vague note, I had come to terms with it and didn’t feel like it was a necessity to continue the story. But as I kept hearing people become more and more hyped about this book, I found myself getting excited about it as well. Now, I didn’t read any of the excerpts or follow the author on social media, so I didn’t go into Restore Me with any idea of what was coming.

I did re-read the first three books (they are all super quick reads for me, like candy) and waited for spot in line through my library. I will admit, I put a hold on not only the physical copy, but also the audiobook and ebook because I didn’t know which was going to be the smallest, quickest queue.

As soon as I received the notice from the overdrive app that my ebook was waiting for checkout, I downloaded and began to read. I had family visiting for a wedding so I was unable to read much the first two days I had the book. But finally, last night, in a bout of insomnia that is trying to ruin my life, I binged this book.

And???

It was okay.

Yes, just okay. Now, that’s not to say I’m not going to read the subsequent books, because oh my goodness, that ending. But if I’m being honest (and I always try to be) this just didn’t do much for me.

What I liked:

1. Kenji. I know that this is probably the least controversial opinion out there, but Kenji is probably my favorite character in this series. He is the most recognizable for me from the first trilogy into this second. He’s still sarcastic, blunt, and loyal. His scenes are a highlight for me, absolutely. I also loved that this book gave us some of Kenji’s backstory. The part where he talks about how much he loved his dad was heartbreaking.
2. Nazeera. I really enjoyed her character. Her interactions with Kenji made me smile and I liked the potential of a friendship between her and Juliette.
3. The anxiety representation. As someone who has struggles with mild anxiety (I say mild because it isn’t a chronic state for me and I don’t take medication for it, but I have been in stressful situations that have led to full-blown panic attacks) the exploration of Warner’s anxiety felt very authentic to me. I appreciated the fact that, under his confidence and austere demeanor, he has a lot of insecurities and trauma that he doesn’t want anyone to see.
4. Sex-positivity. I like that these books show Juliette and Warner in a physical and mutually pleasurable relationship in a way that is sexy without being super specific. I feel like it’s appropriate for the YA audience while not being watered down for readers in my age range. And to be honest, just because I’m older doesn’t mean I need to have everyone’s anatomies described to me, so I appreciated the way she wrote the love scenes.
5. Warner. And by extension, Adam. I think Warner had the strongest arc of the characters in this novel, which could stem from the fact that we finally got his perspective. Seeing his doubts, his insecurities, and his memories really rounded out that character. His evolving relationship (friendship?) with Kenji was a highlight of this book for me. I also thought the couple of scenes he had with Adam were great. It doesn’t excuse Adam for what he did in Ignite Me, but it does put a different spin on what his headspace was like at the time. I liked that they were able to find a little common ground and that is honestly the relationship I am most interested to see in subsequent books.
6. Anderson’s journal entries. I wanted more of these. I feel like it was kind of a missed opportunity to really expand on the world and society.

What I disliked:

1. Lack of world building. I want to preface this by saying that there is expansion of the world in this book, to a certain extent. We are introduced to new characters from different cultures from around the world. We learn a little more in regards to the structure of the Reestablishment and Juliette’s place within it. We are given backstory for Kenji, Warner, and Juliette that answers some questions while opening up a whole new round of others. That being said, this book simply did not go far enough for me. One of my major critiques of the first three books is that it is incredibly myopic. Juliette, Adam, Warner, Anderson, and the rest of the rebellion might as well be the only people on the planet for all we hear about the other people in society. Civilians were veritably non-existent. This book actually mentions civilians. We are told that they take something called REST dollars (never actually given an explanation as to what REST dollars are, but I feel like it’s pretty clear in context) to purchase goods. We are also told that they march like ‘toy soldiers’ but are never given a reason why civilians would be marching. And...that’s it. We are also given more backstory on the beginnings of the Reestablishment. There is also some information about the goals of the Reestablishment. My problem is that it doesn’t go far enough. It’s still incredibly shortsighted. I still don’t feel like I know anything more about this world than I did in the beginning of the first book. Nothing about this dystopian society feels at all unique to me, with the exception that some people have supernatural powers. Even then, I’m assuming this isn’t the first dystopian to feature characters with superpowers. Most of the details about the structure of this society are vague at best and, if I’m being honest, cookie cutter of endless other dystopians.
2. Plot devices/contrivances. One of my least favorite plot devices revolves around people not talking to each other about important shit. If your book revolves around two or more characters not talking to each other for 300+ pages in order to sustain the narrative, you should probably rework something. Especially when those two characters have proven in the past that they can trust the other with any number of sensitive bits of information. For me, this felt like a cop out. It was a way to create conflict between two characters who ended the first trilogy in a relatively good place after three books full of misunderstandings. At a certain point, it’s difficult to take anything in this series with more than a grain of salt because as soon as we are given a basis for what the reality of the situation is, new information is added to the equation that completely changes the landscape. Now, that is fine here and there. But these books do it continuously, and it gets to the point where I as a reader don’t let myself get connected to anyone or anything because who knows what kind of crazy thing is going to be revealed next. I also hated how it was made totally obvious to not only the reader, but also to Juliette, that people were keeping things from her and she never tried to follow up. She would notice people reacting to things she said about her past in a certain way, but never forced the issue. It was aggravating! It happened quite a bit with Nazeera.
3. “Plot”. The parentheses are included because there is no plot to speak of. Not at all. The book takes place over the course of a few days and mostly just consists of the characters trying to deal with their multitude of insecurities and learning awful secrets about each other. Now, I don’t mind if a book is more focused on its characters than an external plot. That is totally fine with me, but in this case, it feels like almost nothing happens in this book. Yes, there are revelations and twists. Boy oh boy, are there revelations and twists. But aside from that, the characters don’t do anything in this entire book. Things happen to these characters, but not until the very end of the book and they didn’t really have anything to do with it.
4. Castle. I really disliked his character in this book. He somehow has all this intel on everyone that he just kept secret this whole time but now has to come out on his terms. I really didn’t like that at all. It felt manipulative, but it also felt contrived. Why didn’t he bring any of this up earlier?
5. Juliette’s journal entries. I honestly didn’t feel like these added much to the proceedings. There were a couple of entries that gave us new information, but mostly it felt like a retread of previously disseminated information. Some of the entries were actually from the first series and just reintroduced here.

Other odds and ends:

1. I wish there had been more inclusion of the minor characters from the previous three books. They are almost totally absent from this book up until the climax.
2. The timeline doesn’t quite work for me. This book picks up two weeks after the end of Ignite Me. However, there are times when events from the first trilogy are mentioned as if they happened years ago instead of weeks. I wish that this book would have picked up a couple months later instead of a couple weeks.
3. The new characters mostly didn’t work for me. I didn’t mind the idea of meeting these people that Warner grew up with, but it does contradict what Warner told Juliette about never having conversations/close relationships with people before her. Now, people will justify this by saying, “What he means is that he didn’t have any meaningful conversations or relationships before her.” Okay. That’s fine. But the way it was written in the first trilogy didn’t come off that way. It feels revisionist to me. Then again, these books have a lot of instances of revisionism. Anyway, I didn’t feel like we got to know enough about them to care about what happens to them in the future.
4. Nazeera was shocked that two people could have the same ability. Why? I don’t understand why that is so shocking.
5. I loved Juliette cutting her hair. That whole scene was great. And I loved that, even though she was inebriated when she did it, she didn’t regret it afterwards. She owned it. Unfortunately, there were so many other moments where she seemed almost passive. And to get angry at Warner for not mentioning a past dalliance with someone he grew up with is more than slightly petty.
6. I liked that there was a trans character in this book, but disliked that we aren’t even introduced to her as a person before another character is throwing bigoted, discriminatory remarks her way. And that’s pretty much all we learn about her. At this point, her character is just a token. And that’s not okay.

I know there are things that I’m leaving out, but this is already ridiculously long. I do plan on re-reading this in the future, since most of this first reading happened in an insomnia-induced haze.