RECAP: Valentine's Day + UNRAVEL ME by Tahereh Mafi

I’m not afraid of spiders. My cousins, who are a bunch of guys, live next door and they have a big shelf but unlike mine, they are not full of books but jars that have hairy tarantulas in them. Tarantulas that, based on my occasional visit to watch them, I haven’t seen move an inch. I’m more afraid of cockroaches because they have wings. Which means they can just suddenly fly and land ANYWHERE on you. Ick! One moment you’re staring at it warily and the next it’s flying! And heading towards you! And you don’t know where it’ll probably land! That’s when you freak out.

But when your mom enters your room one morning to wake you up with a kiss and a Happy Valentine’s Day greeting, and suddenly squeals “There’s a spider! A spider on your pillow!” while simultaneously banging on the said pillow.. you have every reason to be afraid of spiders in that half-asleep state of yours. After all, there’s a big possibility of it crawling inside your ears while you are unconscious. I’ve never imagined starting my Valentine’s day like that.

Not officially, ‘cause I went back to bed right after my mom had gone out of my room. I was, after all, awake until after 3 in the morning. The rest of my day was uneventful. I showered, made a blog post, and then finally decided to go to school at around 3PM to study with my friend for our only – and last (whew!) – exam that day at 5:30PM. But no, we didn’t study. We went out to eat..and talk.

The most interesting thing I was looking forward to doing that day was, of course, picking up Fracture Me and Ignite Me. But I did a quick – okay, maybe a not so quick – scan of Unravel Me, especially my favorite parts which are actually a lot, thus the not so quick scan.

Took me this long to get to my point but this post is really supposed to be a recap (recapitulation – my, what a mouthful thing to say!) of my favorite quotes in Unravel Me since Valentine's Day is actually already over in my place but still, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone on the other side of the world.

Because I adore Kenji and his words so freaking much.. let's start with him. And also because he has the longest passages I love.

“It’s not like I want to see you all depressed or whatever. It’s just that this life is messed up enough as it is,” he says. “And I’m sick of you being so caught up in your own little world all the time. You act like this whole thing—everything we do—is a joke. You don’t take any of it seriously—”

“What?” I cut him off. “That’s not true—I do take this seriously—”

“Bullshit.” He laughs a short, sharp, angry laugh. “All you do is sit around and think about your feelings. You’ve got problems. Boo-freaking-hoo,” he says. “Your parents hate you and it’s so hard but you have to wear gloves for the rest of your life because you kill people when you touch them. Who gives a shit?” He’s breathing hard enough for me to hear him. “As far as I can tell, you’ve got food in your mouth and clothes on your back and a place to pee in peace whenever you feel like it. Those aren’t problems. That’s called living like a king. And I’d really appreciate it if you’d grow the hell up and stop walking around like the world crapped on your only roll of toilet paper. Because it’s stupid,” he says, barely reining in his temper. “It’s stupid, and it’s ungrateful. You don’t have a clue what everyone else in the world is going through right now. You don’t have a clue, Juliette. And you don’t seem to give a damn, either.”

...

“Now I am trying,” he says, “to give you a chance to fix things. I keep giving you opportunities to do things differently. To see past the sad little girl you used to be—the sad little girl you keep clinging to—and stand up for yourself. Stop crying. Stop sitting in the dark counting out all your individual feelings about how sad and lonely you are. Wake up,” he says. “You’re not the only person in this world who doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. You’re not the only one with daddy issues and severely screwed-up DNA. You can be whoever the hell you want to be now. You’re not with your shitty parents anymore. You’re not in that shitty asylum, and you’re no longer stuck being Warner’s shitty little experiment. So make a choice,” he says. “Make a choice and stop wasting everyone’s time. Stop wasting your own time. Okay?”

- KENJI

__________________

“Nope. Not okay,” he says. “You and me, we have work to do.”

“No.”

“Come on,” he says. “Get. Up.” He grabs my elbow, tugging me to my feet as I try to take a swipe at him.

I wipe angrily at my cheeks, scrub at the stains my tears left behind. “I’m not in the mood for your jokes, Kenji. Please just go

away. Leave me alone.”

“No one,” he says, “is joking.” Kenji picks up one of the bricks stacked against the wall. “And the world isn’t going to stop waging war against itself just because you broke up with your boyfriend.”

- KENJI

__________________

That's not even half of it but it's already pretty long. If you want to read my full review of Unravel Me, head over HERE to do so. More Kenji quotes there :)

“You’re going to go on to do incredible things,” he says. “I’ve always known that. I think I just wanted to be a part of it.”

- WARNER
_____________

“Please don’t shoot me for this.”

- WARNER
_____________

I beamed.
The sun and the moon and the stars called and said, “Turn down the beaming, please, because you’re making it hard for us to see,”

- JULIETTE
_____________

And I think, Wow, I did it. I actually managed to die of a stroke at age 17.

- JULIETTE
______________

“On the darkest days you have to search
for a spot of brightness, on the coldest days
you have to seek out a spot of warmth; on
the bleakest days you have to keep your eyes
onward and upward and on the saddest
days you have to leave them open to let
them cry. To then let them dry. To give them
a chance to wash out the pain in order to see
fresh and clear once again.”

- JULIETTE
_______________

“Nothing in this life will ever make
sense to me but I can’t help but try to collect
the change and hope it’s enough to pay for
our mistakes.”

- JULIETTE