Review: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me
(Shatter Me #3)
by Tahereh Mafi
Published: February 4, 2014




Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew - about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam - was wrong.

“There is nothing to fear. Nothing to worry about. Grieve nothing in this transitory world,” he says softly.

I tilt back, a question in my eyes.

“It’s the only way I know how to exist,” he says. “In a world where there is so much to grieve and so little good to take? I grieve nothing. I take everything.”

I stare into his eyes for what feels like forever.

He leans into my ear. Lowers his voice. “Ignite, my love. Ignite.”

My post-its. Gone. So good. It's so good (I've been reduced to a girl of few words). This is a prime example of why I prefer e-books when it comes to quoting because Ignite Me has a lot and damn if it isn't exhausting holding the book with one hand while typing with the other.

This is what you would call a conclusion. It's hard enough thinking about picking up the last book in a beloved series but there are still those that gives you a WTF ending, or a wth-is-this-there-should-be-another-installment, or those that you've already accepted as 'this is really it' (or at least that's what you tell yourself) but still can't help begging for 'one more chapter'. I'm always like one of these when it comes to endings. I can't help it especially if it's a series I was so invested in that letting go is unbearable.

Not including the series I am not a fan of, there are very few endings that really, truly made me feel like 'this is enough'. There will be no more of this. No more (insert name here) and (and here). The dot I see before the acknowledgement will be the last I would see of this series. And I'm perfectly fine with it. I'm not asking for another sentence because this is close to perfect. Ignite Me belongs to that category. Though I am not saying that if whatever miracle happens to push Tahereh Mafi into writing a, say, novella following this, I am not going to roll on the floor with joy. I definitely will. Won't you? But we all know that's next to impossible. A spin-off though..

Seriously, I am content with the fact that whenever I miss these beloved characters and want to spend time with them, I'll just go back to every post-its I've put in this book. I'm telling you, it was a lot of post-its.

Me while reading Ignite Me: Page 1.. flip, flip *post-it* flip, flip, flip *post-it* flip, "awww" *post-it* flip, flip, "lol" *post-it* flip, flip *post-it*post-it*post-it* until I've ran out of pages.

Who wouldn't be like that when words like:

I’m so scared that if I move even an inch, my body will snap in half and everyone will see that my insides are made up of nothing but all the tears I’m swallowing back right now.

..greet you in each chapter? That is probably one of my most favorite quote. When I read that part I was like, *pause* *visualize* "That is beautiful and brilliant. I wish I thought of that before Tahereh. Damn."

While reading this you'd realize that this isn't just "the third book" in the series - an addition. And you'd realize that while Tahereh was making the first book, she was also already thinking of how it would interconnect with everything: the writing style, the character development, the movement and entirety of the story. IT'S SO BRILLIANT! Juliette - and everyone else - were impressive not in a way that would make you say "I bet Tahereh made her likable now because everyone hated her in the previous books." NO. That's when my previous statement comes in. It could be perfectly summed up by this:

Hang tight

Hold on

Look up

Stay strong

Hang on

Hold tight

Look strong

Stay up

One day I might break

One day I might

b r e a k

free

I saw Juliette's stronger side, Kenji's vulnerability.. I know Kenji and Juliette are good friends but I didn't realize the extent of it before this book. It's really heartwarming, hilarious, heartbreaking.. and I just love them both to death. Best book BFF's ever!

Let's just say that the Adam of Fracture Me is still the Adam of Ignite Me but someone who you can sympathize. Maybe it's because it was in Juliette's perspective like in Shatter Me and Unravel Me but otherwise, I can't help but really feel bad for him no matter how I saw him in Fracture Me.

Warner maybe the cruel-est person in the eyes of others but what I love most about him is he knows who the real him is. He doesn't try to defend his actions to look good to the society despite having good reasons. The only opinion he values is Juliette's and how heartbreaking it must be to feel her absolute hate towards him and his father. But he endures, because he wants Juliette to see that he has a heart all on her own.

The ending was very abrupt and anticlimactic but I guess it was because we all know it'd eventually come to that. Still, I was hoping for something more from it. Everything was wrapped-up nicely though. I loved how the conflict between Adam and Warner was sorted out, the tension, the promise of better leadership in Sector 45. It had a lot of hope in it. And almost every aspect of the story is bittersweet. The coolest parts happened around the middle or.. well, lets just say before that ending.

Wow. That was a crazy reading experience. Lots of feels! Cheers to Tahereh for this amazing, amazing book series. I am at PEACE. P.S. Please make more of this.

I don’t know where we’re going, he and I, but I know I want to get there. We are hours and minutes reaching for the same second, holding hands as we spin forward into new days and the promise of something better.

But though we’ll know forward and we’ve known backward, we will never know the present. This moment and the next one and even the one that would’ve been right now are gone, already passed, and all we’re left with are these tired bodies, the only proof that we’ve lived through time and survived it.

It’ll be worth it, though, in the end.

Fighting for a lifetime of this.