Restore Me was another highly addictive and explosive installation in the Shatter Me series. It picks up where Ignite Me left off and addresses so many questions I had about the nature of Juliette's world, whilst raising so many new ones about her past.
There is so much more of these characters to be seen, and I loved learning more about them. I continue to adore Warner and Juliette, individually and together, even when they get a bit dramatic. These characters possess so much dark and light within them, and I loved getting inside their heads. I have to admit that lack of communication between characters is a bookish peeve of mine, and boy did these two need to communicate better. So many problems in fiction can be fixed if the characters just talked to each other! But given the nature of the characters, I think it made a lot of sense, and I'm glad that this book addressed it as a problem rather than pretending this is a perfect relationship.
We also get more Kenji, who honestly deserves a whole paragraph from me. I love this boy! He is such a good friend to Juliette and I love how their relationship is nothing but platonic. We learn more about his backstory in this book, and it made me want to wrap him in a blanket and protect him from the world. Kenji is honestly my favourite and I love him more with every book.
Restore Me also saw a lot more political tension which we didn't really get in the original trilogy. More about the world outside of Sector 45 is revealed, as well as The Reestablishment's motives and rise to power. I loved the commentary about the value of culture and difference, and I can't wait to see the series explore these themes further as the fight for dismantling The Reestablishment continues.
However, there are a couple of things that stopped this book from being perfect. One is that a trans girl is introduced by another character being transphobic towards her. Even if it had been properly challenged, I think there was definitely a more sensitive way to introduce Valentina, and I was disappointed that her character was used to emphasise the unlikability of another.
The second problem I had was with the ending. I couldn't really follow what happened at a key event in the final chapters of the book, and it kind of threw me off. I love the plot twists and how the story is developing, but I just didn't understand what happened. I imagined this will be explained in the next book, but it made the ending feel quite rushed to me.
Despite the negatives, I still really did enjoy this book! This is still one of my favourite series', and I hope that some of the issues in Restore Me will be redeemed in book 5.
★★★★☆
YA Romance/Dystopia
Book 4 of 6 in the Shatter Me series
guns, death, blood, gore, torture, violence, panic attack, drug overdose, alcoholism, transphobia
Glad you enjoyed this! My friend has been nagging me to read this, and I'm honestly dying to know the world better and read more about the inside of the reestablishment. Great review!
ReplyDeleteTasya // The Literary Huntress
Thanks Tasya! It's a really great continuation of the series and it doesn't disappoint. I hope you enjoy it when you get round to reading it!
DeleteI'm glad you liked this one, Helia! I read the original trilogy years ago so I re-read them before I got around to reading this book. I'm so glad I did because I loved the books a lot more than I did the first time around! This is definitely one of my favourite series <3
ReplyDeleteIt was a definite downfall of the novel that the one trans character was introduced by way of transphobia. I'm still not even sure how that could have gotten past the first round of edits, to be honest. I guess it just goes to show yet again that publishing needs more diversity so that harmful content like this doesn't make it to the published version of the book. I just hope that the character is given more depth and page time in the next book.
The ending was a tad confusing but I felt like it was almost supposed to be? Either way, it definitely had me desperate for book five, haha.
Lovely review!
Thank you Chiara! I can't believe it took me so long to discover this series because I completely devoured it in a matter of days. I didn't expect to love the characters as much as I did, and it's definitely become one of my favourite series' too.
DeleteThe transphobia was quite a let down. There were so many other ways to introduce the character, and I hope the publishing industry gets better at doing these characters justice.
I get what you mean about the ending. The jarring conclusion definitely felt intentional, and I'm both terrified and excited to see the outcome in book five!
Thanks again and sorry for the late reply!