Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi - Review

Title: Defy Me

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me #5

Rating: 4/5

Plot: 

Shatter Me has been one of my favourite series for as long as I can remember, but this might be my least favourite. For some reason, Kenji is a fan favourite, so he got a big POV for a good portion of this book. Reading his perspective just felt overdone and like it was pandering to the fans, but I found myself skimming his parts just to find the 1-2 pages of Warner or Juliette (I mean Ella). Even the parts with Warner and Julitette seemed disappointing though. There was very little action and when there was action it went so fast I could feel myself getting hyped up about it. And it was always the kind of action where I never felt like the characters were in danger. 

Characters:

Juliette/Ella:

I get the idea behind the name change, really, but Juliette is such a beautiful name and basically erasing that and throwing a generic name like Ella (sorry to the Ellas out there) into the mix just makes me kind of sad. It’s like all that history of the first three books is just gone or it gives me a whole new perspective on it that I don’t like. I used to love the first three books and now I feel like everything in them was a lie. 

Warner:

Sweet boy. After Ignite Me his character started going downhill. Now he’s the kind of character where his only purpose is to argue with other characters, come off as the I-never-had-a-good-childhood-and-now-I-don’t-know-pop-culture character, and serve as Juliella’s (I’m using that as a coping mechanism) protector/worry about her all the time. It makes me sad. I still love him and I think he had some great character development in this book regarding his relationship with his father and learning about his past with Juliella, but I can’t help but feel like a part of that character I loved is missing.

Kenji:

Y’all already know how I feel about this boy. As far as I’m concerned, he’s there for comic relief and to be a friend to Juliella but other than that I can’t figure out why he is so overhyped. I can understand a small POV to get the perspective of the sector since Juliella and Warner weren’t available to come to the phone, but he had some thick chapters.

Overall:

There were some good parts to this. I particularly liked Juliella’s POV when she was being held, because it felt so intense and raw. 

I’m at that point where I kind of wish they just hadn’t come out with three more books and just left it at Ignite Me. Restore Me was okay, but now I’m just not in it anymore. This doesn’t even feel like the same series. And even though I love Warner and Juli…Ella together, their relationship just seemed off kilter and awkward in this book. Of course, that won’t stop me from reading the last book and it won’t stop me from preordering it and reading it as soon as I get it, but I already feel the disappointment on the horizon. I just hope it has the same satisfactory end as Ignite Me.