Friday, March 21, 2014

Me on Ignite Me

Title: Ignite Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: February 4, 2014
Publisher: HarperCollins

Everyone Juliette has ever cared about could be dead. Juliette may be the only one standing in The Reestablishment's way. But to take them down, she will need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together to defeat their mutual enemy, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew, about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam, was wrong.

Ignite Me is an end to a series about a girl both feared and desired, a girl who must come to terms with the dangerous power inside her. That is the only way she will survive to fight alongside her friends against an oppressive society that locked her away from the world.

The previous books in this trilogy have crushed, pushed, and molded Juliette into who she is in this book. She finally accepts her ability, and she accepts that she must take action against The Reestablishment. She's willing to stand in the face of danger and fight back with every ounce of power in her bones. Finally, she has spine and daring.

The relationships she had, or has, with Adam and Warner finally come to a conclusion. I don't doubt that each of them helped her in vastly different ways: Adam in treating her like a human being, in showing her compassion, in not being afraid of her, and Warner in pushing her towards the person she could one day become, in forcing her to face her fears, to face the hard truths. All three have change significantly from the first book. Secrets are revealed, truths are spoken out loud. But I'm on the fence over whether or not I'm happy with how things end. (I'll be putting a spoiler on Goodreads here and linking to it, for those curious.)

As much as I've found this series compelling, as much as I've found Juliette's journey from a monster to a human being the harshest and most soul-destroying, I have a hard time seeing Warner as what he becomes in this book. What he becomes feels just a bit, dare I say, convenient.

I feel that, over the course of this book, Juliette finds the agency she lacks in the first two. There she is frightened, beaten down, and only just realizing she could one day claw her way out of that dark pit she was shoved into. I think she's still afraid here, afraid of what could happen, but she doesn't back down from speaking her mind and making those tough decisions. The ending is left open to possibilities, but I think this is enough. The story is over. Now, for Juliette and the others, anything is possible.

(I purchased a copy of this title.)

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