Review: Restore Me | Tahereh Mafi

This review is spoiler free.

“I cannot let the broken girl inside of me inhale all that I’ve become. I cannot revert back to another version of myself. I will not shatter, not again, in the wake of an emotional earthquake.”

Series: Shatter Me
Published: 2018, by HarperCollins.
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Romance
Contains: Death, Violence, Murder, Kidnapping, Blood/Gore, Guns, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Injury, Trauma, War, Torture, Grief, Abuse, Child Abuse

‘Restore Me’ continues the Juliette Ferrars saga, where she thought she’d won. She took over Sector 45, was named the new Supreme Commander, and now has Warner by her side. But she’s still the girl with the ability to kill with a single touch – and now she’s got the whole world in the palm of her hand. When tragedy hits, who will she become? Will she be able to control the power she wields and use it for good?

The ‘Shatter Me’ series is certainly a binge-worthy one. feeling more than capable of reading one after the other within a couple of days. What makes it easier is that it’s getting better and better with every instalment.

Although, Juliette does have her weak moments in this novel, she’s mostly honing in on her power over the situation and becoming the person everyone needs her to be. She’s at breaking point, but that only seems to make her stronger. I deeply enjoyed that in this novel, loving witnessing her become the badass we all knew she could be. However, this does ponder the question of at what price?
Warner is another fascinating character, his persona changing along with Juliette, and we get to see him a little more closely in this instalment with the help of his own chapters written in his point of view. It’s a simple but great technique, managing to understand his character more and witness his character alter and change with each chapter insert. He’s still definitely my favourite of the series.

The writing style is developing beautifully with each page as Juliette develops into a more powerful character. As mentioned above, she does have her weak moments, laced with self pity, but she pulls herself out of them and shows the world who she is – and the concise writing is evidence of this. Like each of the instalments before it, there is a cliff-hanger, causing my fingers to twitch for the next instalment, to which I praise Mafi for creating such a binge-worthy series.

Overall, I deeply enjoyed this book. There were a few moments of weakness, which caused me to roll my eyes at the characters, but there is a lot of enjoyment from the point of view switches, and the high stakes the story is leading up to.

4/5