February 5, 2013 – The Book Hammock

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I want to give this review 4 stars. I think if it were any other book that made me so annoyed I would, but this one is different.
Tahereh Mafi's writing style is so unique, I feel a little disarmed when I read. Her narrative voice is like swirling thoughts in a brain. So gathered and confused all at once, and I don't necessarily mean I do mean  the crossed over sentences and words.
Dry facts:
Juliette is not quite adjusting to life in the Omega underground compound as everyone would like her to. She's closed off and feeling sorry for herself. I understand that, I do. Up to a point. Girl needs a slap across the face. Or 10.
Adam is undergoing testing by Castle to figure out his 'gift' and its extent, but keeping things from Juliette.
Then they prepare for war, and during patrols, four of the rebels get captured by Warner's dad, the mighty evil chief of the district.  Juliette, Kenji and Adam go out to barter with Anderson (the evil chief) and end up shooting him in his legs, knocking Warner upside the head and rescuing 2 of the 4 captured. 
Warner wakes up in the compound, is interrogated and at some point spills the beans about being able to touch Juliette. Castle, natch  the idiot  trusts Warner immediate, because - duh, he's gifted - and gives him a free pass around the compound. He messes with Juliette's mind some more, betrays everyone and shit hits the fan. 
I'm not saying anymore, because quite frankly, there's no point - just read the book.
However, I will say that for about 70% of reading this book I spent cursing Juliette and her fictional existence. If Shatter Me brought us a damaged heroine trying to fight to get her life back, Unravel Me pretty much screwed us over. Juliette is an ungrateful, backstabbing, lying little hypocrite.  She lies to the ones she cares for, she betrays them by not disclosing some pretty important information about the enemy, and all the while hides behind her misery. I was shocked, but there's actually 'character development' going backwards. 
And I raged. I raged so much, I'm still raging writing this review.
So yeah, the only reason I'm giving this 5 stars and not 4 is that it really was a perfectly written book, and the story, once again, sucked me in and I found myself devouring it and was so engrossed in it, I can't NOT give it 5 stars.
I'm not even including quotes in this review, but I will refer you to Jaime's review because it has some pretty great quotes from the book.

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Incarnate by Jodi Meadows My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Holy crap. I don't even know where to begin with this one.
I told myself I won't get sucked into another dystopian series, so what do I do? Get myself sucked into another dystopian series.
If you ever imagined what happens to your soul once you die, and took some of the theories that are out there into consideration, you MUST have thought about reincarnation. This is what the Newsoul series is about.
Ana is a newsoul or a nosoul, depending on who's defining her. Her mother, Li, despises her. Ana was born a a non-reincarnated soul, she has no past and an unknown future. Since everyone's soul in Heart has been living for the past few thousands of years, Ana is an anomaly. 
When she turns 18, Ana leaves to find answers. Why was she born? Is she a mistake? Why is she not loved? What will happen to her soul when she dies? Only she is attacked by Sylphs, a shadowy creatures that inflict burns. Ana is saved by Sam, a (seemingly) 18 year old boy, who decides to help her find the answers she seeks. 
There are infinite turns and twists in this first book in the series, and considering normally first books "new world" series are not as packed and eventful, this one is very refreshing. The world is revealed throughout the story. There's a good amount of dialogue, but that doesn't shadow Ana's thoughts as we learn about everything. There's originality and flow, and holy smokes is there UST. 
I can't wait to start Asunder.

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