Introduction
Restore Me, written by Tahereh Mafi, was published on March 6th, 2018, by HarperCollins Publishers. This book is the fourth edition to the Shatter Me series, and it was released just over four years after Ignite Me, the third in the series. Once past Ignite Me, I worried that the books would not be as interesting going forward, but I was wrong. This book, while ranked lower than its predecessor, was still a great continuation to the series. As with my previous reviews of the Shatter Me series, I wrote this a long time after finishing the books, but I have done so including only the events of the first four installations. The Thoughts section will contain spoilers for them, but nothing will be reviewed past the events of Restore Me.
If you want to learn more about Tahereh Mafi and her future work, you can follow this link to her website: https://taherehmafi.com/, and follow her on social media @tahereh.
Plot
Told in a dual first-person perspective, Juliette and Warner try to navigate the challenges that accompany running a continent while the rest of the world tries to defy them.
Thoughts
This book has an undercurrent of confidence from Juliette, but it’s juxtaposed against her inexperience, especially when compared to Aaron. She’s more prideful now, which is new to her, but her decisions are sometimes rash, making it harder for her to achieve the peace she wanted in the aftermath of Anderson’s death. I forget sometimes that Juliette is only seventeen, and her immaturity is often more a product of her age rather than being a fixed aspect of her personality. Regardless, Juliette’s lack of knowledge of the people around her - thank you Kenji for pointing that out to her - struck me as odd, especially because she needs to develop mutual trust with these people if she intends on running the continent.
Aaron’s perspective was incredibly interesting because it finally allowed for us to read what he really thinks. What I was most interested in was his handling of Anderson’s death. While he hated his father, he did still care, and that is shown in his mourning. You can’t hate someone without caring for them to some extent, and Aaron deeply hated his father. Having him be murdered - regardless of the kind of person he was - is going to cause internal discourse, and I felt it was written how I expected it to be written from Aaron’s point of view.
I will say, the advice Kenji gives Juliette is always my favorite. He recognizes that for her to be a leader, she needs to know both the people she’s leading as well as the people helping her lead. For her to barely know any of them, especially Aaron, is an oversight on her part, and it’s one Kenji points out to her because he is both a tactical thinker and a great friend. Kenji and Aaron’s dynamic is one of my favorites throughout this book. They are absolutely hilarious together, and despite Juliette’s longing for them to be friends, they do their best work when they hate one another. Aaron is as cold with Kenji as anyone, and Kenji calls him out when necessary the same way he would for Juliette. They have an odd balance that is incredibly entertaining to read.
While on the subject of Kenji, I am fascinated by the prospect of him and Nazeera. I really want Kenji to find happiness, and Nazeera seems to like him. I also want to see her friendship with Juliette develop. She definitely knows more than she’s letting on, but the suspense isn’t done in an irritating way here. It keeps me intrigued without annoying me with the delivery.
In my opinion, the major love conflict between Juliette and Aaron was not well set up. Having her be so upset about Aaron having ex-girlfriends that he didn’t tell her about seemed like a bit of an overreaction - especially her rash decision to get incredibly drunk on Anderson’s alcohol. It serves, in the moment, to make her look exactly like the unfit leader everyone fears she is. That being said, I do love that after the fact, Juliette started to find herself and her own style independently. Their fight also gave us insight from Aaron’s perspective on his struggles with anxiety. They don’t completely make up by the end of the book, but given I am confident they will end up together - which I am in full support of - I imagine the next book will have them making amends.
On the topic of making amends, Adam was much better in this book. He focused much more on his family and his personal life in this book, and he seems to have grown a lot. I’m not sure what even could be done to put him and Aaron on good terms, but it seems they’re at least ready to try to be brothers.
The end of this book was unexpected. It was incredibly interesting and shockingly violent, but I am starting to get a bit tired of Juliette being constantly kidnapped. It seems that in each book she’s stuck somewhere new or re-stuck somewhere old, and this one offered a brief reprieve. That being said, the abrupt and unexpected violence at the end of the book had me on edge and intrigued. I was immediately reaching for Defy Me.
This book felt like it moved a bit slower than the previous ones, and while I did enjoy the character development quite a bit here - aided by the dual perspective aspect - I did feel that the plot was a lot of waiting for something big to happen. The ending was amazing, but it was abrupt, and - as mentioned - a bit repetitive. For those reasons, I’m ranking this book a 9/10.
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