review; destroy me

Destroy Me
by Tahereh Mafi

In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of.

Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.

Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

Review:

I did not want to like Warner. I did not want to sympathize with him.

And what did Tahereh Mafi make me do?

She made me like him, feel bad with him, want to hit him over the head a little too, but really.
Destroy Me is short, barely 150 pages long, set immediately after Juliette seduces and then shoots Warner in order to escape with Adam. Within this novella-length story, I went from debating over whether I should trust or even like Warner (really, I should know better than to like the twisted bad guy, even if he is supposedly extremely good looking) to ‘oh god, Warner you emotionally constipated idiot you poor thing’ and, like I really needed to debate more over Adam/Juliette and Warner/Juliette.

As a reader, I now know much more about Warner than Juliette does, so Unravel Me is going to be interesting in the sense that I’m probably going to be sitting there watching Juliette learn more about Warner, about herself and descend into more confusion – and just be pulled in more directions myself.

Kudos, Tahereh, for turning Warner’s obsession on a head and showing me that although he is ruthless and psychopathic, there are bigger problems than Warner’s plans for Juliette – namely his father’s plans for her. And as messed up as Warner’s actions are? He at least wants to keep Juliette alive.

Things are going to be very interesting now I’ve gotten an insight into the inner workings of Warner’s psyche.

(The man needs a lot of therapy. Everybody in these stories needs a lot of therapy.

Maybe that’s why I’m enjoying it so much.)