Imagine Me

I have thought long and hard on this and–

There is literally no redeeming quality of this book for me. The entire thing is a dumpster fire. A disaster. I mean, what the heck even happened?

First off, the plot is virtually the same as book 5. Juliette gets taken away. They must go save her. Warner broods and is mean to everyone. Juliette is sad and bemoans her sister. Kenji provides comedic relief to distract from the nonsense.

Second, the Anderson/Juliette dynamic is so unnecessary and so uncomfy. Page 193? Like HOW did that add anything to the book other than my screams of frustration?

Third, whatever happened to Warner's personality? How did he go from a multi-faceted, complex character to having A SINGLE personality trait (loving Juliette in case that wasn't obvious already)?

Four, there was no ending. Did the book end? Yes. But was anything resolved? No. I have no idea what happened. Did everyone at ... die? What happened to the other countries OTHER than North America? It's like Mafi tried to have an open ending like with Ignite Me except she did it so poorly this time around. Not good.

Five, yes the list keeps going, the reunion between Juliette and Warner. Look, I love Juliette and Warner. But Juliette was not Juliette at this part of this book. Maybe it was me but I was having some low-key non-con vibes and I am just not okay with reading that. .

The only semi-redeeming quality of the book was Tahereh's writing. And I can't even bring myself to add another star. Because the thing is, I was rooting for this book (we were all rooting for you! how DARE you!). I actually didn't hate Defy Me and had a bit of hope that this could end well. But no. And the biggest problem that I have is that Tahereh is so much better than this. She is a TALENTED author and I am still looking forward to her next book. But this was just not it, chief.

I really hope that you enjoy this more than I did, but this book has single-handedly turned me off from YA for the time being.