THIS is what I’ve been waiting for. I feel like I’ve read most of this series waiting for it to “pick up” because some reviewers said that Shatter Me, Unravel Me, and Ignite Me are only stepping stones to something greater. Now, I couldn’t agree more. 

So, basically the whole plot of this book is Juliette and Warner being separated and held captive at different places while both simultaneously experiencing some form of heinous torture. It gets messy and uncomfortable, but you get to learn a ton about our favorite characters’ pasts and we have a build up that has me itching to start Imagine Me. 

Now, my favorite things about this book? First, the character development goes crazy here (for obvious reasons if you’ve read it). Second, the world building is AH-mazing. Third, the plot and reveals literally will blow your mind. 

With the characters, I can’t go into too much detail because the reason why the characters grew so much is due to the reveals in the book. I’ll go into that a little more in the spoilers, but trust me when I say the characters have turned into real-feeling people. They have grown, they have conquered fears, they have gotten new fears. It’s literally all just so amazing. It’s not 100% about romance (it still has some), but really this series should have always been at the very minimum half romance and half plot with this dystopian that Mafi has created. 

Alrightttt. This book was DARK, but I also think it gave so so much to the series and the whole world building around the Reestablishment (which, by the way, was really needed because that was one of the main reasons I didn’t like the first three books as much). We learn more about how everything began with the Reestablishment and more about why they are such a bad leadership for the world with the dark things they’re doing. I learned more in this book than I did in the first three books, so that’s saying something. I think it also made the plot that much better, but I’ll save most of my talking about how much I loved the plot in the spoilers. 

Spoilers ahead.

Okay, y’all, now I’m just going to bullet-point the most mind-blowing, heartbreaking, destructive things that happened in Defy Me so you all can know just how truly shaken I am. 

• Juliette’s mom is a literal PSYCHO. We obviously don’t know much about her dad yet, but this woman has legit been erasing Juliette’s memories her whole entire life and tries to do it again while she’s captured (should I be calling Juliette Ella? Because I just can’t haha). 
• Juliette finally meets her sister, who sadly has been turned into a living girl-raisin because she’s been in a water tank almost her whole life. This part had me so disturbed that I seriously was questioning how dark this series was going to get. Her sister has the power to control minds, which is why Juliette and everyone else thought she killed 600 people. It’s also why everyone believes that the Reestablishment was trying to save the planet and that the planet was dying. It is, in fact, NOT dying. It’s just Juliette’s sister’s powers making everyone think that it’s worse than it is. 
• Juliette and Warner have always been in love… awwww. I did like this even though I found it to be a little cheesy, but it’s still sweet. 
• Anderson is alive and I’m so here for it. His death was literally so quick and unsatisfying in Ignite Me and I’m happy to know that his character at least has the justice now to have an ending that isn’t completely trash (sorry not sorry). I don’t mind if he actually dies in the end, but I just need it to be a little more climactic than it was the first time. 

Am I missing any other huge revelation? I think I touched on all of them, but phew, this book did a number on me. 

Overall, this is probably my favorite book in the series so far. The world building has come so far, the characters are getting so much development, and these reveals are blowing my mind. 5/5 stars with no reservations because I seriously enjoyed this addition to the series. Imagine Me here I come!! 

Source: Personal Copy

(P.S. You can read this book for free by signing up for a free trial of Audible, which gives you two free audiobooks of your choice!)