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Actual rating is 4.5 stars.

I truly love this series, and I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure despite the number of negative things I've seen said about it. There's just something so . . . gripping about it. It's the kind of series that's easy to devour quickly, at least for me.

I've actually always adored Tahereh Mafi's writing style. Though there are sentences that just sound ridiculously cheesy, there are also some very beautiful prose. And it really just stands out from other YA books, with the strikethroughs and

how

s c a t t e r e d

and repetitive and repetitive and repetitive it can be sometimes. I've always thought that it was unique and . . . makes me feel certain emotions, I guess? If that makes any sense. I have to use the word "gripping" again because I think it's the one word that basically describes what everything in this series is to me. Gripping. As for the world-building, I'm not one to judge or criticize that so I'll leave it to the pro reviewers. Yet one thing about the world of this series is that I've always felt that it's . . . small. But whatever, world-building has never been something that ruins books for me, so I don't really mind all that much.

Now let's get to the meat of things: the characters. First let me start off with Juliette, cause I have a lot to say about her.

I've always seen Juliette as this fragile, wide-eyed lost girl. Of course, in the beginning it made sense, but . . . she's still the same way in this book. And it's like she's way too wrapped up in her own world, and her only main concern is Adam Adam Adam. But what truly bugs me about her is that she's just so . . . pathetic. I mean, I'm using that word in the nicest way I possibly can. You'd think that because of all that she's been through she would learn to, y'know, toughen up and grow a backbone. But nope. And another thing she really needed to realize is that, the world she lives in is a terrible, war-ridden wasteland of a place, and she has to stop being so damn soft all the time because that might damn well get her killed.

I fucking loved Kenji in this. He pretty much clocked her down on everything that I just said. I was literally cheering and hollering when he completely schooled her and told her what the reality of the situation was, and basically told her to get her shit together. I wasn't sure if it really went through to her head at first, but eventually I was glad to see that she did take the words to heart and wanted to work on changing. By the end of the book, I definitely noticed the change in her, but I truly hope that she'll keep her word this time and I won't see any more of this wallowing, woe-is-me bullcrap and in turn see her toughen. The hell. Up. I'm watching you, Ms. Ferrars.

Okay, I can't take it anymore: Warner Warner Warner Warner WARNER. Reading this book, it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that Tahereh Mafi is, in fact, Team Warner. She said that her favorite part of writing this book was chapter sixty-two, and biiiitch let me tell you. Imagine I'm a balloon, and as I was reading that chapter, I kept inflating and inflating and inflating until I almost filled up the whole room, and then . . . pop. Juliette had to just kill the moment completely. -_-

But seriously, hot damn, there is a whole lotta Warner in this book. If any of you who read this are still Team Adam, I'd genuinely be surprised because I've come to realize how . . . boring Adam is. And Warner in this book, oh God you guys, Tahereh Mafi really overdid it with him. He turned me into a. Freaking. Puddle. Every. Single. Time. I could not even handle it. If any of you teleported back in time and told Past Me that I was going to be Team Warner, I would've thought you were insane, because I remember how much I hated Warner when I first read Shatter Me. I couldn't believe how evil he was, and I was seriously appalled that people were considering him a love interest.

Well, look what happened now. I'm head over heels, and will be genuinely pissed off if Juliette ends up with Adam. No offense to anyone that's still faithfully Team Adam out there. But come on, let's be honest. xD No way did anyone finish this book without having their breath taken away by Warner at least once.

The overwhelming Warner-ness of this book was the main reason I gave it this high of a rating, otherwise I probably would have given it four. Overall I thought that this book was still really enjoyable, but I actually think its predecessor is much better.