Destroy Me Book 35

"Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release ofUnravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

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 inDestroy 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."

I enjoyed this book, but I have no idea what Tahereh Mafi was trying to accomplish with it. I totally sympathize with Warren, and I want him to get Juliette. I remember how badly I wanted things to work out for Juliette in Adam in Shatter Me, but I don't care anymore. I need Warren to get his girl! Mafi's emotional writing style is back in full force. But I'm sure Juliette's not going to go for Warren who I think is the more interesting choice now. And I want to see her help redeem him. I think that would just be the most beautiful love story ever.

The one thing that bothered me about this book is that something big happens and the book just ends. Ends at what should be the midpoint. This is truly a 3.5 star book, but I'm giving it 3 because there is no half star on goodreads.

ELF Reviews/ELF Critiques

Hi! I'm ELF (Emily Lace Fred). I'm going to start reviewing books with my mommy. If you have a recently published picture book (lots of pictures, little words) you want us to review, or an unpublished picture book you want us to critique contact my mommy. ;)


Here is my first review.


Emily Loves to Bounce 


ELF Says: I like this one. It's the first book I made it through in one sitting. And her name is Emily *clap, clap*


Mommy says: I liked that this had lots of big pictures with only a few words per page. It made it easier to read to ELF. It's also a rhyming picture book, which I love. (Although, I heard @ SCBWI-LA last year, agents are sick of them, but I love them so keep writing)! It was a cute book, but it didn't have much of a narrative, in my opinion. It was more of a description of a girl who likes to bounce than a story about her. I won't rate this, because ELF and I will need to read more picture books to get a feel for them before I feel comfortable giving them a numerical value.

Chime Book 5

"Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.

Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know."

This book was weird! Weird enough, I've put a whole lot of time into trying to figure how to review it. The problem is I don't want to be overly harsh, but there were a lot of things I didn't like about it, and I'm not sure it's so much that I didn't like them as they just didn't work.
I've seen reviews that call Briony a clever main character. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I agree. She hates herself, and based on the things she believes about herself that is understandable, but she never tries to explore why she remembers more about being told these things than actually doing them, or why only one person would notice and keep telling her that. Sometimes, she almost reads like a whipped victim. Another problem is she likes to talk about herself in the 3rd person. It doesn't work because the book is in first person, but most of it reads like 3rd person narration anyhow. Then when Briony goes on for paragraphs in the third person, it's very easy to become completely lost.
I think (the best I could tell) the book takes place in some small village in England. (I assume this b/c of all the references to London and the queen). The dialect is distracting to show you just how distracting I'm going to include a couple of lines of dialect. These aren't an on-going conversation, just two separate lines that I easily remember.
"Girl what can see ghost." Translation: Girl who can see ghost.
"Don't believe nothing what no witch said."
"It was the boggy mun who kilt us."
And whole paragraphs of that is a pain! Not to mention it sounds more like the South than England. Fortunately, most of the narration isn't written like that, but I think in places it is. And even the narration isn't easy to follow. I've seen people complain that it's overwritten. I didn't really think so. I admired the metaphors. My biggest problem was just that it jumped around so much. Sometimes multiple times in pages. Once I got into the writing style, the book was actually witty/funny in places and I finally started to care what happened, but it took me 200 pages to get there.
Lastly, (and for me this was the smallest problem), every assumption you make in the first chapter is correct. It's not really a surprise ending.
The inside flap and even the prologue talk a lot about Eldric, the romantic interest, being a beautiful stranger who refuses to believe that Briony is wicked. It sets up a romance. This is not a romance. Don't be fooled. This book gets really dark in places and can be very detailed. I think this is the best thing it has going for it and it will appeal to some readers, even though it completely turned me off.
The only thing I really liked about it is the undercurrent of emotional abuse. It wasn't really even painted as abuse more like a parent telling Briony things that would harm her in order to manipulate her, so the parent could get what they needed. But the damage it did to her and the way she struggled with trying to figure out what actually happened and if she was a bad person was very real. I think/hope kids in situations like that are able to see the parallel.
I know this book has got rave reviews and won awards, but I cannot give it more than a 2 star review. Because this book is so unique, I was worried about how to review it fairly. I finally made a list of things I liked and things I didn't like and realized there was very little I liked about it. Therefore, 2 stars it is.