Destroy Me Review

“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.

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.”

Everyone knows that I have a thing for Warner.  I mean YES, Adam is perfect and I love him too...but...there’s just something about Warner.  Maybe it’s because he’s damaged and I just want to love him all better but the guy’s got something, that’s for sure and it goes way beyond looks.  So, when I first heard that Tahereh was writing Destroy Me from Warner’s point of view, I was dancing on the ceiling but when I tried to buy it on release day, I hit the roof when I found out that it wasn’t available in the UK.  WHAT THE WHAT?!  Yep, you heard that right – it’s not available in the UK and I cannot believe that a UK publisher has not picked up this series yet *shakes head* but I’m still hopeful.  I tried to get a friend to “gift” it to me via Amazon but that didn’t work and in the end, I had to change my country settings and buy it that way.  Thank God that worked!

Anyway, here’s the good news.  Whilst you obviously need to read Shatter Me in order to enjoy Destroy Me, you do not need to re-read Shatter Me and I’m hoping that is a welcome relief to you as I’ve found recently that I’ve had to re-read the last book published in a series in order to enjoy the next one – mostly because of the huge gap between publication dates.  All you need to know is that at the end of Shatter Me, Juliette kissed Warner in order to get to his gun and shoots him before running off with Adam, and Kenji joins them later.  Destroy Me picks up right where Shatter Me leaves off, concentrating on the aftermath of recent events and what happens to Warner.

There needs to be a new word for love because simply saying I LOVED being inside Warner’s head is such an understatement.  I totally get the way that he thinks and the way that he acts.  He believes he is doing things for the right reasons even if he doesn’t agree with it and let’s not forget that he is damaged goods.  Both he and Juliette are victims of abuse and this has had a profound effect on who they are NOW.  In that way, they are the same and yet they are also very different.  In some ways, they complement each other although sadly, I don’t foresee a happy ending between them and I’m not sure I want one.  I do want some kind of happy ending for Warner though as killing him off would be a cop out and I really don’t want another Andrea Cremer/Bloodrose situation (don’t even get me started).  I have my own thoughts on where I think the series will go but I cannot post them here for fear of revealing spoilers but it you’re desperate to know, you can always email me and I’ll tell you.

What I will say is that it was interesting to meet Warner’s father which gave us a little insight into what Warner’s childhood must have been like *shudder* but what interests me most is his mother who was barely mentioned.  What happened to her, I wonder?   It’s blatantly obvious in Destroy Me that Juliette has gotten under Warner’s skin BIG TIME and some of his story was surprising, in a good way. 

In conclusion, I loved this novella and I thank Tahereh from the bottom of my heart for writing and publishing it.  It was worth all the angst of getting hold of it and I cannot wait for Unravel Me which I pre-ordered about a hundred years ago.  The nice thing about Destroy Me is all the extras at the end – you get to see a lot of medical records and military records as well as a sneak peek of Unravel Me.  EEK!

Destroy Me was published on 2nd October, 2012 as an ebook.  Unravel Me is published on 5th February, 2013.  To find out more about Tahereh and her books, please click here to visit her website.   To see the exclusive book trailer, please click here.