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A review by proudtobeabookaholic
Imagine Me by Tahereh Mafi
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Juliette Ferrars or Ella Sommers - who is she, really? She was born as Ella, but transformed to Juliette, a soldier who obeys order. When the final battle approaches she may not even get to choose which side she wants to fight for.
I think I agree with those who believe this should have stayed a trilogy. I do enjoy hanging with the characters, and since I had long gaps between books 3 and 4, as well as between books 4 and 5, I didn't mind the continuation. But now it wasn't that long ago since I read the fifth book, and I feel like there's quite a lot of repetitions. They win a fight, lose the next, win again... and so on. Not much variation and this book doesn't come with any real surprises either.
I've borrowed the whole series from the library, but I didn't have time to read Imagine Me before I had to bring it back. Instead of waiting until it was available again I decided to listen to it. It wasn't a good choice. We get Juliette's/Ella's, Kenji's and, at the end, Warner's/Aaron's POV's, and the narrator that reads Kenji's chapters has a tendency to be overdramatic. Another thing is that my experience of the language gets different when I listen. Mafi's got a special way with words (at least in this series), and what gets striking in text can get tiresome when hearing it. Imagine the impression you get when you see a whole page written with "I am not insane", just repeating itself. Now imagine the same words narrated by a voice, over and over again, for about a minute. Not really the same thing, is it?
Well, I feel satisfied with having read the whole series now. I would like to read something else by Mafi to see if she always writes like this, or if it's only for these books.
I think I agree with those who believe this should have stayed a trilogy. I do enjoy hanging with the characters, and since I had long gaps between books 3 and 4, as well as between books 4 and 5, I didn't mind the continuation. But now it wasn't that long ago since I read the fifth book, and I feel like there's quite a lot of repetitions. They win a fight, lose the next, win again... and so on. Not much variation and this book doesn't come with any real surprises either.
I've borrowed the whole series from the library, but I didn't have time to read Imagine Me before I had to bring it back. Instead of waiting until it was available again I decided to listen to it. It wasn't a good choice. We get Juliette's/Ella's, Kenji's and, at the end, Warner's/Aaron's POV's, and the narrator that reads Kenji's chapters has a tendency to be overdramatic. Another thing is that my experience of the language gets different when I listen. Mafi's got a special way with words (at least in this series), and what gets striking in text can get tiresome when hearing it. Imagine the impression you get when you see a whole page written with "I am not insane", just repeating itself. Now imagine the same words narrated by a voice, over and over again, for about a minute. Not really the same thing, is it?
Well, I feel satisfied with having read the whole series now. I would like to read something else by Mafi to see if she always writes like this, or if it's only for these books.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail