Book Review: Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Book: Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
For: Fun
From: Amazon Kindle ebook

This book is actually one of those in between novella things that are so popular these days. I enjoy these things, if I can get them for free! They are so short! But this one, I had to buy because I was too curious about it's POV character,Warner, and I couldn't wait any longer for some sort of deal to happen. And actually, I should have read it between the first two books Shatter me and Unravel Me. But I only learned about it afterwards.

Anyway, so in Unravel Me, the second book, we the readers learn to to feel WAY more sympathetic to the "bad" boy, Warner. And if we read this Destroy Me book first, then we REALLY will feel way more sympathetic because this little book gets right into his head and we see what he is dealing with, his emotional scars, his painful childhood, his terrible dad and his true and pretty much obsessive feelings for Juliette.

In this little book, we learn how he gets his hands on her notebook and proceeds to read it so he then gets into HER head. And he is blown away by that. And it makes him crazy. Crazier than he already is. And he's reeling with the stuff that happens at the end of Shatter Me, and that makes me crazy.

I also loved how some scenes crossed between the books. One little and quite powerful scene happens at the end of Destroy Me, which is also covered towards the beginning of Unravel Me (though we see that scene from Juliette's POV in that book.) That was cool.

Even without reading this look into Warner's head, I was already feeling like there was so much more to him. I've decided he is one of the most fascinating characters recently created. I find him... unnerving and scary and vulnerable and so many crazy conflicting adjectives! I love it! I love it when an author can write such a character that not only messes with the other characters in the book, but messes with us as readers. It's so awesome.

And now, I'm dying to get my hands on the third and final book of this series, Ignite Me, so I can find out how it all ends with these people. I can't imagine that things will turn out good for Warner, though, so it might be painful to read, because man, it would be nice if he got some sort of happy ending! But I guess I'll find out.. as soon as I get that book!

Bottom line: I loved this little glimpse into this crazy, but fascinating, boy's mind!

Other Reviews:

Warner-haters, prepare to have your world rocked. I'm not promising that you'll like him by the end of this novella. I'm not saying you'll adore him as much as I do. But you WILL be changed. From Bookshelvers Anonymous

The short story accomplished such a major thing as to change my mind about Warner. I like Adam but….I think I’m beginning to like Warner more. From Dark Faerie Tales

Destroy Me starts to show that there is a little more to Warner than first meets the eye. Yes, he can be cold, and evil, but there’s also underlying reasons as to why he is why he is. And he does have feelings too. From Book Nerd Reviews

(Edited to add new question feature)

Question for My Readers: Do you ever fall in the love with the bad boy of the book and then feel a little bit guilty about it?