Shatter Me Series Ranked

I’m about to start reading Tahereh Mafi’s continuation of her world-famous Shatter Me series, and let’s just say I’ve had quite the long-term relationship with it. I published reviews of each book on my old website, and I actually have the review for the last one up here. Besides the new one, there’s been six books over the years, so I must love them, right? Well, kinda.

Here are how I’d rank the books, from worst to best:

Least Favourite: Ignite Me (Book 3)

This book was the original ending back when this was just supposed to be a trilogy, and I was really sad how much it annoyed me. The end of the previous book suggested this would be epic, with the last line “And I’m leaving my gloves behind.” I thought Juliette and the gang would really charge into the Reestablishment, but just about nothing happens until the very very end. This book is basically just hunkering down with everyone for 450 pages.

2nd Least Favourite: Unravel Me (Book 2)

2 out of 5

An extra reason why I was disappointed with Ignite Me was I thought that all the waiting around in this book, all the drama between the characters, was to set everything up for the grand finale. I figured Unravel Me was to be the black sheep of the trilogy, being slow and steady so the next one would blow us away, and we’d care about what happens. But whichever way Ignite Me would’ve gone, Unravel Me just didn’t work for me. Remember, at the time this was supposed to be just three books, and I guess I felt, “A giant empire to take down and this is all that happens for a third?” And maybe compared to the action in the 1st one, this one felt mundane. It was a long time ago when I read these, hope you don’t judge me too much.

Not Too Bad A Continuation: Restore Me (Book 4)

2 and a half out of 5

Now, despite really disliking Books 2 and 3, I was really excited for Mafi to continue the franchise. My biggest complaints were that the original trilogy just didn’t do enough, so I found it good she’d be extending it. Let the war really get going, you know? And I liked Restore Me better. I loved the ending climax, there’s some decent action, and Mafi kept up the readability of the series. But alas, like the others, there were things that just felt kind of underutilized, plenty of romance and talks as they gear up for a fight but not enough on the battlefield.

A Real Deviation: Defy Me (Book 5)

3 out of 5

Defy Me was a nice surprise. Sure, I at first was disappointed with a cop-out of an opening, erasing some of the tension from how Book 4 ends, but Defy Me manages to make up for it with a different kind of plotline, Juliette and Warner captured and in prison, being tortured. Warner is forced to eat strange food that starts to make him wither away. Later on, Juliette says the time in this story was the worst of her life, and we feel for them. Not only that, there’s a twist that brings back a previously underutilized villain, and I really appreciated Mafi brought him back.

How It All Started: Shatter Me (Book 1)

3 and a half out of 5

The first book was good enough to hook me on the series. I remember I wasn’t in love with it; I was a young teenager at the time and found some of the makeout scenes…quite a lot. But the crossouts were very nifty and a great way to dive into Juliette’s mind. It was rather exciting, Adam was a very sweet first boyfriend (this franchise really did him dirty) and it was easy to speed through.

The Best For Last: Imagine Me (Book 6)

4 out of 5

Imagine Me was exactly what I always wanted Ignite Me to be. It had a present and scary bad guy, fantasy utilization, and a real sense that a lot has been building up to this and not everyone will survive. It was primarily thanks to Imagine Me that I’m up for continuing this series. I would’ve given it a higher grade if Adam were more present.

So, half of the books in this series I like, half I don’t. Told you it was quite the long-term relationship. It started out good, then got bad, then by the end got good again. Really good, in fact. Even though I wrote this post just now, I must admit there’s a lot I don’t really remember about the books. That just happens over time. But Watch Me is advertising itself as Book One, taking place ten years later, so that probably won’t really matter.

How would you rate the Shatter Me books? I’d love to know!