Book Review: Fracture Me

Title: Fracture Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Romance, Dystopia, Fiction

What It’s About: Adam is woken up by his younger brother, James, yapping at him in the early morning hours. James says something about an individual being gone, and Adam assumes that James is referring to Kenji, who was grievously injured trying to stop a fight between Adam and Warner, at the same time that Juliette was doing that. But it turns out that the news has spread that Warner has escaped Omega Point, somehow, though no one knows how, and Adam is pissed because he thinks Castle was in the wrong letting Warner walk around like that.

The boys head out to the mess hall in the morning, and Juliette joins Adam while he tries to eat–neither of them can eat, because different events are gnawing at them internally. Kenji shows up, ready for the upcoming battle, and it is evident to Adam, that like himself, Kenji is also wary of Juliette, as neither of them know who else could have hurt Kenji. Adam stashes James along with the rest of the kids and the elderly in one of the safety locations within Omega Point, and together with Kenji and Juliette, they head out into battle.

First, they save a group of civilians from being killed by Warner’s soldiers, execution style. Then they head into the actual battle, where Juliette gets captured and taken away. Kenji and Adam decide to go get Juliette, but Kenji’s energy is spent due to his illness, so they will no longer be able to stay invisible. As a result, they have to creep from location to location, until they encounter Castle, and a couple of others from Omega Point, who have managed to extract the two prisoner’s from Sector 45’s headquarters. This group gives Kenji and Adam the news that soldiers from the Sector managed to torture the location of Omega Point from one of the members on the battlefield, and they were going to bomb the location. Adam, panicking about James’ safety, decides to go back for James, with the belief that the Re-establishment of Sector 45 does not really want to kill Juliette.

So the group heads back in a commandeered tank, but does not make it on time to Omega Point. By some miracle, however, James has made it out of the headquarters as he had wanted to join the fight. Knowing that Warner would think that they are all dead, the group, including a shell-shocked Castle, find a place to sleep through the night. The next morning, they decide to go back to James’ old apartment complex and stay there as long as possible until they absolutely need to move. While in the apartment, Adam and Kenji agree that Kenji should sneak into the Headquarters of Sector 45 to find out about Juliette.

Several hours later, Kenji comes back with the sole news: Juliette has been killed and the Supreme Commander went back to the Re-Establishment Headquarters in the Capital. Everyone is in shock, and Adam is in agony–questioning whether his loyalty is to his brother or to Juliette.

My Verdict: So this novella was supposed to take place between Unravel Me and the next book in the series, except that it is told from Adam’s perspective, so we get a peek into what really goes on in that head of his. I actually like Adam’s perspective more than Warner’s perspective, probably because I do think that Warner is too cold to be human or even worthy of Juliette. But Adam on the other hand is a little quick to anger. One thing that absolutely bugs me about this book is the convenience of James getting out of Omega Point before it even got bombed. I feel like it would have been a different story had James died in the bombardment, instead of being a rebel and getting out of the place by not listening to Adam. Perhaps there’s a reason to keep James around, maybe later on in the series, he is needed for some purpose or another, but up until now, he’s just been a supporting character that comes in to move the story along.

Still, it’s an interesting book to read, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next book in the series.