Book Review: Reveal Me

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

What It’s About: The night of Warner’s surprise birthday party, Kenji is sitting trying to eat cake, but instead is stabbing it with his fork over and over again. He’s upset that Adam and James aren’t with the rest of his Omega Point buddies at the Sanctuary. He has been asking questions of everyone about Adam and James, because he knows that something is wrong–Adam would never willingly keep James in Sector 45 so long as he knows that Anderson is alive. Everyone, however, keeps telling him that Adam made his choice, and Castle tells Kenji that he needs to stay away from Warner and Juliette–Ella–to give them a night together after everything that they have been through together.

Instead, Nazeera talks to Kenji, and they get into an all out argument, because he doesn’t know if he can trust her or not. Kenji thinks that she’s playing games and that it wasn’t fair of her to not warn him about what she was going to do. He believes that she is a lone wolf and doesn’t work well with a team, which is why she hasn’t told anyone anything. He hurts her, and when she asks him if he’s in love with Juliette, Kenji yells at her that he’s in love with her, before he stalks off to his own home.

Try as he might, Kenji cannot fall asleep that night–and in the early hours of dawn, the silence of the house is interrupted by the knocking of one of Omega Point buddies–Brendan–who delivers the message that Castle wants to see Kenji immediately. Kenji goes to the “war” room, where he faces the rest of the Omega Point team, and Nouria with her wife Sam. Juliette/Ella and Warner are not part of this conversation.

It is then that Castle reveals that they have known for fourteen hours that Kenji was right about Adam and James. Adam and James have been taken hostage by Anderson, along with the remaining children of the Supreme Commanders–the twins from South America, and the girl from Europe. Kenji freaks out, wondering why J/Ella and Warner are not here, why they don’t know, and why this group of people is letting J/Ella and Warner sleep in instead of letting them know about this–he then realizes that Castle doesn’t have any real authority in the Sanctuary. Nouria tells him that Anderson must have figured out that the group took sanctuary with one of the rebel groups, but he doesn’t know which one, and he’s laying a trap with Adam and James.

Kenji wakes up Warner and Juliette/Ella, which he begins to call “Jello.” Of course, Ella realizes right away that something is wrong, and Kenji tells her the news. The two of them return together to the “war” room, and Ella asks what is going on and why she wasn’t informed. When Nouria tells her that she wanted her to rest up after the rough time she had, Ella says that she understands the sentiment, but that she should have been told right away. After all, they cannot be under-estimating Warner because if anyone knows what Anderson will do to a ten-year-old, it is him. Warner shows up shortly thereafter with Haider, Nazeera, and Stephan in tow. They begin talking about the whole situation, when Kenji starts feeling cold, and weak.

He faints.

The group takes him to Sara and Sonya, and he regains consciousness long enough to hear that Nazeera drugged him when she kidnapped him from the asylum, but didn’t think that the drug would last that long in his system. Kenji hears Juliette/Ella come to his defense saying that if Nazeera had told him what she wanted to do, the would have done it, no questions asked and that she didn’t really need to drug him. The twins mention that the adrenaline probably had him going, and now the drug is taking its effect, so they need to let it go out of his system naturally–they can’t speed up that process.

He loses consciousness, and the next time he wakes up is in the middle of the night, back in his room. Kenji decides to get up, because he doesn’t know what else to do with his time, as he’s not sleepy, and does his usual affirmations of gratitude. Then, he hears a noise–an intruder is in his house, and he throws an object at the intruder, but misses. Despite his weakened state, Kenji chases the intruder to the outside of the Sanctuary, which is a forest, and catches up to them.

It turns out that it is Nazeera. She admits to coming to see him to check up on him, but when he woke up unexpectedly, she went invisible, terrified of being found out. She then also admits that he’s her first kiss and that she likes him a lot. Suddenly, they hear screams, and they start running back towards the Sanctuary, before Nazeera takes them off course into unprotected land.

There the screams are louder, and some crazy stuff happens with the horizon. They turn back around towards the camp, but as soon as they enter it, they realize that everyone at the camp is already aware of the crazy stuff that is going on. As soon as they enter, Kenji sees Juliette/Ella, on her knees, her hands clamped around her temples, in pure agony. Warner is behind her, terrified and in pain, trying to help her, but Juliette screams, in an expression of pain and horror, and when she screams again, she speaks to Emmaline, asking her to not do whatever it is that she’s about to do.

My Verdict: One thing about Kenji that I’m coming to realize is that he’s got a depth and breadth that we rarely get to see. He seems to have a soft exterior that masks all the pain that is going on in his head. That said, he’s also super sharp and super smart, when it comes to realizing that things are not as they should be. I also really hope that something positive comes out of his relationship with Nazeera for both of them, though I do have my own doubts about her as well.

This book was really entertaining and the ending makes me want to jump right into the next book, because I really want to see how this ends.