Defy Me

By: Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by: Kate Simses, James Fouhey, Vikas Adam

Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Juliette and Warner’s story continues in the thrilling fifth installment of Tahereh Mafi’s New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series.

Juliette Ferrars isn’t who she thinks she is.

Nothing in her world is what it seemed. She thought she’d finally defeated the Reestablishment. She thought she’d finally taken control of her life, her power, and her pain. But Juliette has only just begun to unravel a lifetime of lies, and she finds herself faced with a familiar choice:

Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

This time, she’s not alone. Stronger, braver, and more resilient than ever, Juliette will fight for life and love with her friends by her side—but first, she has to survive the war being waged against her mind:

She has to remember who she was.

Narrated by Juliette, Warner, and Kenji Kishimoto, this gripping novel perfectly sets the stage for the highly anticipated forthcoming conclusion to the Shatter Me series.

©2019 Tahereh Mafi (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Fantastic performance but too much info dumping!

As always Kate did an amazing job voicing each character distinctly. I do think James improve his narration too and didn't sound like a robot. Vikas sounds like how I imagine Kenji talking, loud and chaotic haha..love it 👏🏼❤️😂

This book is necessary to understand the whole relationship, secrets, etc. But I think it's too much info dumping for this book if the info dumping were divided between this book and Restore Me. It will be better, cause it feels like the world-building is not complete and the story felt a bit dragged to make it to the final book.

Overall, I did enjoy the flashback scene between Aaron and Ella, and their reunion was heartwarming. Usually, I don't like when books end with the MCs getting married or proposing. But I think it makes sense for these two cause they went through hell and still be together.

As for Kenji and Nazeera, their scene felt unnecessary. But sure, we love Kenji and will continue to support him in any decisions that he made.

I do like Anderson is still alive, cause I remember feeling kinda sad that he died so early in the book haha. Cause he is very good a being the villain.

I am excited and sad to finally finish the next final book but this series is so worth the hype!

Wow .... just wow

The book was encapsulated with great emotions, every word highned the book's performance and I think the sires should be read by everyone.

Never Before

Never before had i ever been able to say that i had a favorite author. Nor a favorite book. After this series, after hearing her words. I have found THE author and book that i could recommend a thousand times over to people. This book resonated with me and will forever be my favorite series I will have ever read.

finishing series because I am invested...

overall I gave this book 4 stars because I am still invested in the overall story.
I only have 3 stars for the performance because it seems that the three narrators did not receive the same notes. the accents and overall demeanor of the characters would change dramatically between the three narrators. individually, their performances were good but, they did not mean well together.
the stand alone story of this book has more plot holes than Swiss cheese. I truly hope that the final instalment brings some cohesiveness to what has become a flailing, rushed mess.

loved it

I love all of her books. This one felt a little slower but I still enjoyed it.

Defy Me Book Review

I had been anticipating the release of this novel. I had spent the previous two months rereading the series in preparation for the release of this fifth installment in the Shatter Me series. After finishing Restore Me, I had high expectations for this novel. I was somewhat nervous in reading it. Mafi had announced that there would only be one more novella and novel following Defy Me, so I was hesitant in reading this one. I was scared that this novel was going to either make or break the finale for me.

As with the previous novels in the series, Defy Me held my attention throughout. I have enjoyed reading all of them so far, but I do have to admit that Defy Me fell short of the pace the others had for me. As soon as I picked one of the other books in the series, I had to force myself to put them down. However, Defy Me was easier for me to put down and do without picking it back up. Now, I was busier when reading this book than I was when I read the four previous books, and I went through several days without picking it up. However, I didn't have much desire to pick it back up right away. Naturally, I had to ask myself why that was.

The main reason I found that kept me from staying invested in the story was that it had a lot more back-flashes and background information in them. I just wanted the story to go on forward. I didn't enjoy the amount of backstory that was included. It slowed the tension of the story for me, and essentially, that was the main reason I didn't care much for picking the book back up right away.

Now, let me clarify that, I still enjoyed the events that took place in the story. Though the background info was a no for me, I was still fascinated with what was going on in the present for the characters. I will also admit that out of all the books in the series, this is the one that I found Juliette to be the most tolerable. I had mentioned in previous reviews how I wasn't too into Juliette, but this one was not bad. Before, I didn't care for the whole love triangle that carried the series, and I was very much glad that the very triangle I loathed was absent in this novel. With all of that said, I cannot wait to see how Mafi closes out the series. I am getting anxiety just thinking that is it . . . that is all for the series. I can't bear the reality of that right now. 

Audible Review:

Simses continues the narration of the Shatter Me series and is joined by Fouhey, who narrates Warner's portions of the novel, and Adam, who narrates Kenji's. I really enjoyed their work; though, like with the previous novel in the series, the narration at 1.0 speed was too slow for me. Their narration at 1.25 speed was the slowest speed I would listen at. The best speed for me was 1.50. For those of us who like to multitask and listen on the go, I recommend listening at a either 1.50 speed or 1.75 speed, so one does not miss anything. For those who are listening while reading the book, I found 2.0 and 2.5 speed to be the best speeds. 3.0 and 3.5 speed was too fast for me, and I was missing a lot of what the narrator was saying and had to eventually slow down the narrator's reading speed. 

Too short

I loved the story but I feel that it was more of a novella. I don’t feel like enough happened for it to be the next full book in the series. I’m hoping the next one is much longer! =)

another amazing story

cannot wait for the conclusion. in so much love with this series. just thank you for no crazy cliffhanger

i am not a romance fan, typically...

I am not a romance fan, typically, it bores me terribly, but, i thoroughly enjoy this whole series, so far...
the romance part is, so, intimate, and, there is enough action, interest, and intrigue to keep me wanting more of the whole story... i think the perspectives chosen help the reader see the whole picture, and, how things are all intertwined...
also, i LOVE all the narrators!!!!!!!

Great narration!

This was so good! I love that we got Juliette, Warner, and Kenji's points of view and a different narrator for each one. I love having multiple narrators because it's easy to keep track of who is speaking and feels more like I'm in the story.Rotating also helped keep the story moving and me engaged.
There were a lot of flashbacks, but it was so nice to piece things together and finally understand what's going on. Warner and Juliette are seriously my favorite YA couple, they love each other so much and this story just reinforced that they are made for each other. It didn't drag at all, in fact I wish it was longer! The ending was so hopeful for once lol and I'm so excited to see how it all ends in the last book!