A Letter to Juliette (Unravel Me)

Hey guys.  I loved this book so much that I wanted to write, if not a different type of review, a different type of response than usual to make it stand out from all my other five stars.  I was kind of nervous about putting this up here, so let me know what you think. :)

Dear Juliette,

Hello.  You're probably wondering who I am, why I'm writing to you.  Well...I'm a friend.   An invisible spectator (not in a creepy way, I promise).  And as for why this letter, well, friends give their opinions, right?  So this is me, giving my opinions.  And my support.  And my love.

The first thing is, I'm here for you.  I want good things for you.  I'm here, cheering you on from the sidelines.  I can see and feel how broken you are.  I can see all the thoughts whirring around in your head and the pain and loneliness radiating from you is just heartbreaking.  Admittedly there have been a few times where I wanted you to get it together - you chose to be at Omega Point, you knew you were supposed to be focusing on training rather than moping - but thinking about it, it's completely understandable.  Not even your own parents accepted you.  Parents suck sometimes.  And it's not even your fault about what happened with that little boy, or for your power in general.  But in leaving you and putting you in that cell, you never got to experience love.  You were forced to be left with nothing but guilt and grief, and even now you can't bear the weight of your abilities.  You don't know how to be open; you can't see how you can be close to anyone.  But you know what?  I love you anyway.  When you choose to, you can kick butt.  And I feel so badly for you that I just want to hug you.  Oh, calm down.  I can at least send you air hugs.  *air hugs*  You're a good person, Juliette.

I'm not the only one who loves you, of course.  There's Adam. *sighs dreamily*  I swear, if you're not careful, I'm totally going to steal him from you.  I mean, we've never actually met, you know, face to face, but I hear good things about him.  He has my heart already.  But you probably don't want to know that.  Um...oh yeah.  What I wanted to say is, I'm sorry about this latest brick that life's just thrown at you.  I was as shocked as you were to hear about....you know.  (Sorry I'm speaking so vaguely, it's just that I'm aware this letter isn't private.)  But the chemistry between you guys is so intense.  I love seeing you two together; you make an amazing couple.  This business with Warner, on the other hand, I don't approve of.  I know, I know.  It's not your fault, it's Ms Mafi's.  But you guys speak to each other, so you can tell her that from me.  And you can also tell her that if she insists on trying to deflect attention from Adam, as far as I'm concerned, she'll have to try a lot harder.  I love Warner, really I do.  How could I not after everything he's been through and everything he says?  But at the moment I'm still firmly Team Adam.

I love the way you write as well.  You and Ms Mafi.  Your writing breaks boundaries.  You both took one glance at the rules of writing we all seem to hold so dear, and you let your pens tell the world what you thought of them.  You conjure up such powerful images and thoughts, and I just want to keep on reading your words forever.  It inspires me to go back to writing myself.   Short stories from when I was younger sit in a folder, and now and then I create a random scene.  But perhaps I don't write as often as I should.  Reading the sentences you've strung together gives me an incredibly stunning new perspective on thoughts, feelings, the way you see the world.  Everything you see, Juliette, I'm able to see through your eyes, exactly the way you see it.  And I hope that one day, you will see yourself through my eyes.

I know life seems more or less impossible for you right now and you feel alone.  But I'm here, rooting for you, even though you can't see me.   And there are loads of others.  So many friends you don't even know about.  All of us can see this journey that you're on, and we want you to have your happy ending.  So good luck.  With everything.

Take care,
Aa'Ishah

PS - you're so lucky.  You even get to be friends with Kenji.  Totally jealous of you, girl.

A massive thank you to Jasprit for letting me borrow her copy.