Unravel Me

“Everyone, it seems, needs me to focus. First Warner needed me to focus, and now Castle needs me to focus.”

In the early days of her time at Omega Point, Juliette struggles with the feeling that her circumstances have not changed as much as she wants them to. She wonders how harnessing her powers for one leader is any different from harnessing her powers for a different leader. She still feels like a failure when she can’t do as Castle asks, signaling her desire for acceptance in her new environment.

“I say nothing.”

Mafi uses the strikethrough feature, which was prevalent in Juliette’s journal in Shatter Me, to show thoughts that Juliette resists. This section, in which Juliette thinks about her fear of attempting to befriend Sonya and Sara, shows the lasting effects of her previous incarceration, which has left Juliette unfamiliar with how to make friends. At this point in the novel, fear of emotional upset is still a primary motivating factor for Juliette. This fear causes her to withdraw, and, as the final line indicates, refrain from communication, which only increases her isolation.

"It’s all my fault it’s all my fault.”

Mafi here uses the strikethrough effect, repetition, and lack of punctuation to suggest the depth of Juliette’s emotional turmoil when she sees Adam in pain during his supernatural tests with