52 pages • 1 hour read
Restore Me
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Chapters 7-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “Juliette”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, physical and emotional child abuse, sexual content, and religious discrimination.
Juliette walks through Sector 45, thinking of how she hopes to resurrect pre-Reestablishment ways of life. Kenji counters that “the way things used to be wasn’t much better than the way they are now” (61). He explains the racism in his community and how his parents were killed via gun violence. He remembers his family fondly despite the pain of telling this story.
Juliette returns to headquarters, where the former Omega Point residents are happy about the near completion of living spaces. Ian, one member of the group without superpowers, laments that getting permanent living spaces “feels like tempting fate” (66). Juliette insists they are safe, though she is not entirely confident in her words. She credits the new living space to Warner.
Delalieu reports that Haider Ibrahim, “son of the supreme commander of Asia” (68), has arrived and insists on speaking only to Juliette. Juliette agrees to see Haider immediately, despite Castle’s urging that she wait for Warner. Kenji accompanies her to the meeting.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Warner”
Warner keeps busy to avoid his feelings. He flies an airplane, thinking of all the skills his father taught him and all the ways that Anderson abused him. He feels overwhelmed by his father’s death, his conversation with Adam, and “the impending, anxiety-inducing arrival of [his] past” (73). He dreads telling Juliette of his long history within The Reestablishment. He recalls a cruel incident in which the supreme commanders’ children were forced to non-fatally shoot one another; Warner, the best marksman, shot his friends before they could retaliate. He feels ashamed of his feelings around his past abuse, which he considers a weakness. He fears confessing this supposed weakness will cause Juliette to abandon him.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Juliette”
Juliette frets over what to wear to meet Haider. Kenji urges her to wait for Warner, but Juliette wants to “take charge” on her own, without Warner’s support.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Warner”
Castle chases Warner down when he returns to base to tell Warner about Haider’s arrival and meeting with Juliette. Warner insists that Haider is angry with Warner for defecting from The Reestablishment, not concerned with Juliette. Castle is shocked that Anderson never told Warner “where [Juliette] really came from” or “the truth about her parents” (84), alluding to how Juliette’s parentage will be revealed at the end of the novel.
Chapter 11 Summary: “Juliette”
Kenji tries to reassure a nervous Juliette, though he cannot deny that Haider looks more impressive than Juliette. Haider is surprised that Juliette is so young and small, given the reports of her dangerous powers. Haider’s confusion discomfits Juliette, who regrets not waiting for Warner. Haider plans to remain in Sector 45 for several weeks and reveals his longstanding acquaintance with Warner. Nonplussed, Juliette doesn’t ask further questions, not wishing to seem ignorant.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Warner”
Warner reels from Castle’s revelation, which is implied to be knowledge about Juliette’s sister, Emmaline. He thinks Juliette is capable of handling Haider and waits for her, staring at his father’s files, which he has not yet opened. She reports her meeting with Haider, who Warner admits to having a relationship with, though he denies that they are friends.
When Juliette admits her doubts about her ability to be commander, Warner defends her capability. He warns her about the thanklessness of leadership and urges her to ignore critics. They have sex, each discussing how they love one another. When she leaves afterward to return to work, he is disappointed.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Juliette”
Kenji is annoyed that Juliette kept him waiting while she had sex with Warner; his annoyance grows when he realizes how few details she learned about Warner and Haider’s relationship. Kenji insists on speaking with Warner himself. Warner and Kenji bicker while Juliette tries to mediate. She promises she will no longer insist on friendship between them. Warner frames Haider as arrogant and insecure and cites Haider’s sister as the greater threat, politically speaking.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Warner”
Warner and Haider greet one another in Arabic, which surprises Kenji and Juliette. Haider offhandedly reports that Warner speaks seven languages. Haider quietly accuses Warner of being swayed by “a pretty face” (115), which angers Warner. His sister, Nazeera, enters. Warner is shocked that Nazeera wears a headscarf, as The Reestablishment has made all religions illegal. She is offended when Kenji asks about this choice and leaves without eating dinner. Kenji and Warner bicker about who caused Nazeera to leave until Haider also departs. He observes that none of the supreme commanders’ children “has a choice” about how to live their lives (120).
Chapter 15 Summary: “Juliette”
Later, alone, Kenji and Juliette discuss Warner’s comprehensive education and how Juliette’s lack of education makes her feel inadequate. Neither of them knows what to make of the Ibrahim siblings, though Juliette reflects on how Nazeera reminded her that she has few women in her life.
Nazeera reenters the room, seeking directions. Kenji clumsily flirts with her; when she leaves, Kenji tells Juliette he has fallen in love with Nazeera at first sight. Though Juliette is not attracted to Kenji, she feels jealous that the more accomplished girl has attracted her friend’s attention.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Warner”
The next day, Warner walks with Juliette and wonders if the two have been keeping their troubles from one another. Nevertheless, he doesn’t speak about his concerns. He does not envy the magnitude of things Juliette must learn.
Haider, walking with them, leads Juliette to inadvertently reveal her ignorance of an important Continental Symposium; Warner blames himself for not reminding her of its significance. Warner is annoyed that Haider baits Juliette into admitting the things she doesn’t know, embarrassing her. Though Warner is suspicious of Haider, he sometimes wonders if Haider genuinely wishes to be friends. However, he decides that Haider is spying on Juliette for his father.
When Haider grabs Warner, Juliette threatens him, something that impresses Haider. Touched by this display of love, Warner muses that he would “do anything for her” (136).
Chapters 7-16 Analysis
In the next portion of the novel, the somewhat chaotic plot progression illustrates Juliette’s fractured attention as she is pulled between her different concerns, both global and mundane. In Chapter 9, for example, Juliette frets about not knowing what to wear to an important meeting with Haider. Kenji teases her, which leads her to respond defensively about her background; between her childhood with abusive parents, her year in an asylum, and her time at war, she asks when was she meant to learn about clothes. Kenji apologizes, and Juliette clarifies that clothes are not just clothes, in this instance. They are about putting forth the impression that she is a suitable leader.
Mafi thus plays with the possibilities and constraints of YA dystopian fiction. Juliette both embraces and eschews normalcy through her desire to look the right way; this is both a common adolescent desire and something given extra importance due to her specific role as a young supreme leader in a totalitarian regime that she opposes. Mafi presents traditional teenage concerns and powerful leadership as having significant overlap rather than framing them as either one or another. Juliette cares about clothes because she is an adolescent who wants to make a good impression and because she’s a leader; these things do not necessarily contradict one another. This notion reemerges in Chapter 13 when Juliette finally accepts that Warner and Kenji will not be friends, no matter her meddling. Her teenage desire to have her best friend and her boyfriend like one another is important to her, but ultimately not as important as their ability to be allies.
This section also further develops the broader sociopolitical contexts of Juliette’s world, both before and after The Reestablishment took power. When Juliette looks around the ruins of the pre-Reestablishment world, she is filled with nostalgia and the desire to build this world anew. Kenji, however, reminds her that her happy reminiscences speak of a certain level of privilege. Kenji tells her, “The world I remember was tired and racist and volatile as hell, ripe for a hostile takeover by a shit regime. We were already divided. The conquering was easy” (61). This alludes to a broader desire to recreate the past because it is familiar and thus less intimidating than an uncertain future, but this instinct creates a society that is likely to repeat past mistakes. Though Kenji later references gun violence between civilians as another factor of societal problems pre-Reestablishment, he cites racism and, to a lesser degree, classism as the primary divisions that led to societal disillusion.
For all The Reestablishment’s problems, this racism seems not to be a primary concern under the regime. Kenji asks Juliette if she recalls his Japanese heritage, and he instructs her on the racism that Black communities in particular faced before The Reestablishment took power. Juliette is shocked in a way that indicates the idea of racist violence is unfamiliar to her. Indeed, the markers of privilege in Mafi’s world follow matters of class and education, not of race. While Juliette compares herself to the other supreme commanders’ children, she does so as a matter of their knowledge. Racial differences do not seem to register—either for Juliette or between the close-knit group of supreme commanders’ children.
Religious intolerance, however, is a key element of The Reestablishment’s rule. Nazeera’s choice to wear an Islamic headscarf, as discussed in Chapter 14, is a clear anti-Reestablishment stance, as the regime has made all religions illegal. Socio-religious scholars note that totalitarian regimes might restrict religious freedoms “because religions are perceived challenging the state’s ideology, threatening government stability, and being a potential harm to public order” (Finke, Roger. “Presidential Address Origins and Consequences of Religious Freedoms: A Global Overview.” Sociology of Religion, vol. 74, no. 3, Oxford University Press, Mar. 2013, pp. 297-313). Put differently, religion provides an allegiance between subjects of a regime and something other than the state itself. Forbidding such allegiances encourages subjects of a regime to find meaning in only the regime itself, thus reemphasizing its totalizing rule.
Nazeera’s choice to wear a headscarf stands as a powerful statement that she has an identity beyond the one she has been assigned by The Reestablishment, one that hearkens back to her cultural and religious roots. This also emphasizes the ways in which The Reestablishment’s desire to erase all differences—of race, language, class, culture, religion—are harmful and corrupt, even if they have some positive effects, such as reducing racist social hierarchies. This positive effect is treated as an incidental result rather than a clear goal in the text. If The Reestablishment has made some things better, it has done so entirely by chance, as part of its overall goal to earn total and complete subservience by all people, no matter their origins.
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