Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

36 reviews

spicycronereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This was an entertaining read. The story of Juliette Farrars, a girl who cannot be touched because her touch is lethal. The book opens with her institutionalized and unfolds as she meets Adam, a figure from her past. In this dystopic future, everyone wants something from Juliette. And wants to use her for their own ends. Except Adam, who sees her for who she really is.

The writing takes some getting used to as there is an interesting narrative convention where a lot of text is crossed out. It kind of seems like you’re reading her notebook, but not all the time. Sometimes it just seems like her thought process is impacted by all of the trauma she’s been through. The characters are sweet together, even if the Insta love is not my favorite thing. This is a YA book so, as to be expected, it’s not really spicy. There’s a little bit of kissing and lots of swooniness. 💖💖💖

Going in, I knew it was the first in a rather long series. So I wasn’t really surprised when it ended at a point where things were just getting started. In fact, the digital copy of the book includes a novella about one of the other characters and the actual book itself is only 75% of the kindle file.

Interestingly, you get really far into the book before Juliette is ever described. There’s a compelling narrative reason for this, but the descriptions of other characters are also pretty thin. So from a diversity perspective, there’s lots of wiggle room for you to impose your own vision. But for readers who default to imagining white characters it means this will end up not seeming very diverse. There’s one person who has a clearly Japanese name and another person with dreadlocks, but whose skin tone is never described. 

Overall, the book kept me entertained. I will likely read the next one in the series but I don’t feel compelled to rush out and download it right away. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 💖💖💖

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, War, Gaslighting, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

nellzzzz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Child death, and Child abuse

ravensalwaysreading's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This is the most insert-yourself-as-the mc fantasy I've finished in a long time. All I could think the entire time was "this is Red Queen if you strip the good writing, thorough characters, the actual plot and make the mc a skeletal, starving, wetblanket brunette every single boy she comes in contact with is unfathomably enraptured by". Maybe it really amps up later in the series. Maybe she gets a personality later. I might try to slog through and see after I look up more reviews.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Adult/minor relationship

tabea1409's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Gaslighting, Blood, Classism, Gore, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Violence, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, War, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Confinement, and Torture

xgabrielle_hx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Child abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Torture

yzer2468's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Cursing, Confinement, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Death, Violence, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, and Gore

Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Panic attacks/disorders, and Slavery

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Police brutality, Mental illness, and Blood

emis_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s written a little confusing in the beginning, but it’s reflecting the main characters condition. Just pull through it, it get’s better.
I was able to read it very fast, there were often a few repetitions.
I really wanted to know why so many people love Aaron Warner that much, until now i honestly can’t really understand it. Just sometimes slightly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Gaslighting, Blood, and Torture

neliadiedenise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Abandonment, Confinement, Gaslighting, Sexism, War, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Sexual harassment, Alcoholism, Blood, and Bullying

s_i_g_y_n's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gore, Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Mental illness

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So far this series is really good! I think this first book is a lot of world building and character introductions. The middle of the book seems like the beginning. I am very glad there are more books to expand on Juliette and Warner. I so far don't trust Adam and love Kenji and Juliette. I think the world building works very well it just means the into is super slow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Genocide, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War