Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Shatter Me

I love it it would get 5 stars but IT NEEDS TO BE LONGER like I felt it was very rushed (even though their is like 8 more books ) I felt it was too short for my liking.

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molly_rose's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring mysterious 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

3.75

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alexxm13's review

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adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.0

and i’m done after almost a month😳 this book took so long as i had difficulties continuing it as the characters were unbearable🧍‍♂️the only character i like is kenji as he reminds me of jesper from soc and everyone else is just so serious and horny like i know humanity is destroyed but u need to calm down, juliette apparently is the only girl to exist at this point where all three male leads crave her and for what reason idk. i get she has one of a kind powers and that is fascinating but anything else i don’t get 😐talking about romance in this…i hate it! i’ve mentioned i’m not a romance reader and this is one of the examples of romance i can’t stand, this book has more spicy moments than i want cuz i honestly don’t care about that, i would rather you build something emotional bonding together and tension than straight up making out every few chapters. okay so world building i liked, it’s very similar to “the maze runner” where humanity is destroyed and only the gov exist with some people who are either slaved or have powers, this is many ways parallels to the real world. last line “superhero” okay mileven… i know adam and juliette are not endgame and it’s warner and juliette but i’m intrigued how this enemies to lovers will work for them as so far juliette hates warner with a passion but i know warner is going to have this angsty sad backstory that will make me like him. i wish i get more badass juliette ALONE i don’t need a man to save her🙄 like if she can punch through metal walls i think she can save herself. there were some lines i underlined that i liked and related to but a lot of cringey lines overlooked this sadly. in terms of creating a villain i’m intrigued to see how warner is viewed even tho he probably isn’t a villain later on as i don’t trust adam (he’s just too nice). warner reminds me of 001 was stranger things except he probably has a better storyline lmao and also c!dream🤭😩 i could honestly like him until i know his true motif and backstory to change me like always just like kaz being seen as a bad guy but isn’t but no one can compare to kaz and his gloves (mentioned to touch juliette) just like kanej endgame so… the writing style i actually really like at the start with the cross outs but it just randomly disappeared all of a sudden and barely returned, it made more sense to make it slowly fade out to the end of the book as it’s supposed to highlight juliette’s insecurity but it wasn’t as frantic? i’ll be reading the rest of the series i hope cuz with how it ended i’m interested to see this war i guess with the minority vs the corrupt. but i’m not in the fantasy/dystopian mood i think that’s why my rating is low but if i read this last year i would have enjoyed it. for me personally why it isn’t a higher rating is the characters’ dialogue it was cringe and nothing added much than they were very horny😐 but honestly my brain is doing the work to think of situations these characters than can be in and arcs they could have until i read the rest of the books but this series has potential for me to actually enjoy!

my annotation guide:

grey = growth (character arc/world building)
peach = parallels to the real world (world issues)
white = quotes i love
pink = romance/love/family

Content Warnings

filipa_maia's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I kept seeing, throughout bookstagram people praising this book (and saga), so I built quite the expectation around it. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed.

The story is so interesting, so different from the fantasy that I usually read, it had so much potential... for me, the writing ruined it. I understand that we are inside the mind of a girl who is being held prisoner because of her powers (and I really enjoy all the phrases that are crossed - those things that are only in her brain and she never says them out loud), but there are other things that bothered me a lot: the repetitions - I know that she keeps repeating things to herself, but you don't need to write them over and over again (we get it); the numbers - what the hell! I think this is the first time that I read a book in which the number are not written in full (I know that this is just a technicality, and as no interference in the story, but I don't like it).

Overall I think that, this could be such a better book if the story was written in a different way. Somehow, I don't understand Warner's obsession with Juliette (it makes no sense - he wants to use her as a weapon and at the same time wants her... so why did he kept her locked up, almost dying for so long?); I, definitely, don't trust Adam - he has the same amount of obsession for Juliette, but because he's hot, that's ok). Other thing I did not get is the "end of the world" plot twist: we are lead to believe that this is sort of a "mid-apocalyptic" scenario and, apparently, is all a big government conspiracy?

Well, I'm going to read the second book, hoping it will clear some of my doubts and I start liking this story a bit much. We'll see!

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hiraeth_'s review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I liked that the writing style was directly influenced by Juliette's state of mind, that way it seemed very realistic and touching, but it was also a little bit annoying and exhausting sometimes. In the beginning I had the feeling the world wasn't as rich and well designed, but then again I feel like it was the writer's intention that we learn about the world together with the MC. A little bit cringe sometimes but the main audience is 14-20 years old so maybe I was a little bit out of the intended target group. If I had read this at 14/15 years old I would've eaten that shit up!

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bandysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I found this book to be written for a much younger reader than me. It wasn’t horrible, but I doubt I’ll continue further in the series.

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