Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

61 reviews

otterspond's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

tw// very brief mention of rape (only in the section with spoilers)
I went into this expecting a truly, beautifully trashy experience. I was in a reading slump and needed something to pick me back up. now, was it essentially just a rehashing of dystopia tropes from the 2010s? Absolutely. did that negatively impact my experience of the book at all? No. Its well written, some truly gorgeous use of language, fast paced plot and interesting characters.

admittedly i truly believed from how quick and seeminly one dimensional the central relationship was that Adam was gonna turn out to be evil but maybe thats just my inherent distrust of men.

on that subject - the creepy, rapey way that warner acts truly made my skin crawl. a truly exellent villain.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

neliadiedenise's review

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

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Gun violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Child abuse, Confinement, and Grief

samcsmith's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Body horror, Medical content, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Trafficking

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Stalking, Grief, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

konnerreads's review against another edition

Aaron literally

sexually assaulted Juliette.

I don't care if he had a special reason which is reveled later on. It's still just as bad and he should've listened.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

sloth_readz's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A dark dystopian story based on a girl with a gift. Has a lot of romance

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gun violence

Moderate: Death and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual harassment

snailbuds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

Read at 16, rated 5 stars, re-read at 18, rated 3.75 stars. The story doesn’t flow as well as I remembered, and the romance feels somewhat forced, but the book is still fun to read and beautifully written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault

hinata_boke's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.0

• The concept of the book is pretty interesting, but a lot of the neat dystopian aspects are clouded by the romance subplots.
• Too much flowery language and weird editing made it a bit annoying to read - though I'm willing to accept that as intentional if it's written as Juliette's stream of consciousness.
• This is first-person narrated, which is not my cup of tea. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, War, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Child death and Injury/Injury detail

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

this book was so badly written that it was actually quite funny. it made me physically cringe more times than i can count (for lines such as "you are a very bad girl, juliette" shudder) which is terrible, but also better than feeling completely indifferent to a book in my opinion.

the middle part

where they escaped and crashed at adam's for a while

was horrendously boring. people got shot and hurt here and there and yet i didn't care about any of it. if you take a look at the trigger warnings, you'll see lots of death and murder and blood but just know that every brutal thing that happened felt anticlimactic and shallow. 

i was also not a fan of the whole "she's the only girl among hundreds of touch-starved men and forced to wear skimpy clothing" trope that basically carried the whole first half of the book. it was silly how obsessed everyone seemed to be with her, and how "hot" everyone thought she was even though she was literally rotting in a cell for more than 250 days with only one meal a day and nearly no means to hygiene. who are you kidding?

i also didn't buy the romance at all.

adam and her never said a word to each other during their school days together, but they were still secretely in love with each other? because adam was the only one who looked at her like she was an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING?? (woah, and they say romance is dead🥴🤭)
and he fell in love with her because she was, uh, nice? because she gave up her seat to some girl on the bus? man, those two really are a low ass bar.

and you know a book is bad when the mysogynist side-character is the funniest guy in the book...

the action sequences were absolute bullshit, too. not them literally dodging bullets LMAO and "our movements made it hard for them to aim at us". girl what-
you're a slow ahh human being and not the flash, what are you on about...
if i were warner i'd fire all of the soldiers because a 15-year-old who's played ONE round of cod or valorant would be better at shooting than those nerds.

so yeah, needless to say, 80% of this book was teenage girl fantasy nonsense. i didn't hate the ending though. the whole concept—the worldbuilding—has potential. i'm just sad this potential didn't reveal itself until the very end. but i've heard people say the sequels are better, so maybe......

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Confinement, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Torture

web_h3ad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.25

this book reads as a horror book to me & the fact that is marketed as a romance is incredibly alarming. juliette is the only female character with a name & has no autonomy for the entire story. at no point does she make any choice for herself, & instead of condemning this, the story seems to encourage her lack of agency. the two love interests are controlling and regularly put their hands on her despite her telling them not to. most of the scenes i assume are meant to be romantic are actually just sexual assault. despite her repeated demand that they do not touch her, both men ignore this hard boundary & grope her at every opportunity. horrifyingly, juliette is portrayed as secretly wanting this touch & just not knowing it, a rhetoric often employed by real life predators. it was incredibly difficult to get through scenes where both men forced her into situations she was very vocally uncomfortable in. at one point, warner is literally ripping her clothes off of her. her choices in love interests are a predator & a stalker. juliette is regularly dressed in revealing clothing & harassed by even the minor male characters, even when she asks them not to. 

sexual assault aside, the book also is just poorly written. it’s gimmicky & full of pointless metaphors that add nothing to the story but more words on the page. the twists are predictable, the plot is slow, & i swear to god if i have to read about adams blue eyes one more time i will actually lose my mind. i would not recommend this book to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse