A review by icarusandthesun
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

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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