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A review by honeyland
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
1.75
In the beginning I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the writing style, as I expected it to be a ya novel but the writing felt quite experimental and fun. Reflective of the protagonists mind, as the author's note says in the beginning.
The plot started out interesting as well but then it got a bit slow and I started having issues with the main characters. The girl talks to about 5 characters in this book and 3/4 guys her age are constantly showing in some way how attractive they find her, how much they want her, despite her expressing that she doesn't want that. It also feels like it's used as a way to make the character seem more desirable. Plus, there's basically an assault theme in which a character is kissing her against her will and suddenly she's like "huh...but maybe i DO like him?" despite hating said character all throughout the book for obvious reasons...and it just felt highly uncomfortable and gross, esp bc it wasn't reevaluated at a later point.
Also I got really annoyed by how many times had to be mentioned that the main girl is so tiny and light and fragile while both of the male main characters were so tall and broad and somehow they carried her everywhere???
The plot gets a bit more interesting towards the end again.
I might have gone into this book with the wrong expectations but I really thought I was gonna like it and was super disappointed, unfortunately.
The plot started out interesting as well but then it got a bit slow and I started having issues with the main characters. The girl talks to about 5 characters in this book and 3/4 guys her age are constantly showing in some way how attractive they find her, how much they want her, despite her expressing that she doesn't want that. It also feels like it's used as a way to make the character seem more desirable. Plus, there's basically an assault theme in which a character is kissing her against her will and suddenly she's like "huh...but maybe i DO like him?" despite hating said character all throughout the book for obvious reasons...and it just felt highly uncomfortable and gross, esp bc it wasn't reevaluated at a later point.
Also I got really annoyed by how many times had to be mentioned that the main girl is so tiny and light and fragile while both of the male main characters were so tall and broad and somehow they carried her everywhere???
The plot gets a bit more interesting towards the end again.
I might have gone into this book with the wrong expectations but I really thought I was gonna like it and was super disappointed, unfortunately.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Domestic abuse