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A review by koistyfishy
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Let me start off with younger me (era 2008) would have eaten this up for breakfast, lunch and dinner! The young me that was obsessed with Twilight, Divergent, The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner… you know when dystopian novels were popular. Now I’m left a little unsatisfied because I’ve seen it all before and it wasn’t as deep as it could have gone….
Let’s start with what I liked:
- the writing style is pretty unique, I haven’t seen another book employ the same tactic of expressing the discombobulated thoughts and processing Juliette goes through. I loved seeing how she started almost difficult to comprehend and towards the end of the story she starts being more coherent. She showed great character development as the story progressed and I am all here for it…
Let’s get to what I didn’t enjoy
- I need a little bit more world building. There isn’t really much explained about the society and I understand this book is from Juliette POV and she isn’t exposed to many things but because of the full lack of foundation her mishmash of words that she throws around (while unique) can get very confusing to follow the plot as it can turn into rambling.
- (I don’t think this is much of a spoiler because there is so much fan art and a big fandom out there that hates Adam and loves Warner that it is very difficult to accept with Warner being the villain and Adam being the main love interest… the foreshadowing makes it hard to accept this book now as canon.
- Instalove!!! OMG… kill me now please… love needs to develop over time… this was just too damn much to fast. 🤢
- To quote directly from the book..”that seems awfully convenient” that BOTH Adam and Warner can touch her….
- The lack of any other character development (besides Kenji who is amazing BTW). There isn’t much growth or progression in Adam and Warner… I kind of understand why the novellas exist because they are pretty bland and one dimensional in this version of events.
Overall underwhelming for the hype this has and not sure I understand why so many people are obsessed…
Let’s start with what I liked:
- the writing style is pretty unique, I haven’t seen another book employ the same tactic of expressing the discombobulated thoughts and processing Juliette goes through. I loved seeing how she started almost difficult to comprehend and towards the end of the story she starts being more coherent. She showed great character development as the story progressed and I am all here for it…
Let’s get to what I didn’t enjoy
- I need a little bit more world building. There isn’t really much explained about the society and I understand this book is from Juliette POV and she isn’t exposed to many things but because of the full lack of foundation her mishmash of words that she throws around (while unique) can get very confusing to follow the plot as it can turn into rambling.
- (I don’t think this is much of a spoiler because there is so much fan art and a big fandom out there that hates Adam and loves Warner that it is very difficult to accept with Warner being the villain and Adam being the main love interest… the foreshadowing makes it hard to accept this book now as canon.
- Instalove!!! OMG… kill me now please… love needs to develop over time… this was just too damn much to fast. 🤢
- To quote directly from the book..”that seems awfully convenient” that BOTH Adam and Warner can touch her….
- The lack of any other character development (besides Kenji who is amazing BTW). There isn’t much growth or progression in Adam and Warner… I kind of understand why the novellas exist because they are pretty bland and one dimensional in this version of events.
Overall underwhelming for the hype this has and not sure I understand why so many people are obsessed…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Suicidal thoughts