A review by onion_anya
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

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

2.5

When it comes to character development, it's mostly just Juliette going from being too scared to express any semblance of personality to finally "coming into her own"
and accepting that her destructive powers might not be so bad after all
. Honestly, though, there's not that much to "come into", (in my opinion). I didn't find any of the main cast all that interesting or loveable, but I liked Winston's attitude
at least initially, before Mafi made him an annoying semi-jerk
and I finally got interested in the book when
Juliette grew enough spine to shoot Warner
. As far as diversity goes, the main characters (i.e., Juliette, Adam, and Warner) are all white. There's some color sprinkled into the background.

If you want to read this book, do so primarily for the steamy (but still very PG-13) romance between Juliette and Adam. 

Trigger warning, though: the book gets kinda rapey when it comes to Warner. Even though Mafi writes it in a way that makes it seem like Juliette is conflicted between wanting/not wanting him, it's clearly not ok.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings