Shatter Me Review

Book 2 of Week of Reviews is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi! Read my first review of the week: The Art of Secrets.

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Cover Rating: 8/10 I think it’s really gorgeous!

Book Rating: ★★

“Everying is on fire. My cheeks my hands the pit of my stomach and I’m drowning in waves of emoiton and a storm of fresh rain and all I feel is the strength of his silhouette aganist mine and I never ever ever ever want to forget this moment. I want to stamp him into my skin and save him forever.”

I am definitley a minority on this one. I am baffled surprised by how popular this book became. I wanted to like it really badly, but I just couldn’t. I have a ton of friends who absolutley adored this book, but I’ve also seen a bunch of big reviewers who didn’t like it either.

Plot:

Juliette has never touched another person in 264 days. Ever since The Reestablishement learned about her lethal touch powers, she’s been locked up in a cell. Just one touch, one accidental brush on the shoulder, and now she’s trapped for what could be eternity. Although no one knows why Juliette can kill someone with the smallest poke, but they do have plans to use her as a weapon. For the first time, Juliette is finding the strength to fight back with the help of a boy she thought she would never see again. Together, the pair have plans of their own and no one, not even the Reestablishment, will be able to stop them.

Positives:

Let’s talk about the good stuff about this book first! I liked the idea of Juliette’s touch being fatal, which is why I was initially drawn to the book besides all the positive praise. The interesting concept fell flat, though, throughout the book. I felt like after a while it stopped focusing on her powers and rather on her relationship with Adam. If this book was rewritten without so much lovey-lovey stuff, I think it might even be on my favorites shelf.

Negatives:

Does anyone actually like instalove? I’ve seen it in so many YA books, but all I see in reviews is people bashing it. Shatter Me has a lot of instalove. Adam, Juliette’s love interst, and Juliette fall in love in the span of, like, 50 pages. Not only is this unrealisitic, it’s just annoying. People don’t immdiately fall in love in real life, not even if they knew each other as kids.

There was barely any world building in this, even though it was set in a dystopian world. I think what a lot of dystopian books lack today is world building. I like to get lost in another galaxy, but that’s kind of hard to do when the most description I get is ”

It was just really lusty. Most of the description is about Adams “blue blue blue” eyes and how much they’ve dreamed about each other. Juliette talks about wanting to “melt” into Adam multiple times, and my mind kept wandering to that movie House of Wax…

The writing style was intersting. I actually genuinely liked it in some parts, but others (like the quote below) just left me confused. The repetitive words got a little repetitive, and the same with the crossed out sentences and words.

“I want to be angry angry angry.

I want to be the bird that flies away. 

‘What are you writing?’ Cellmake speaks again.

These words are vomit. 

This shaky pen is my esophagus

This sheet of paper is my porcelin bowl. “

Read instead:

Cinder by Marissa Meyer, a fabulous fairytale retelling with a sassy heroin and a love that doesn’t even come close to consuming the story, all set in an extrodinary sci-fi world.

Who agrees/disagrees with my review? Let me know below!

xx,

Sophie

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