Review: Shatter Me

Book: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
Series: Shatter Me (#1)
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Synopsis: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.


Overall Review:
I feel like a total black sheep in the blogging world because of Shatter Me. Everyone talks about how amazing it is, how swoony the boys are, how hot and powerful and beautiful the story is, basically nobody can stop talking about how much they freaking love this series especially with Ignite Me now out. I picked this book up expecting something amazing and exciting and all around beautiful. I didn't get that. I didn't get anything close to that. To me, the story was just so dull and made no sense. Partially because there are so many references to things that haven't been explained. Juliette goes on and on and on about all these things that confused the heck out of me because apparently I was just expected to know what was already going on. I was expected to know everything that had happened and that had lead up to the beginning of Shatter Me before reading Shatter Me. Only a few things were finally explained but not in very great detail, so I was still left feeling utterly confused and frankly quite annoyed. When we actually got to the storyline where I could make sense of what was going on without so many references to things, I wasn't all that impressed. Frankly because nothing was really going on. It was a day by day story that I honestly didn't care about. Nothing ever exciting really happened, and when there was a scene that was supposed to be exciting and get your heart racing, I felt nothing. Taherah Mafi's writing style is beautiful, but I just couldn't get into the story. And as beautiful as her writing is, I still had problems. She had such repetition with her writing. "His eyes were blue blue blue", "I can't breathe can't breathe can't breathe", "I want to be angry angry angry", it goes on like that throughout the entire book and I'm not quite sure why. I liked it at first but after reading it nonstop all the time, kind of got on my nerves. Her metaphors didn't always make sense either. Most of the time I had to think really hard to get what she was trying to say, and other times I just couldn't get it. I'm not sure if she was trying to make her writing seem more profound or elegant, but I didn't enjoy it. Especially since I felt her writing style was amazing without that.

I felt really bad for Juliette at first. Her parents abandoned her, practically threw her away without another thought, she was treated as a monster and a freak her entire life, she was locked away and treated like an insane criminal for something that was entirely an accident. Juliette has had one heck of a life and I couldn't help that my heart broke for her. Life kicked her around time and time again but she was still human, she was still kind and good and she still cared. However, as Shatter Me went on I began to get a little annoyed with her. She was so indecisive and gullible. It's not entirely her fault but you'd think she'd know better. Whenever Warner said something, she'd believe it. Whenever Adam said something, she'd believe it. Whenever one or the other guy said something contradicting what the other boy had said, she'd believe them in order. Like, let's say Warner said something about Adam. She'd believe him up until Adam said something different. She didn't ask or seek proof, she didn't even hold any doubts. It was almost like their words were like gospel to her. Her personality changed a lot as well. One minute she saw herself as weak, who deserved to die, the next she thought she was strong and that her curse was more of a gift. One minute she couldn't stand herself, the next she thought she was useful and could do great things. Don't get me wrong I liked the changes in her and that she began to like herself more and more, but those changes were so sudden and out of the blue it made no sense to me.

You guys are probably going to hate me for this, but I didn't like either guy so therefore the romance was just a big crazy bore. Warner is psychotic, like legitimately psychotic. The fact that some people actually like him and want his crazy butt to be with Juliette freaks me out to no end. I'm sorry but he is just no. He's crazy and after the things he's done, I don't think he could ever be redeemed. I just didn't trust Adam. Everything he said or did was entirely too convenient for my taste. Like, whenever he got in trouble or Juliette suspected him of something wrong, he suddenly had this sweet romantic speech about something or other that he knew would get Juliette to fawn all over him. Oh, you just so happened to have loved Juliette for ever? You just so happened to have liked her since you were kids and just so happened to have been searching for her for years. I didn't buy a word that came out of his mouth. He practically had Juliette eating out of the palm of his hand. There was quite a bit of romance between Adam and Juliette but since I didn't trust him farther than I could shove him, I didn't enjoy it all that much.

The pace was actually pretty fast and I'm surprised by how quickly I finished Shatter Me. I was very disappointed when reading Shatter Me because I was expecting something steamy, beautiful, swoon worthy, and all around amazing and I just didn't see it. I wanted so much to like this book but it just didn't happen. I couldn't ever get into it, even when things were supposed to be getting exciting and heart pounding. Mafi's writing is beautiful yet despite that I couldn't for the life of me get absorbed into the story. I felt so bad for Juliette. She was a lonely, heartbroken girl who has been kicked one too many times. Despite that, she was still a good person who wanted to do good. I really just wanted to comfort her in some way. As the story went on, even though I felt for her, I got pretty annoyed with her inconsistencies. She believed everything anyone said always, without seeking proof. She had complete changes in attitude towards herself out of nowhere. While I was glad that she started to actually like herself more, it was still confusing the fact she changed out of the blue like that. Not a fan of the romance. Boy one, Warner is beyond psychotic and creepy. He's literally a psycho which makes him a big fat no. I didn't trust Adam in the least. Everything he said or did was entirely too convenient and coincidental. I feel like there's more to him than he shows and I don't like that. I really like the title, especially since the world has tried constantly to shatter Juliette. The cover is gorgeous too. While I prefer the covers with the eye, the hardcover of Shatter Me is still so pretty.


Overall Rating:
I give Shatter Me a 2 out of 5 star rating. I was very disappointed by the fact that I couldn't get into Shatter Me and enjoy it like everyone else does. Now that being said, I still plan to read Unravel Me in the hopes that the series will get better. I really want to enjoy this series and I'm hoping that Shatter Me was just a fluke. However, if Unravel Me isn't all that great I won't be reading Ignite Me. I'm not sure I can recommend this series or even not recommend this series. While I didn't enjoy this first book, I still plan to read at least the second in the series so my opinion is pretty iffy right now. I feel like such a black sheep right now but it happens! Thanks for reading.

2/5 stars

~Kayla~