Completely and utterly enthralling.

Warnings: psychological torture, non-consensual contact

This book made me question a lot of things - firstly, about why it is so hyped, and secondly, what are others seeing that I am missing out? I genuinely had to ask some of my friends what they thought of the book, because I saw so many high-rated reviews for it (not from my friends but others I follow on GR) and I mostly got 'eh I didn't like it much either' kind of answers. Maybe it was the time in which it released - the era of dystopias, but this is more like a romance set in a dystopic world than a true dystopia. Honestly, this book takes the love triangle to a cringe-worthy level, and WAIT I KNOW YOU MAY HAVE LOVED THIS BOOK BUT I GOTTA GET MY FEELINGS OUT IN A RANT before I can even continue with what I actually liked. Buckle your seat belts, darlings, because this one is going to be gif-fed up!

Firstly, I gotta ask - WHY? Why the focus on the romance in a dystopia? I am not one for sticking to genre conventions - heck, I love when books subvert them and introduce some new elements. But the 'new elements' in this weren't exactly new. There's the childhood friend who is now a hottie trope. Bad boy with (probably) a heart of gold trope (We'll come to that LATER OH BOY). No, what my main problem was with this book sticking its toe out of genre boundaries, is that it does it in the name of the most irritating love triangle. AND I LIKE LOVE TRIANGLES! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!

Also, how in this messed up world where people don't have proper living conditions, is the romance the main conflict of the story? It is not even a dystopia-that-looks-like-a-utopia kind of plot that love triangles are usually featured in! The world is dying, there is a fascist government ruling over them, and the first thought of these teens is whether they can get some. (It is not my imagination - there are literally scenes where the making out just happens, due to Circumstances That Just Need to Insert a Hot Makeout Scene) The world-building is sorely lacking in this book - there is barely an explanation given for how the Reestablishment came about, how it is all co-ordinated, how the resistance is not able to do any damage.

Adam is this hero complex guy who liked Juliette when she was younger because she acted soooo good, lay down while other kids were tormenting her and stuff. He, of course, defended her and beat up the other kids, but his double standards are such that he admired her for not fighting back?! The romance with him would have been more believable if there was some actual development, but considering it is all silence glances in the start and very little conversation on her part, I'm declaring this as insta-love and a case of I-need-human-touch-STAT. I get that Juliette didn’t have anyone to touch for years, but that doesn’t mean his touch will immediately comfort her in every circumstance. It is more like an excuse to have them kissing again and again.
Also his actions don't make much sense in the context of what he does have to lose from helping her - don't get me wrong, I liked that he didn't turn out to be shady or a backstabbing betrayer, but I also don't see why he would risk so much with barely a plan.

And the writing doesn't help matters, really. Sure, there is the fact that this is narrated as Juliet's thoughts, so we get a very close understanding of what she is going through, and some crossed out sections where we see her replacing what she wants to say with what she actually says. But why did there have to be so many METAPHORS?! I get that Juliet loved books a lot, but I have read like over 2000 books in my life, and I don't talk inside my head like everything is inexplicable without a weird metaphor attached to it. It gets too much at time, like body creaking like a staircase? Also, another weird quirk is sometimes numbers are used instead of the words for numbers, which kinda ruins the flow in a sentence. And this may be minor, but why the heck is Juliette gasping so much? This girl is made up of being surprised all the freaking time.

Adam lifts her up? Gasp! Castle agrees with her on something? Gasp! Warner being his usual terrible self? Gasp! Adam kisses her? You guessed it right - Gasp! (Actually the last one can be forgiven but I'm not in the mood)

And let's move on to the other part of the triangle -Warner - by the way, does it count as love triangle if one guy is just being plain obsessed with her even when she is like 'eww no dude get away from me'? He literally thinks she is like him, and they have a CONNECTION and she just HAS TO BE AT HIS SIDE as he rules over his corner of the world.

Dude, why are you so dense? He constantly invades her personal space and treats her like a possession than a human being capable with her own agency. How is he even a love interest? Also, this book had his short story attached, to which I am only going to say: nah, doesn't excuse what you did, you ass. He knows Juliette was psychologically tortured, and his idea to make her better is to psychologically torture her more? How is he even justifying torturing her considering what he himself went through?


Finally, let's get to the parts that I did like - I liked the getting into Juliette's head way of narrating this book. She is a character kept in the dark (literally and metaphorically) so she sort of reveals the terrible world as she goes through the book. She also shows resourcefulness, and a hint of grey morality when it comes to getting things done (still, stay away from her, Warner!). But what I really liked was in the second half, when we get to meet the X-Men other people like her. I mean, she is basically a stand-in for Rogue, and there's this secret underground bunker where other mutantspowered people live, so I was excited about that, and what that would mean for this story. But it does arrive like pretty later in the story, so my enjoyment of that was already affected by my irritation with the love triangle.

Overall, this is a book that I wanted to love, majorly because I love books about powered people but the focus and main storyline of the book had me disappointed in it. I will read the next, but if it doesn't get any better, I am probably going to drop this series.

I am like 17% into the third book now and idk why I'm trying to force myself thru the series....so I'm not going to anymore lol

I really, really enjoyed this book. Tahereh Mafi's writing style is extremely refreshing & so so beautiful. I only docked the book a point because of the love story. Going into this book, I had no idea it was such a prominent part of the story. BUT, I feel like the romance definitely didn't take away from anything either. I loved every single character- even Warner, the antagonist. He's so deranged, but I'm really excited to find out more about him in the sequel.

The story was very reminiscentof X-Men to me. Juliette as Rogue. Castle as Professor X. I don't know.
The ending made me super excited to pick up the next book.

interesting structure, though somewhat disjointed storyline.

What an awesome book. I don't know how to review this without spoiling anything, but it is definitely a must read. Great development. On to book two: Unravel Me!

Must read series! Your heart will never feel the same again! The character development, the storyline, just everything about this series is fantastic!

I really liked Shatter Me and I really hope that the next books get even better from here!

The only issue that I had when I was reading the book (and it was a minor, minor issue at that) was that I wanted to know more about the world we were in, and less about the romance that could have been developed more and taken more in depth within the next two books. I would've really liked a solid groundwork of this dystopian world that we've apparently created ourselves to better understand the events of the book, and more of Adam and even Warner later!

BUT aside from that one little thing, I did really enjoy this book! When I went into this I knew that Adam, and ESPECIALLY Warner, were huge characters that everyone loves to death. When I first started reading, I had NOT expected them to be who they actually were in the book. Warner as a crazy, borderline psychopathic leader of The Reestablishment? Had not expected that AT ALL. But it made the story more interesting, that's for sure! In addition, I liked Juliette, but she wasn't my favorite character, and I really hope that I grow to love her more throughout the series.

Tahereh Mafi's writing style was really different too, and I really enjoyed it! I loved how her use of the slash tool thing kind of went with Juliette writing in her notebook! And the metaphors, OH GOODNESS. So beautiful!

Okay. This book is an example of the beloved category: do I like it, or is it too frustrating to like?

Yeah... you know where this is headed.

Romance? Okay. I'm building a callus to these heavy make-out scenes. But you just began talking to each other face-to-face a month ago! How can you love each other!?

The powers? Interesting. Juliette has a troubled, damaged past, but before we can look at any of the interesting things she's capable of, the book ends. The book ends halfway through the story! I've read the two sequels, and they're FAR better!

And Juliette is so annoying! Here's a book sample:
Bad Guy: I'm a bad guy! I'm going to make you do bad things!
Juliette: No! You're bad! I hate you!
However, she changes by the end of the trilogy, so I'll forgive it.

Not much happens. The protagonist did something awful, but because she didn't mean it, it's all okay! There's a terrible dystopian future because we polluted the environment? The controlling evil government has been lying to people!? WHO EXPECTED THAT? But hey, I'll give it a pass. This was just world-building.

Yes, I don't like this book, but if you like the sound of this one, just go to the third book. You'll catch up, and it's great!

I recieved an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I've wanted to read Shatter Me for a long time and when I saw it available on Netgalley ahead of the release of the fourth book in the series, "Restore Me" in March 2018, I knew I had to request it.

I'm glad I did finally read it, but I also wish I had read it back in 2011 when it was published, before the YA market was saturated with dystopian fiction. The three star rating I've given in this instance is wholly based on my personal enjoyment of reading this book at this point in time, perhaps unfairly. I know that if I had read this in 2011 I would have raved about it as much as I raved about Hunger Games. The truth is, I've become a little tired of the YA dystopian genre because of the same tropes that appear time and time again in every story.

Shatter Me opens with Juliette in a secure prison, thrown in there by the Restablishment for accidentally killing a person with her touch. Juliette cannot touch another human without fatal consequences and it isn't long before the Restablishment decide they might be able to use her as a weapon against the enemies of their cause.

I loved Tahereh Mafi's writing style. I found it almost effortless to zip through the story and I felt invested in the characters within the first couple of chapters. I liked the backstory between Juliette and Adam, but I enjoyed the weirdness of Warner a lot more. I thought his obsession with power and with Juliette was very well written. He seemed almost to be on the brink of insanity which lent an exciting unknown entity to the plot.

I found some aspects of the story difficult to read. I never enjoy reading about children in danger, or being hurt and those parts of this book almost caused me to stop reading. I found it really disturbing and it just didn't seem to be a necessary part of the story.

I did enjoy the X-men feel to the end of the book, and because of this I think I will end up finishing the series. The next book in the series was set up nicely and I need to know what happens to Juliette, Adam and Warner.

Shatter Me doesn't add anything new to its genre, but it is a very strong YA dystopian read.