Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)

by Tahereh Mafi

[leahrosereads]

2.5 Stars - but I refuse to round up

So, it’s the end of the year, and I’m trying to get a couple more books completed for fun, and since YAs have always been really quick reads for me, plus all the hype surrounding SHATTER ME and this trilogy, I decided to give it a shot.


Hype not met.


The writing is gorgeous, but the characters are extremely one dimensional. I honestly felt like there was just a lot of fluff, and very little sustenance to hook me into this series. Maybe the other books bring this tale together more fully, but I’m probably not going to find out, because nothing about this book makes me want to continue reading Juliette’s journey. You can’t give all the awesome information in the last 10% of a book and expect people (me) to want to continue the series when I’ve already made my decision after reading 80% of the book.


Also, living in Juliette’s head for 300 pages was just this chaotic mess of metaphors and disappointment. Being stuck with her the entire time almost made me DNF this. She was honestly probably my least favorite main character of the year. Which is even worse, because I was hoping to end 2014 on a high note.

Adam - too perfect. Just this bland white knight wanting to rescue his princess. He’s not realistic, and honestly, he’s not even remotely a decent fantasy of a perfect character. I would love to have seen him as a more dimensional character, and by the time you see a glimpse of a potentially neat character, he’s already too boring to give a damn about.

Then there was Warner. Why he’d think Juliette would want anything to do with him, after what he does to her, is insane. And honestly, I don’t want to continue this series because I’m assuming that Juliette ends up getting together with this psychopath. He’s an abusive piece of shit, and I’d like to see him gutted and left for the buzzards. I don’t care if he ends up rescuing kittens later on in the series, he’s an obsessive freak who has his soldiers rearrange Juliette’s organs. How she could find this fucker even remotely appealing is beyond me.



However, there were parts of the plot that intrigued me. Mostly the world itself, but because the world almost felt like an afterthought in the last few pages of the book, it just wasn’t enough to hook me. Also, the above characters made me want to toss my tablet against the wall.


I’m pretty disappointed with myself for reading and finishing this book. I feel like I’m going to HAVE to find another book to read, because I’d hate to end 2014 on such a blah note.