Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Aug 07, 2011 Renata rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, ya, sci-fi

First review: This kind of felt like very tropey X-Men fanfiction? Don't get me wrong, I love tropey X-Men fanfiction, but like for real, a girl whose touch causes intense pain... except not to the one boy who she's loved from afar for forever? Which she finds out when they're locked in a cell together?

The environmental disaster dystopia was... fine.

A solid readalike for most of your angstier dystopia/romances. Personally I would say I'm invested enough to go read the Wikipedia summaries for t ...more

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Sep 29, 2013 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy-and-sci-fi, dystopian-and-post-apocalyptic

This book had so much potential ... so much ... and it fulfilled exactly NONE of it.

The author's style is adventurous and risky. This is her first book, so she doesn't always knock it out of the park, but I give her points for trying. The repetitions and disjointed imagery definitely sets the tone: crazy. And it sure makes sense that Juliette would be crazy - she was raised in a loveless household, and then she spent the last year in complete isolation. .

And the world is ass-end up, so that add This book had so much potential ... so much ... and it fulfilled exactly NONE of it.

The author's style is adventurous and risky. This is her first book, so she doesn't always knock it out of the park, but I give her points for trying. The repetitions and disjointed imagery definitely sets the tone: crazy. And it sure makes sense that Juliette would be crazy - she was raised in a loveless household, and then she spent the last year in complete isolation. .

And the world is ass-end up, so that adds to the crazy.

But Juliette is, sadly, big on the navel-gazing, and the melodrama, and the "oh I am SO TOTALLY CRUSHING ON THIS BLUE-EYED BOY FROM THIRD GRADE." I mean, let's step back. The world (THE WORLD - not just the US but the entire world) has been taken over by a fascist and brutal organization bent on making Orwell's 1984 come true, the earth appears to be dying, the weather is haywire, plants and animals are dying, people are starving to death, the brutal takeover is imprisoning and killing people ... life is messed up. And let's remember: Juliette has lived through 264 days of complete isolation. Her prison is so awful, she has 2 minutes to run down a dark hallway to a bathroom, blindly find soap and turn on cold water and shower while somehow keeping her clothes dry and then run back to her cell. In the dark. So naturally, Juliette's number one concern is ... Adam Kent from 3rd grade? Who, as we later learn, never even spoke to her?

But she's madly in love with him. Because of course she is. Because she's always loved him and always WILL love him. And he is in love with her. Because of course he is. And they barely share 50 sentences together, but they've pledged their lives to each other. And then they have this inane conversation about how he didn't ask her to go steady with him?

I went and read all the most spoilery reviews I could find, so I could figure out what happens in the rest of the series, and, thus, not have to read it myself. Done.

It's a shame. Because Ms Mafi has it in her to be so much better than this. Every now and then, there was a really perfect sentence. Like: "I'm too poor to afford the luxury of hysteria right now."

But overall, this book was just so ... BORING. Who gives a shit about Adam Kent and his blue blue eyes? I sure don't.

I finished this book in two days just so I could be rid of it. I skimmed. ...more

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Apr 28, 2016 Andronike rated it it was ok

It took me over two months to read this book. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, and wouldn't have read it except for my gremlins not giving me much of a choice. You can trace the evolution of Mafi's writing through the novel, as Juliette becomes more emboldened, so does Mafi. You could argue that it's purposefully done to illustrate Juliette's growth, but I don't buy it. It took me until about Chapter 38 of the short 50 chapters to even become invested, but now I want to know what happens. ...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Meg rated it did not like it

Shelves: young-adult, not-so-good

A few spoilers ahead.

I really wanted to like this book. I feel that she is a very gifted writer and creates beautiful imagery, but it felt as though it was all misplaced. I found myself skipping over entire paragraphs, and that a lot of her writing became filler.

When all is said and done, not much happened in the book. I would have liked to read more about the rest of society and seen Juliette interact with them, not just more of "oh my gosh, he touched me." It seems as though the issues with so ...more

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Nov 23, 2011 Abby Johnson rated it it was ok

I was hooked at the beginning and I found the ending interesting, but I lose interest in between. Even the sizzling romantic tension wasn't enough to keep me from skimming, and by the end it reads like a big buildup for the next book in the trilogy. Try it on fans of the Wake books by Lisa McMann. ...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Jennifer Kronk rated it did not like it

I had such hopes for this book but the whole thing just gets bogged down in ridiculous, over-wrought language that becomes more annoying with each chapter. And the story itself is just a fan-fiction quality version of an X-Men origin story. Just not worth it.

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May 29, 2012 Kate McCartney rated it liked it

Shelves: teen-fiction, dystopia, audiobook, 2014

I liked this, I say that because I was interested in what happened and I am interested in how the story continues. I did often feel that I wanted her to just get on with the action.

I see a sort of love triangle in the making and I am over love triangles, I hope that the author reconsiders this in the next book.

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Feb 02, 2015 Lori rated it did not like it

Shelves: teen, audio

Ugh! Couldn't finish. Slogged a little over half way through the first book. Audio is terrible. Story is weak, characters are mostly irritating, and push the magic teen connection too far to buy at all. So sad I wasted my time! ...more

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