ONTD Book Club discussion

Snark on Shatter Me, the awfulest of awful prose!

Geddit!

I seriously could not get past the first two chapters when I first read it.

Just...WHAT IS THIS QUOTE:

“I always wonder about raindrops.

I wonder about how they're always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors.

I am a raindrop.

My parents emptied their pockets of me and left me to evaporate on a concrete slab.”

I am in for this hot mess of a book

Based on the quotes it sounds like some teenager's stoned journal that's like totally deep or something lmao

I have this on hold. I'm excited to get my hands on it.

This reads like some of my old animu fanfics I wrote when I was in 9th grade. The super ~flowery~ purple--nearly ultraviolet--prose is killing me. And what's up with the strikethroughs?

I'm so embarrassed for the author right now. Oh my GOD. It will be a struggle to finish this without having the urge to hurl my tablet against the wall, lol.

I should note that this was Harper Collins' lead YA title of Fall 2011 and it had a huge first printing - 175K copies. Author is represented by the same mega-agent that represents SMeyer and John Green. There is a big film option involved. But word on the street was that it did not sell well at all, and the critical reviews (Kirkus hated it) could have been a good reason why.

I'm kind of sad this is a snark book, lol. I downloaded this a while back and I was actually looking forward to reading it and now I'm scared to start. But I think I will give it a shot tonight.

I hate when a book sounds good in theory, but then turns out to be crappy. Like the Selection, that sounded kind of good (albeit with some obvious issues) but since all the crap and drama surrounding it, I don't want to read it.

I'm two chapters in and I think it's way too purpley for me to go on. My goodness what is this? :
"His eyes scan the silhouette of my structure and the slow motion makes my heart race. I catch the rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage."

I can't wait for y'all to get to the part where the antagonist (who is also a love interest, mind you) forces the main character to torture a toddler.

lyn wrote: "I can't wait for y'all to get to the part where the antagonist (who is also a love interest, mind you) forces the main character to torture a toddler."

I.... what? I was not expecting that to happen anywhere in this book.

Ohhh wow. I just started this, and after about 5 pages decided doing my dishes sounded more fun. I'm going to try go keep going, but I really just can't get into the writing.

I gave up on this 'book' a few days ago since I realized I was skimming more than I was actually reading.

I can usually make it through a bad book for snark purposes, but this is just. too. much.

Ok so I ended up reading it all in one sitting, but ugh. I don't even know how to feel. I feel like it could have been really cool. Could have!

I keep trying and trying to just get through this book. It's not the bad writing that is making it so hard as much as the fact that nothing seems to be happening even when things are happening, if that makes any sense at all.

Nina wrote: "I keep trying and trying to just get through this book. It's not the bad writing that is making it so hard as much as the fact that nothing seems to be happening even when things are happening, if ..."
I had that problem too! It's just like the same thing over and over again and there's not really any real conflict.

Okay, I was able to survive the rapeyness, and even the prose (because yes, it was over the top, but at least she seemed to be trying, and some of the metaphors were fine), but now Warren can touch her, too, and the sheer, gross misunderstanding of the nature of radiation damage ends it for me. You don't become immune to radiation with time. It continually damages your DNA even if your DNA has already been damaged once.

I can't even remember the name of her love interest and I put it down a day ago.

FINALLY finished this mess. Even forced my sister to read it so we could laugh at passages together while at work. The only reason I didn't give this book one star was because it did provide some great laughs, especially towards the very end (wtf was that ending tho).

The character Kenji definitely should have been included earlier in the novel because he was the only character I could stand.