Reviews with content warning for War - Shatter Me

So, this book I started a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t get into it. I think I got to chapter three, and I put it down because I thought this book was not for me. Oh how wrong I was.

For starters, I actually now adore the layout of this book. The words that have a line through it, indicating her real thoughts VS the ones she allows herself to think/say is gorgeous. When I first read it, I wasn’t a fan of the repetition and the lack of structure the sentences in this book has, being a Creative Writing student, but I see now that it actually adds to the story. It makes it faster and more urgent when she’s panicking, or when she’s excited and has a lot of thoughts in her mind… I think it’s absolutely perfect!

I like the fact there’s only one point of view in this story, and I actually really like Juliett. She’s flawed, but she also knows it, and she’s humble. She sticks to her morals, even when people try to derail them. You can tell that she’s a character that truly cares about others, even if they don’t about her. And Adam is just the same, I really like his character. Warner is just grim, but that makes it so much better, because I truly hate his character.

With the world-building, I think it’s done really well. The pacing is good, and we’re not force fed information at the start of the novel, we are gradually fed it throughout, which is actually quite difficult to do and not often done very well, so Mafi did a great job with that. The plot itself was a little bit too-perfect for me: Warner allowed Adam to be so close because he knew her from school, and then he got rid of the cameras in her room, and they could just escape without getting into trouble, you get my point. Plus, although the action built up in the end, if we think about what happens in the book, they’re just escaping from one place to the next, unable to really stay anywhere. It works for the first book, but if they spend the rest of the series just flitting from one place to another, then it might get a bit tedious after a while.

And why did it take so long for Warner to start experimenting her with other people? There’s something that’s not quite clicking in regards to that. However, that’s my only nitpick of this novel. Other than that, it’s safe to say I’m really excited to read the next instalment in the series.

Book Summary:

We follow Juliett as she’s being kept prisoner in a cell. She hasn’t spoken to anyone in almost a year. They barely feed her more than one meal a day, and she has always been by herself. That is, until, she is given a cellmate.

Adam, his name is. He doesn’t know why she is in there, or why he is there, but he tries to befriend her. She likes him, but can’t get too close to him (physically as well as emotionally) because she has a special power: nobody can touch her. If they do, they’ll be in extreme pain whilst she feeds off it (not voluntarily, of course) and if they touch her too long, they die. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and has been bullied and ignored her whole life. The only person who ever stood up for her (because not even her own parents did) was Adam.

Yes, it is indeed the same Adam that is in her cell. She remembers him, but he doesn’t act like he remembers her.

She wakes up one day, after a nightmare, and her and Adam are being held by guards. When she wakes up, as she must have fallen unconscious, she finds that Adam double-crossed her. He is working with Warner, the man in charge, who is a little obsessed with her. He’s only 19, but he plans to use her as a weapon.

The Reestablishment - the people in charge - are planning to eradicate every part of culture in the world, religion, languages, historics, and have everything the way they want it. Warner is helping that, getting rid of people who are less valuable, like the old, and the sick. He wants to use Juliett to do it. She resists, but he’s very powerful.

She finds out that Adam is actually double-crossing Warner, and he’s been in love with Juliett this whole time. He is the only one that can touch her, and he’s always admired her from afar for her kindness. When Warner is trying to touch her, Adam jumps in and threatens Warner, who gets surprisingly scared. They manage to escape, but Warner just about touches Juliett without getting hurt himself. She tries to ignore it, but now there’s two people that can touch her without getting hurt.

Adam takes her to his house, and they meet his brother, James. They are only there for a night before Kenji, someone Adam used to know, runs in, and their place is given away, Warner has found them. Adam gets shot, but Juliett shoots Warner, and they manage to escape.

Turns out, Kenji is double-crossing them as well. This was all planned, and he takes them to somewhere, which is actually considered a safe place. The medics tend to Adam, who turns out okay, James is well looked after, and they are safe from Warner, for the moment. There are also 56 other people like her, people with powers.

Content Warnings

my3bb8's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Shatter me is the perfect book, it is so amazing and every single twist

except Adam and Juliet dating

I didn’t see coming.

The writing style of the lines scratched out was such an amazing touch and helped me understand Juliet’s crazy mind in such an easy but also interesting way

The romance in this book was also SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, I can’t think of any better way it could have been written. It was absolutely amazing.

I would recommend this book so anyone who loves dystopian books and also romance novels. Such an amazing read and a great opener to the series!
5/5 stars

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sky2024's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mckinzie6242010's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

spicycronereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This was an entertaining read. The story of Juliette Farrars, a girl who cannot be touched because her touch is lethal. The book opens with her institutionalized and unfolds as she meets Adam, a figure from her past. In this dystopic future, everyone wants something from Juliette. And wants to use her for their own ends. Except Adam, who sees her for who she really is.

The writing takes some getting used to as there is an interesting narrative convention where a lot of text is crossed out. It kind of seems like you’re reading her notebook, but not all the time. Sometimes it just seems like her thought process is impacted by all of the trauma she’s been through. The characters are sweet together, even if the Insta love is not my favorite thing. This is a YA book so, as to be expected, it’s not really spicy. There’s a little bit of kissing and lots of swooniness. 💖💖💖

Going in, I knew it was the first in a rather long series. So I wasn’t really surprised when it ended at a point where things were just getting started. In fact, the digital copy of the book includes a novella about one of the other characters and the actual book itself is only 75% of the kindle file.

Interestingly, you get really far into the book before Juliette is ever described. There’s a compelling narrative reason for this, but the descriptions of other characters are also pretty thin. So from a diversity perspective, there’s lots of wiggle room for you to impose your own vision. But for readers who default to imagining white characters it means this will end up not seeming very diverse. There’s one person who has a clearly Japanese name and another person with dreadlocks, but whose skin tone is never described.

Overall, the book kept me entertained. I will likely read the next one in the series but I don’t feel compelled to rush out and download it right away. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 💖💖💖

Content Warnings

lisa07xie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really liked it it is full of action and it kept me captivated! At the beginning it felt to realistic but then I fell in love with it and couldn't stop especially when Juliette and Adam started to escape and I love that she finds people like her at the End (Omega something) and am excited to read the next books because I need to now what happens next! Love Kenji and the other people at Omega they seem so kind! I especially adore Kenji though he seems really perfect!

Content Warnings

random_being's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

mariareviews's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

it was something, that’s for sure. i don’t really know if i liked it or not to be honest. the beginning was horribly underwhelming, the middle was nice, and the end went back to being horribly underwhelming.

also, why was the suit purple? considering her abilities are supposed to be used at a close range -that i know of- why is she looking like a walking highlighter? ‘cause i’m imagining the shade of purple is like #7600bc or #7f00ff which is… rough.

anyways, i’ll keep reading because warren is the epitome of delulu is the solulu

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