Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

165 reviews

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I enjoyed this book a lot! I look forward to reading the next one in the series and learning a bit more about the characters. My only criticism is that I didn’t really rate the ending (but I appreciated why it needed to be this way to lead into the next book). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Stalking, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

anjh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

i had high hopes for this book considering how popular it is. it was really good, the writing is incredibly poetic and i think that’s part of what makes it so good. 

i’m not usually that into fantasy and dystopian books but this wasn’t bad, i did enjoy the magical element and didn’t find the world too confusing which i often do. 

i was kind of surprised how much smut was in this lol. as someone who is generally incredibly bored by smut and romance n such i kind of skimmed over it or skipped it but if you are into smutty stuff i def recommend it lol. 

but omg the writing. the crossing out of sentences really added to the poetic style - i loved it. i think the main highlight of this book was the writing style. it was just beautiful 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nukie19's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Starts really slow but lots of character building, so giving it 3 stars with a hope of more plot moving forward.  It's got my interest in where things go from here...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

_mnm_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and War

zainurb's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

do just take into account anything I said about this book applies TO ONLY THIS BOOK so yes the cast wasn't diverse but don't take that for the full series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Blood, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Murder

mckinzie6242010's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Police brutality, Suicide attempt, War, and Injury/Injury detail

akgeekgirl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Blood, and Medical content

spicycronereads's review against another edition

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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 💖💖💖

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

lisa07xie's review against another edition

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kalyn_c's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Torture