Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

62 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

So far this series is really good! I think this first book is a lot of world building and character introductions. The middle of the book seems like the beginning. I am very glad there are more books to expand on Juliette and Warner. I so far don't trust Adam and love Kenji and Juliette. I think the world building works very well it just means the into is super slow. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Blood, Genocide, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

samcsmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Body horror, Medical content, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Trafficking

Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Stalking, Grief, Vomit, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

hinata_boke's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.0

• The concept of the book is pretty interesting, but a lot of the neat dystopian aspects are clouded by the romance subplots.
• Too much flowery language and weird editing made it a bit annoying to read - though I'm willing to accept that as intentional if it's written as Juliette's stream of consciousness.
• This is first-person narrated, which is not my cup of tea. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, War, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Child death and Injury/Injury detail

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

this book was so badly written that it was actually quite funny. it made me physically cringe more times than i can count (for lines such as "you are a very bad girl, juliette" shudder) which is terrible, but also better than feeling completely indifferent to a book in my opinion.

the middle part

Spoiler

where they escaped and crashed at adam's for a while

was horrendously boring. people got shot and hurt here and there and yet i didn't care about any of it. if you take a look at the trigger warnings, you'll see lots of death and murder and blood but just know that every brutal thing that happened felt anticlimactic and shallow. 

i was also not a fan of the whole "she's the only girl among hundreds of touch-starved men and forced to wear skimpy clothing" trope that basically carried the whole first half of the book. it was silly how obsessed everyone seemed to be with her, and how "hot" everyone thought she was even though she was literally rotting in a cell for more than 250 days with only one meal a day and nearly no means to hygiene. who are you kidding?

i also didn't buy the romance at all.

Spoiler

adam and her never said a word to each other during their school days together, but they were still secretely in love with each other? because adam was the only one who looked at her like she was an ACTUAL HUMAN BEING?? (woah, and they say romance is dead🥴🤭)
and he fell in love with her because she was, uh, nice? because she gave up her seat to some girl on the bus? man, those two really are a low ass bar.

and you know a book is bad when the mysogynist side-character is the funniest guy in the book...

the action sequences were absolute bullshit, too. not them literally dodging bullets LMAO and "our movements made it hard for them to aim at us". girl what-
you're a slow ahh human being and not the flash, what are you on about...
if i were warner i'd fire all of the soldiers because a 15-year-old who's played ONE round of cod or valorant would be better at shooting than those nerds.

so yeah, needless to say, 80% of this book was teenage girl fantasy nonsense. i didn't hate the ending though. the whole concept—the worldbuilding—has potential. i'm just sad this potential didn't reveal itself until the very end. but i've heard people say the sequels are better, so maybe......

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Confinement, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Torture

taque's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse

booklover450's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, and Confinement

Moderate: Physical abuse and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Suicidal thoughts

l_butterflies777's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

This was an amazing book that I could barely bring myself to put down with dystopian themes and lines that will pull at your heartstrings. I would definitely recommend reading this! I’m am definitely going to get the series as soon as I have a chance to!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Blood, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Torture

Minor: War, Violence, and Torture

This author explains everything that the main character is seeing in detail including graphic injuries.

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, and Physical abuse

web_h3ad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

0.25

this book reads as a horror book to me & the fact that is marketed as a romance is incredibly alarming. juliette is the only female character with a name & has no autonomy for the entire story. at no point does she make any choice for herself, & instead of condemning this, the story seems to encourage her lack of agency. the two love interests are controlling and regularly put their hands on her despite her telling them not to. most of the scenes i assume are meant to be romantic are actually just sexual assault. despite her repeated demand that they do not touch her, both men ignore this hard boundary & grope her at every opportunity. horrifyingly, juliette is portrayed as secretly wanting this touch & just not knowing it, a rhetoric often employed by real life predators. it was incredibly difficult to get through scenes where both men forced her into situations she was very vocally uncomfortable in. at one point, warner is literally ripping her clothes off of her. her choices in love interests are a predator & a stalker. juliette is regularly dressed in revealing clothing & harassed by even the minor male characters, even when she asks them not to. 

sexual assault aside, the book also is just poorly written. it’s gimmicky & full of pointless metaphors that add nothing to the story but more words on the page. the twists are predictable, the plot is slow, & i swear to god if i have to read about adams blue eyes one more time i will actually lose my mind. i would not recommend this book to anyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Emotional abuse

millycameron's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I’m intrigued in how she eventually ends up with Warner, he seems quite mental.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Violence, and Emotional abuse