Shatter Me: Shatter Me (#1) http://www.yabookscentral.com/media/reviews/photos/thumbnail/200x285s/f2/20/bc/_10429045_1321719207.jpg Featured Hot

Holy freakin crap! Mafi is a genius. When I started reading it, I was curious about the format (the number not spelled out and the lack of commas) and the style (crossed out and repeated words). It was my first time to encounter a book written this way but fear not, people. It actually helped. The repeated words emphasized Juliette's feelings without overdoing it. The crossed out words tells us the existing conflict inside her mind.

A few pages in, my heart started to bleed for Juliette and what she went through. A child doesn't deserve a family who doesn't care for her and wants her gone. She doesn't deserve all the condemning words she got from everyone who judged her based on what she doesn't have any choice.

Meeting the boys was something I was looking forward since I started reading the reviews. All the rave about Adam and Warner fed my curiosity and made me wonder which guy will I side with. And after reading... I am still torn. No, not really. I'm actually leaning towards Warner. Despite being introduced as a villain, there is something in him that convinced me that there's more than meets the eye. He was such a complex character that I can't seem to hate. There were instances that hinted about Warner's true self, although not fully revealing it, and it made me believe that he's actually good. He's just...lost.

But despite wanting Juliette to end up with Warner, I still can't hate her interactions with Adam. They are actually sweet and spells out love. (But come on, Warner here!) Adam actually reminds me of Alex from Delirium. He's working for the government but he's actually against their beliefs.

I can't wait to read the next books. Maybe my couple will have a HEA. Maybe the ending will break my heart.

I’m normally not a fan of the “I did this. Then I did that. Then he did that. And this, that, and the other thing. *insert metaphor here*” type writing style, but I think it worked really well for Shatter Me. Juilette has been in an institution with no social contact for almost a year when she gets a new roommate. The author did a great job of showing us how nervous (and conflicted) Juliette was about this, not only because of her previous isolation, but due to her little quirk: a deadly touch.

Of course, that quirk is exactly why the Reestablishment wants her on their side. The Reestablishment is suppose to be…well, reestablishing society. However, Warner, the leader, has other plans; plans that require Juliette as a secret weapon. Warner is one of those characters that I just love to hate! He’s a despicable human being, but I found myself interested in what he had to say, and what he was going to do next. His obsession with Juliette was intense and at times creepy.

In contrast to Warner, is the other man in Juliette’s life, Adam. Adam was a puzzle that I was intrigued by, and I loved learning about him along the way. There was one moment about a third into the book that majorly disappointed me. I can’t say what it is, since it’s a huge spoiler, but I wassad it was there, even though it wasn’t a bad thing. It almost felt like a cop-out to me, and makes things too easy, until we get to Omega Point. Then my opinion changed.

Omega Point is amazing so far! I loved what was revealed about it already, and I’m dying to know more about it and its inhabitants. I also want some answers! Book 2 is too far away!

“The weather, the plants, the animals, and our human survival are all inextricably linked. The natural elements were at war with one another because we abused our ecosystem. Abused our atmosphere. Abused our animals. Abused our fellow man.“

First of all—the cover. I realize the cover has nothing to do with the actual book, but it’s a very nice cover, you must agree.
Aside from the cover, the story itself was good. It wasn’t too predictable, like so many YA books happen to be. I wouldn’t say that I was kept on my toes, but I didn’t guess what was going to happen the second I finished the first chapter. I liked that. If you know what’s going to happen, why even bother to read? So that was a big plus.

I liked the characters a lot as well. They were all charming and fun to read about. Adam is a swoon-worthy leading man, and Warner is a bad guy who I think has a bit more depth than your average villain (I’ll will look forward to reading more about him in the sequel). Juliette herself wasn’t my favorite character, as far as female progatonists go, but she wasn’t horrid or dull or stupid, and I liked being inside her head.

But the best thing about this was the writing. It was fantastic, absolutely amazing. It reminds me of Lauren DeStefano’s style, only I think Mafi’s goes beyond that and brings something more to the table. Every sentence was an image, every paragraph a metaphor, especially in the beginning. As the plot progressed, Mafi’s prose got a bit lighter on the imagery, just by necessity of keeping the action moving. But it still showed up.

One very intersting aspect of Mafi’s writing was the strikethrough text. I’ve never seen that in a book, and though at times it was distracting for me, I thought it was a lovely touch on the whole.

I could not find the locale used in the beginning—the insane asylum—to be believable. This sounds like a trivial detail, but in the long run I think it’s important. The asylum is where Mafi chose to open her book, and as far as world-building goes, I don’t think she did a good job here.

Mostly my issue my the asylum is with the “shower scene” described in chapter 3. I have a hard time believing that, even when the world is in chaos, a government institution like a hospital would function the way it was described. Opening all the prisoners’ cells at one time to let them find their way through a pitch-black maze of hallways to the showers? Not even realistic. Who in their right mind, if they wanted to keep control, would let a bunch of “disturbed” kids roam around a dark building with no idea where they are or what exactly it is they’re looking for? This sounds like a romantic plot device to get our two love interests alone together in the dark. Unimpressive.

However, my real issue with this book was Juliette’s character. Self-loathing does not make for a good plot. I can only put up with so much “woe-is-me-I-killed-a-person” and “I’m-so-isolated-from-everything” and “my-parents-hated-me.” It gets old. And it’s hard to have a strong female lead who thinks she’s worthless and should just die to save other people. The only thing that made Juliette’s character palatable was the fact that she snapped out of her woebegone self-loathing. Mind you, it happened in the second-to-last chapter. But it happened, so I forgive her.

This was a fantastic read! It’s only my second YA dystopian novel, but if there are others out there like this one, I see the appeal. Mafi’s brilliant writing was the big seller here, but in most respects it was a very good debut.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is probably one of the most beautifully written books that I have ever read. I also almost gave up on it completely after about 10% of it. Kate Simses, the narrator, was definitely Shatter Me's saving grace.

Since I listened to the audiobook, I think it changed the reading experience. (I cannot tell you if it was for better or worse.) For one, I missed out on the scratching out of phrases except for the brief ripping sounds in the audiobook. Honestly, I thought it was skipping at first. It was more annoying than effective. As for the flowery descriptiveness, I would have probably skimmed through most of that. Mafi used strings of similes and metaphors to say the simplest things. It was the most lovely overkill that I've ever experienced. It was torturous to sit through, being as it was used mostly to illustrate the hormonal explosions happening with Juliette. I have read borderline erotica that did not have heroines so needy and starved for human touch as that girl. Granted, she had spent nearly a year in solitary confinement at an insane asylum. That lusty desperation overshadowed the majority of the novel. Juliette was either pining over Adam, the boy thrown in the cell with her at the start of the novel, or waxing poetic about Warner, the twisted leader of the sector. I know that she hated Warner, but she infused much of that hatred with flowery descriptions of his hotness. Say what you will about me, but I will forever refer to this novel as The Passionate, Desperate Ramblings of a Lonely, Horny Teenager from this day forth.

As for the characters themselves, I did not find myself really liking, hating, or even feeling sympathetic to any of them. Juliette was a [very weak person who let herself be defeated by her circumstances] young girl who has gone through a lot. She wallowed, nay luxuriated, in self-hatred because of her ability and did not really think of herself as a worthwhile human being deserving to be treated as one until Adam began showing affection toward her. That [pissed me off that she required a male for her own happiness] made me very sad. As for Adam, he mislead her from the start, and I kept waiting for him to pull a trick out of his hat. That is not a good way to start a romance. Warner is a twisted, mean bastard, but he never tried to be anything but that. Juliette always knew where she stood with him and what he was capable of, whether she liked it or not. James was probably the only character I came remotely close to liking, but he did not come along until much later in the book. Unfortunately, he is very much a secondary character, and I don't see him progressing into much more than a cute kid on the sidelines.

The setting of the novel itself was interesting, but not enough to really redeem the book. The world was changed, causing death of animals, plants, and nearly humanity. A group called the Reestablishment took over the government and was trying to save what it could of the people around the world. The Passionate, Desperate Ramblings of a Lonely, Horny Teenager... Err... I mean Shatter Me is a dystopian, so the Reestablishment was, of course, portrayed as EeeeVille. Realistically, when times are tough, people get hard. Look at the Middle Ages. The whole concept was interesting, but nothing new. The setting was also used to get a bit preachy about environmentalism.

It would be unfair of me to at least not mention that the book picked up at the end, but it was too little too late. Juliette does put a damper on those raging hormones and becomes a tad bit more interesting, but it's in the last chapters. There is finally talk of the powers Juliette and others have developed, but it's really nothing new. *coughs* X-Men *coughs* I have hopes that she'll stay remotely interesting in the later books in the series, but I don't know if Ill stick with it to see.

[The Passionate, Desperate Ramblings of a Lonely, Horny Teenager] Shatter Me is a beautifully written [hot mess] young adult novel that I bet teenagers are loving everywhere. I even have adult readers that I'm looking forward to giving the book to at the library because I know they'll love it. However, [The Passionate, Desperate Ramblings of a Lonely, Horny Teenager] Shatter Me is most assuredly not for me.

The writing style is very unique and it almost deterred me. It is journal style, almost prose, but not quite, but I am glad that I stuck with it because I was soon enamored by Juliette The prison that she is in, and the mysteries of her past quickly had me soaking it in and flipping through the pages, annoyed any time the outside world interrupted.
Soon enough, another character, Adam is introduced, and there is also questions that arise about his character. Did she know him in the past? Does he just look like someone she knew? Is her fear from something she did, or is it something he did to her? But we also see glimpses of his softer side through the tough exterior, and that makes him appealing to me.
When Warner comes on the scene, I don't know what to think of him, because I had read some reviews that talked about Team Warner vs Team Adam and I kept waiting for what made people attracted to him. Then I also saw peeks of his pain and what he has been through, and the similarities he had to Juliette, but then some of the things that he did made me second guess anything I though I saw.
But about half way through some things come up to make me question Adam! So, Mafi has a talent for twists, and making me on the edge of my seat questioning motives, and what was the real or pretended front for the characters.
As of right now I am going to have to claim team Adam, he is sexy, sweet, and there is a history with them, and a connection.
The world building was okay for me. We learn about it through Adam because Juliette was there for the beginning of the change, but was mostly locked up for it. It is a dark and chilling world.
I couldn't believe some of the developments and how Shatter Me left off.
I loved every moment, and couldn't wait for the next book. I was mad at my library and wanted Unravel Me to be in my hands the moment I closed the book.

Bottom Line: Great start, fresh voice, and awesome premise that was executed beautifully.

Why I Loved It: I wasn't expecting to like love this book. The cover is gorgeous breathtakingly beautiful, but I had a hard time getting into the writing style. Let me give an example of the style I speak of:


“What are you writing?” Cellmate speaks again.
These words are vomit.
This shaky pen is my esophagus.
This sheet of paper is my porcelain bowl.

It was different and strange and really worked for me. It just took me some chapters to adjust and appreciate. Juliette is an incredibly well created character. The style created who she was, naive and confused and emotionally lost. She has spent her life never being able to touch someone without causing them enormous pain. That's a hard existence to live. It isn't until she meets Adam, a boy who is immune to her touch, that her world changes. Even still, Juliette harnesses a great power which is normally craved by ambitious people. Juliette will have to fight to avoid being a pawn in a world full of destruction.

Ms. Mafi has such a unique style that worked so well. The writing is choppy and messy and filled with complete honestly and lies. The world around Juliette has the bleak landscape of many dystopian novels, but it managed to hold it's own and maintain a uniqueness. My ARC of Unravel Me is dying to be read.

The book is a mixture of fantasy and romance with a hint of my beloved X-Men style of sci-fy. It was an incredible read, and one I recommend to those who enjoy fantasy.

Before I read this, I had read a bunch of reviews most of which said this was a horrible book, and the writing style was hideous. So, I almost didn't pick this book up. Thank God I didn't listen to them. This book is fantastic.

I absolutely loved the main character and her unique power which you don't see nowadays. I also absolutely LOVED the dystopian world the author created. I guess I'm already a sucker for dystopias, but this one is one of my favorites.

The characters were amazingly developed. I was actually kind of surprised. It was hard to figure out who was the bad guy and who had just been brought up incorrectly, and all that jazz. At some times I felt angry with a character and certain he/she was pure evil, and at other times I felt as if there was another side to the character. And this is how characters should be. Not many people are truly evil or even truly good. Everyone makes mistakes.

The writing style is different. I'll give the other reviewers that. But, you get used to it. And then you start to like it...a lot.

Read the book. It's good. And once you're done read the next one, because Shatter Me is a series. And Shatter Me is one of those books that needs to be a series.

This book had me hooked. I read it every time I could, in the car, walking somewhere, and under the school desk, trying to avoid being told off by a teacher. I would like to say I finished quickly, but I tried to linger it, and the times I did read it were few. But that didn't stop me loving this book, all of it was truly spectacular. The characters, the writing style, the plot and the brilliant power that Juliette had, the power to kill when touched.

I loved Juliette's power, how awesome would it be to kill someone who got a little to close for comfort. It seemed like a brilliant dream for me, until Juliette started talking about how even her own parents hated her. This made me depressed me, I felt extremely sorry for her, something that normally doesn't happen in books, unless they are of great quality. I was dancing in relief when Adam was able to touch her, I would of screamed if he couldn't.

This worked really well until Warner was able to touch her. I wanted to punch him on the nose. I hated Warner, he seemed like a massive, rich, selfish snob, the opposite of Adam. He just wanted to use Juliette, even if he tried to show how much he liked her. He might of been an ok guy in a different universe, but he just went about life the wrong way.

I loved Adam, he was a perfect hero. I loved him, he was just the most selfless, passionate, kind character. His caring nature for his brother and Juliette is just what all boys need. He risked his life for her, including signing up for the army. He was just perfect, perfect, perfect.

i loved the writing style, I have never read a book that had words crossed out every now and then. I thought it was weird at first, but it really worked in the end. Also, at the start, Juliette was slightly insane, her mind wandering into crazy land every now and then. But as the book progressed, both the crazy times and the crossing outs decreased in number, as she started becoming less insane. It was just a brilliant technique that worked really well.

This book was truly unique, and I cannot wait for the next one to come out. When it does, I will be the first to get it. It was just an amazing book that everyone should read.

I just read this book, like, half an hour ago, and I'm not kidding, I would read this over again, right now. Before you brush that off, the only time that I have ever wanted to do that before would probably have been after reading Divergent.Everything about this book screamed UNIQUE.

I will admit, at the start the writing style was a little confusing. All the crossed out words kind of confused me at the beginning, but I soon got used to it and really liked it.

Juliette, 17 years old, hasn't touched anyone for exactly 264 days. Last time she did, someone died. She is locked up, her world consisting of four walls, a window and her notebook, her only solace. The Reestablishment said that they would fix things. That they could make it all better. But the animals are dying, birds don't fly, everyone is starving and the sky is the wrong colour. Then the unexpected happens. She is given a cellmate. Then something even more unexpected happens. The Reestablishment has changed their minds about her. She needs to know who she can trust. She can become a weapon of war... or a warrior for rebellion.

This wasn't like your average dystopian novel. Most dystopians are about the protagonist trying to topple the evil people and save humanity and all that, and obviously, being a dystopian, there was some of that, but it was more about Juliette trying to protect people from herself, and her struggle to understand what/who she is.

I loved the characters. Juliette was a great protagonist, with just the right amount of fight and uncertainty in her. She thinks that she is weak, insane, a monster, but she soon shows that she is none of those things. She think she has a curse, and it was really great taking the journey with her as she realises she is perfectly sane, a good person, definitely not a monster, and she has a gift, not a curse.

Adam is the perfect guy. I admit that I don't like all those girl obsessing over their counterparts and basically thinking about nothing else, and I will also admit that sometimes Juliette was a little obsessive at some parts, but I didn't have to struggle through those parts. They were very well written. Adam is so brave and kind and handsome and all that, and he is the only one who doesn't see Juliette as a weapon or a monster, and the lengths he goes to for Juliette and his brother, James, show just how much he really cares about them.

Warner the evil guy, was very evil, that much is definitely certain. I was a bit confused about him, because he really WAS hateful, and he was written so well that i definitely disliked him very intensely, but at the same time you could see that, in his own, creepy, possessive way, he genuinely loved Juliette, even if it was an "I love you and will stalk you and try to keep you forever mwahahahaha" kind of way.

The moment I finished with this book, I quite literally wanted to flip back to the beginning and read it all over again! If I didn't have a stack of about 20 other books to read, I would have immediately! I will confess to going back through and re-reading the shower scenes (oh la la) and ALL the other swoon worthy scenes!

I loved this book, and the characters are amazing!

Juliette--the heroine who can kill people with her touch. I loved taking this journey with her as she is realizing that it's not a curse, but a gift. It's written like a diary, so there are thoughts marked out that really dig even deeper into her psyche. We see what she fears and her innermost desires. Some reviewers hated the way Mafi writes, but I absolutely adored it. The repetition and the metaphors captured me...if only there were more writers like her!

And then there are the boys....Adam (boy of my dreams) and Warner (bad boy of my dreams).

I'm not going to write much for fear of giving something away, but I have to say that Adam is just so....I can't even put it into words! I love him! He's sexy, chiseled, compassionate, obsessive, defensive, bold (oh so bold) and I love all of him!And I love the way Mafi describes his reactions to Juliette. I felt like I was right there with him! He definitely made me blush and increased my heartbeat ten fold!

Now Warner...the resident bad boy of this piece. He's a walking oxymoron--obsessive yet loving, angry yet kind....I just don't know what to think about him. He wants Juliette for her power, but does it stop there? Does he love her or is it just crazy power-obsessed psychosis??

I can't wait until Unravel Me comes out....eeek! February 2013 can't get here soon enough. Until then, I'll just have to keep re-reading and dreaming!

Stunningly beautiful metaphors used to describe Juliette's inner turmoil and surrounding landscape was not enough to save Shatter Me from a powerless heroine, a nonexistent plot and weak world-building.

I tried I tried I tried to relate to Juliette. Having grown up abused and unloved, then thrown into solitude for almost an entire year, I started reading Shatter Me knowing that Juliette was going to be an unstable character. I knew she was going to be meek and withdrawn and I had accepted that; I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was her unrelenting lack of character development. For the vast majority of the book, she spends her time crying/trembling/gasping/blushing, all while adamantly refusing to understand how anyone, but especially Adam, could care for her. This type of behaviour I could have forgiven, had she shown any growth. But it wasn't until the last few chapters that she went from being a weak, ridiculously melodramatic and frustratingly insecure protagonist into one with the glimmer of something resembling strength.

I also had a hard time justifying her words with her actions. To his face, Juliette was constantly calling Warner a "murderer" or a "monster" and when she was discussing Warner with Adam, he was called "psychotic" and "obsessed." She also often referenced how Warner was looking to own her, to make her his toy. But on the inside, she was admiring his physical appearance, often during inappropriate or life-threatening moments. There were several mentions of how beautiful his green eyes were, or how smooth and sensual his voice was. There's even a scene where she lets Warner kiss her, and is surprised that she feels a connection between them and that she likes how he tastes. I just couldn't understand how I was supposed to respect, let alone relate, to the type of heroine who would let herself be so easily manipulated by someone who had forced her to endanger the life of a young child, who had held her captive - controlling when/what she ate and what she was allowed to wear - and who threatened the life of the person she claimed to love.

My issues with Juliette aside, I was also disappointed with the world-building...or I should I say, lack of world-building. Being labelled a dystopian, I was eager to learn about the world Juliette inhabited and how it had reached that point. I was excited to see how Juliette and Adam rose up against the Reestablishment, to use Juliette's strange power against those, like Warner, who would see it used as a weapon. But Shatter Me is much more a paranormal romance with a dystopian setting than a pure dystopian, so my knowledge of the world was limited by how it affected her growing relationship with Adam. Sure, we were provided with the odd detail here and there, but I'm having a very hard time coming up with the entire picture. And the little details which were leaked were drowned amidst the overabundant use of metaphors and flowery prose, with the dystopia only making its presence known in order to make the romance interesting.

"I open my eyes and he's standing right in front of me. My heart is a field of lilies blooming under a pane of glass, pitter-pattering to life like a rush of raindrops."

It was during these more flowery prose moments that I most questioned the dystopian elements. It's mentioned several times how barren the landscape is, with every living thing having perished without adequate heat/nourishment from the sun. Juliette and Adam both comment with awe on how birds used to be able to fly. How would Juliette know what a field of lilies in full bloom looks like? I found there were a lot of instances where the metaphors either didn't make sense in the context of Shatter Me's particular dystopian setting, or just didn't make sense at all.

"Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into semblance of something too passive to punch."

It sounds very pretty and deep and poetic - but what the hell does it mean?

As for the plot itself, it was virtually nonexistent. Most of Shatter Me is spent watching Juliette question herself and her ability to love and be loved. There's also a lot of steamy shower scenes, where nothing but heavy breathing and lip hovering near ears seems to happen. Moments of danger and heightened suspense - fleeing from the compound with gunshots going off in the near distance, for example - were all made less immediate with inappropriate inclusions of tender moments; I'm on edge, urging the characters to keep moving and they're stopping to stare deeply into each other's eyes. I kept being pulled from moments which would have made the plot seem more action-packed and eventful by seemingly stupid moments of passion between Adam and Juliette.

Beautifully poetic with it's flowery prose, Shatter Me was a delight to read - in that I enjoyed the writing. But the content which made up the writing had a few too many flaws for me to completely immerse myself in the story. If you go into Shatter Me thinking it is a paranormal romance, you might get more enjoyment out of it then I did, expecting a dystopian.

This book blew me away.

Shatter Me has undertones of dystopian fiction, but it is really its own entity. How do I explain this? Imagine that your favorite paranormal, superhero, and dystopian books were put into a blender to make one single book. That right there? That would be this book.

Now I think it's important I start off with the writing style in Shatter Me because that seems to be the one thing that might keep people from falling in love with this gorgeous book. I'll admit, Tahereh Mafi's writing style is unlike anything I've read before. It's eerily prosaic, wonderfully descriptive, and oddly disconcerting, all at the same time. Replete with strikethroughs and repeated phrases, it feels sometimes like you might be going crazy yourself. I think it's important to remember that the reader is inside Juliette's head during the story. This is a girl who hasn't seen another person, hasn't touched another person, for what seems to her to be an endless amount of time. Being in Juliette's head can be off putting, or it can be beautiful. It all depends on how much you allow yourself to be immersed in the girl, and the world, that is built here.

Juliette's character is what really brings Shatter Me to life. Constantly fighting a battle between the madness that she thinks still might consume her, and the giving person Adam knows her to be. Juliette is equal parts strong willed and vulnerable. The knowledge that her power can harm others cripples her, and she constantly wavers between feeling like a monster and a normal girl. Juliette truly has a power that can be used for good or evil, and both opportunities are presented to her. It might sound cliche at first glance, but I assure you that the girl on the pages is anything but that. Juliette's wariness at trusting others, her need to help even if she isn't sure if she should, her constant questioning of herself even when she's fairly sure that she is right, is all the product of her past. Tahereh Mafi builds up a girl who is believable and unique wrapped into one package. Juliette isn't perfect, and I loved her for that.

Shatter Me is definitely dsytopian, and the world that is built around Juliette's story is amazing. Cities crumble to the ground in the wake of The Reestablishment. People cower in doorways as what is left of society is patrolled, and essentially owned, by the soldiers who are loyal to the movement. The explanation as to how this came about hit very close to home for me. To say that this world is possible, well that's an understatement. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that there is a distinct possibility we really could get to that point. It made me ponder that, and that made me fall even further under the spell of this book.

If you can't tell from my musings above, I fell madly in love with this story. Devouring 120 pages in half an hour let me know that I was in for the long haul. I admit that I know that it won't be for everyone. As I mentioned, the writing style is different and might put some people off. However I can honestly say that if you give it a chance, if you allow yourself to fall wholeheartedly into Juliette's world, you might just find a story that will immerse you like it did me. Shatter Me is a refreshingly unique read that I enjoyed thoroughly. If there is indeed a sequel coming, I can't wait!

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Tahereh Mafi is a gifted writer! I was hooked on this book from the very beginning. The world she created is not the pretty and perfect world. It literally sucks! Everything is falling apart and Juliette gets thrown into it. She has been in isolation for 264 days, don't know what is going on, on the outside world. People are starving, rivals are fighting for control. History is being erased so a new world can be built.
I really liked the characters in this book. I love how Tahereh brought Juliette to life using her words. Her writing made me feel for Juliette. I felt for her when she was taken away from her parents, and they didn't even try to help her. I cared for her when she spent 264 days in isolation with no one to talk to. I worried for her when she screams from her nightmares and wishes that she never has to sleep. I liked how she gave so much to others and never asked for anything in return. All she wanted was to be accepted and not seen as a monster. She is a fighter and never gave up when Warner tempted her with luxury. She's gifted and I hope we get to see more of it in the next book.
Adam, the love interest, just seems too good to be true! Why can't all guys be like him? =P At first I was kind of hesitant about him, until I later found out that they new each other since third grade, although they never talked to each other. Their relationship in the book is SO intense! There are quite a few parts in this book that were hot!! =) Adam is so loyal and determined that he was willing to sacrifice himself to help Juliette get out of the horrible institution. In walks Warner, the villain. He's an interesting character. I want to know more about him. You just can't help but like him even when he's mean. Yeah he's the bad ass in the story who wants nothing but control and power, but I just feel like there's a lot more to him. When Juliette joked about "Your poor mother" he was so alarmed and had this unguarded look on his face, it just makes you wonder about his relationship with his mother, was is a good one or bad one? Did he love her? What happened to her? I hope we get the chance to see his side of the story.
Overall, this book is a five star! I love where Tahereh is going with the story, everything opens up in the end makes you wondering what will happen next. I was so engrossed in this book that the next thing I know, I was reading the last page of the book. I couldn't believe I finished it within a few hours. That's how good it was. This book is a definitely must read! I look forward to reading the next book in this series. Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) expected publication date is February 5th 2013.

You can usually count on mermaid books to be fun and fluffy and that's exactly what Fins Are Forever was. There were some semi-serious parts since Lily is growing and learning how to fit into the adult world, but overall this was a pretty light read. Not that that's a bad thing, in case you were wondering.

It was nice to see Lily growing up, but she really can be a bubble brain (see what I did there?) at times. She was incredibly rude to Dosinia for a good bit of the story. I'll give you that Doe can be quite nasty, but Lily was being mean before Doe even did anything wrong. Lily also tends to have a flare for the dramatics, but I found it to be endearing rather than annoying. I'm still a big Quince fan, but I didn't like him quite as much as in Forgive My Fins. I still liked him, of course, but he seemed much more like a background character here and I would liked to have seen him come around a bit more.

Overall, I enjoyed it, but it felt as if too much stuff was shoved into this one tiny book. With everything in there, some things just ended up being kind of swept under the rug by the end. Case in point: for the entire book Lily is stressing about college and SATs, but by the end of the book we had no idea as to the outcome. And everything that happened with Dosinia felt rushed but also like it came out of nowhere. These both contributed to the feeling that the end was a bit rushed and left me wanting more.

Final Thoughts: Fins Are Forever is a nice fluffy read complete with soft-hearted biker dude and super cool mermaids. If you're in for something light with just a little more fantasy than contemporary, this could definitely be the one you're looking for.