Shatter Me: Shatter Me (#1)

I love the writing style,How the characters evolve in this series is just amazing. I love it! Also I adore Juliette's character here, and Warner even though he was kind of a "bad" person in the beginning I still like him for Juliette. This book is worth reading!

My initial review of this book-

Ummm.... whoa.... wowza.... jdkewqpafdnbk...
interpretation- 4.5 stars! OMGTHISBOOKISREALLYGOOD!!)

Now I've had a day or two to wrap my mind around the brilliance that is Shatter Me and I'm going to try and write a more coherent review.

You know those books that everyone says are phenomenal but you don't think it can live up to the hype but then you read it and you're blown away? Yeah, this is one of those books.

I have to talk about the writing style of this book. I'm not usually one rant and rave about a writing style but OH MY GOODNESS (!!!!) this book is so beautifully unique that I was blown away! It actually took me a minute to get into it because it was distracting at first but once I got used to it I was hooked.

I need to admit that I have a girl crush on Juliette. She is bad ass!! She is so very broken at the beginning of the book that I wanted to cry for her. I loved watching her grow and see the change that love brought into her life. I cannot wait to see where she ends up at the end of the series. I have a feeling she will blow me away with what she becomes.

Can we take just a few moments to talk about Adam? Because I can't write this review and not talk about him. You all know that I've got quite a collection of fictional boyfriends. Well, Adam has secured his place on my list. Not only is he on the list but his position on the list is near Ian O'Shea, Po, Cricket Bell, Four, Gilbert Blythe and Kaleb Ballard. Yes, he is that amazing. He and Juliette have some serious chemistry. I was worried my book would spontaneously combust a few times.

I was a little surprised by the end of the book. It went in a direction that I did not see coming at all. After thinking about it for a few days I've decided that I'm really excited about that twist and what it means for the next books in the series. My only problem is that I want the next book now ;)

At first, I didn't want to read this book. But then Whitney from Whitty Novels raves about the "Shatter Me" series all the time so I decided, why not give it a go. Oh my gosh, so worth it. This book is fantastic. Tahereh Mafi creates an realistic and very believable dystopian society. A key theme throughout the book is the act of everything "shattering" and the world feeling like ice. Tahereh beautifully crafts these elements into the story in a way that really grasps your attention. Not only is the story building on point, but the writing style is beautiful. She uses similes and metaphors to beautifully convey everything. My one little problem is that she doesn't write out her numbers, but I guess that is my inner AP Language student freaking out. Man has basically messed up the Earth so much that this group called The Reestablishment is trying to fix it. Well they find this girl, Juliette who's been locked up in an asylum for awhile and who's touch can kill and they want to use her. Juliet is a character I feel really connected to. She's shy and loves to read just like me, however, when the going gets rough, she becomes a tough badass. While her love for Adam is great, I just a little hard to believe they have both loved each other so much since they were little. Then we have Warner... I have conflicted feelings about Warner. I enjoy his character and the sexy evilness he brings to the story, but goddamn he is one crazy mofo. Seriously, his obsession with Juliet is out of this world. I absolutely loved James, and Winston and Kinji. They are funny and refreshing comedic relief. Omega Point seems like it is going to be an interesting new setting.
SPOILERS
So when Adam first came into the picture, I thought he was a huge douchebag the way he treated Juliet, though we later learn he did that on purpose, which I can forgive him for. And when I found him and Juliet could touch I was mindblown and so happy. When I found out Juliet and Warner could touch, I was scared for her, yet excited. My feelings for those two are complicated. When they kissed, I was happy yet at the same time I was disgusted... I don't know who to ship.

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.

I'm always the person who anticipates a book that every one else already loves and then end up hating it.
Honestly, I was prepared for that exact moment going into Shatter Me. It's been a few years since it was released and I'd had it on my to-read list since the beginning of time it seems.

And it started out slow...but still interesting.
And Juliette was annoying at times, but I could still stand her.
And yes, a sort of love triangle.
And the writing was odd and the repeating thing was annoying af.

But I love dystopian books. And I wasn't giving up on this.

And I'm glad I didn't.

Loved it. I need a movie of this.

Kenji, y'all. Worth the book alone.

Before I even finished reading, I had already ended up buying the next 2 books. (Thank you, bookoutlet!)

Great book. If you like superheroes, you'll love this

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.

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.

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.

_