Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read February 9, 2014:

Several dystopian series later, I re-read this in preparation for the last book in the series. I'm upping my rating from a previous 3.5 stars to 4.5, rounded up to 5.

On a sheer entertainment level, this book is amazing. The way Juliette manifests power, the relationship between she and Adam, the relationships and the reveal at the end all work well together to form a cohesive story.

The writing is beautiful, but not as over-the-top as I initially thought. It works well with Juliette as a person, given her struggle to avoid insanity and the fact that she is a desperate dreamer.

For someone reading this the first time, I would advise reading each of the books with the novellas in succession. It will make a lot more sense that way. There are some complicated relationships going on in this book, and having read especially the novellas sheds a whole new light on things. I'm glad I read all of them through, because coming back and re-reading this book made me see the characters and their actions in an entirely new light.


FROM JANUARY 2013:

My impression? "Out of balance."

I'd give this 3.5 stars, not just 3. This isn't dystopia, it's flat out romance. I'm starting to understand that there's an entirely new genre of young adult fiction that echoes those trashy paperback romances - "dystopian romance." Now don't get me wrong, I love me a good romance. And young adult romance in particular is very sweet, rather than trashy. But this isn't dystopia, so if you're looking for that, look elsewhere. It's simply a romance set in a dystopian future.

I loved the beginning of the book. Mafi at least jumps right in with the romance and the general setting was very intriguing. The whole numbers thing fell right into step with insanity, so she did set us up for a wild adventure. But she quickly descended into a rather tedious series of events that either weren't that interesting or didn't move fast enough or weren't told well, I'm not sure which. The story lost momentum right after it got interesting. So as far as the plot goes, adjust your expectations appropriately going in.

On the subject of the writing - the thing I noticed first? A lot of alliteration. Good grief, every sentence is full of it! And the similes, and the endless ethereal descriptions of feelings - clearly this author is very young as a writer and she bodes great potential.

It is also important to mention that I listened to this book rather than read it. While other reviewers were put off by the word repetition and endless crossing out of lines, that didn't bother me. When a voice actor does it, it makes sense. In fact, it took me a little while to realize that the sound of a pen going across a page was the "sound" of the character crossing out lines in a journal. You get the effect without having to be annoyed by the way it looks on paper.

As for the story in general, I found that the balance of plot and characters to be off. By this I mean that the plot could have been stronger if the characters had been stronger. I would have cared more about the action if I'd known the people better - all that describing could have been put to much better use by giving us more about Warner's background, Adam's background, even Juliette's background. To simply say that her family had to move a lot doesn't really give us any idea about how she came to be the way she is. If Mafi was going for the young adult version of the trashy romance novel, she succeeded. But if she had taken a more mature approach and focused on the background of the story, she would have had a great dystopian plot enhanced by the romance between the characters.

I have great hopes for Mafi. I think she's going to grow into herself as an author. I'm looking forward to more from her. And I did enjoy the book overall, despite its problems.

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