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A review by shellballenger
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
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
0.5
Type of read: Commuter Read
What made me pick it up: I found the wonderful world of Spotify audiobooks, and 'Shatter Me' was one of my suggested books.
Overall rating: 🎵🎵Conceal don't feel...don't let them know...well now they know...🎵🎵
That this book is an absolute dumpster fire.
First, I have to point out that my speedy reading of 'Shatter Me' was not due to my interest in the book but because I was working on a data project at work and 'Shatter Me' gave the perfect amount of background noise and random laughs to make a few days in Excel more fun. Ok, now that's over with, onto the review.
I think it's because of all the focus on Juliette's hands and touch but I immediately thought of Elsa from Frozen and then I couldn't unsee this weird Wish.com+Zombieland, dystopian version of Elsa as I read 'Shatter Me.' (Yes, I fully realize this book was published before Frozen came out, still.)
I had so many issues with 'Shatter Me,' with the biggest ones being:
-Minimal world-building, like to the point that you're not sure what year/age/area/world you're even experiencing all of this in.
-Language - Juliette's character continually talks in metaphors, euphemisms, and overly complicated descriptions. There is no reason that everything has to attempt to be so poetic and thoughtful. Not every sentence needs to be earth-shattering. Sometimes you can just say he moved across the damn room.
-The repetition in 'Shatter Me' doesn't lend itself well to an audiobook - which is on me for choosing this format - but, if you're going to include literal scratching, you might want to give your audience a bit of an idea of what's happening so they can better understand the story. It took me about a quarter of the way through the book to realize the scratches were intentional and were pencil scratches.
On the list of positives for 'Shatter Me,' Kate Simses is a brilliant narrator, and I feel like their voice very much fits my mental picture of Juliette. And they do a great job switching into varying voices for the other characters. That's about it for the positives.
I would not recommend 'Shatter Me' and I won't be continuing this series.
Reader's Note: Just don't.
What made me pick it up: I found the wonderful world of Spotify audiobooks, and 'Shatter Me' was one of my suggested books.
Overall rating: 🎵🎵Conceal don't feel...don't let them know...well now they know...🎵🎵
That this book is an absolute dumpster fire.
First, I have to point out that my speedy reading of 'Shatter Me' was not due to my interest in the book but because I was working on a data project at work and 'Shatter Me' gave the perfect amount of background noise and random laughs to make a few days in Excel more fun. Ok, now that's over with, onto the review.
I think it's because of all the focus on Juliette's hands and touch but I immediately thought of Elsa from Frozen and then I couldn't unsee this weird Wish.com+Zombieland, dystopian version of Elsa as I read 'Shatter Me.' (Yes, I fully realize this book was published before Frozen came out, still.)
I had so many issues with 'Shatter Me,' with the biggest ones being:
-Minimal world-building, like to the point that you're not sure what year/age/area/world you're even experiencing all of this in.
-Language - Juliette's character continually talks in metaphors, euphemisms, and overly complicated descriptions. There is no reason that everything has to attempt to be so poetic and thoughtful. Not every sentence needs to be earth-shattering. Sometimes you can just say he moved across the damn room.
-The repetition in 'Shatter Me' doesn't lend itself well to an audiobook - which is on me for choosing this format - but, if you're going to include literal scratching, you might want to give your audience a bit of an idea of what's happening so they can better understand the story. It took me about a quarter of the way through the book to realize the scratches were intentional and were pencil scratches.
On the list of positives for 'Shatter Me,' Kate Simses is a brilliant narrator, and I feel like their voice very much fits my mental picture of Juliette. And they do a great job switching into varying voices for the other characters. That's about it for the positives.
I would not recommend 'Shatter Me' and I won't be continuing this series.
Reader's Note: Just don't.