Review: Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi (and a short note on Unravel Me)

This book is the first in a trilogy. I feel like a lot of my reviews lately are of first books in a series. There seems to be a trend in the publishing world. But that is not necessarily a bad thing, although I sometimes crave some stand-alones…but anyway!

I had heard a lot about this series on Youtube. Everyone seems to love it, so I decided to give it a try, as it sounded interesting enough. 

I thought it was okay. The plot was interesting, even though I would have liked a little more world-building. The writing style didn’t really do it for me. We follow Juliette’s perspective, and lack of human contact has made her a bit weird. That comes through in the language, and while it adds something different to the narrative, I just didn’t really like it that much. 

As for characters we of course get to know people mostly through Juliette and her feelings about them. Having read the book, I feel like I don’t really know any of the characters that well. Perhaps I feel like I know Warner the best, and he is a certified psycho! This bothered me because I feel like I have heard rumors of a Juliette/Warner relationship, and if that is true he has some major redeeming to do! In my eyes I don’t think he could be redeemed. But I feel like the book is setting him up for it. We hear about his evil, absent father and his mysteriously unknown mother. At one point Juliette makes a snarky comment about Warner’s mother and he reacts in a way, that I think reveals that there is more to come on that score. But we don’t hear about it anymore in this book, and the whole scenario seems really awkwardly constructed as a plot point for something to unfold later. It made absolutely no sense for Juliette to make that comment in the conversation they were having, so I assumed it was put there to look back on later, when the plot reveals something about Warner’s mother. 

Another thing that irked me is that Juliette at some point comments “Touché” and the person she is with asks her if she is French. What is that? You don’t have to be French to use that phrase. And apparently nothing evolves on that. So why is that there if not to be used as a plot point later on? 

It takes us a while to find out about Juliette’s powers, but once we do they seem credible enough. But when she discovers that she can touch certain people, I just think it seems very convenient WHO she is able to touch. And we never get an explanation for her powers or the fact that some people are not affected. I get, that that is because she doesn’t know either, and suspense, and whatnot, but the other books in this series better have a whole lot of explanations ready, otherwise I will be sorely disappointed. 

I gave this 2 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.

I have decided to put my “review” of the second book in the series here, as I have only read 67 pages and don’t intend to read anymore of it. 

All the things that bothered me in the first book continued in this book; the language, the slow plot development, the relationships between characters and Juliette’s personality. I find her a weird mix of cocky confidence and shattering self-doubt, that I just can’t stand. I get that terrible things have happened to her, but I just couldn’t sympathize with her, because she annoyed me so much. 

The only reason I even started this book was because I had already gotten it home from the library and because I was intrigued by the rumors I heard about the plot (mainly the romance) on Youtube. But in the end even that could not keep me interested.