Shatter Me: Shatter Me (#1)

Shatter Me is a highly anticipated novel, and I suppose it's with good reason. But maybe I tried too hard to love this book, just because everyone else did.


My biggest problem - my only problem, really - with Shatter Me was the writing style. Commas are hardly used, and I understand that that's the style, but it irritated me to no end when there would be a sentence like . . . Well, I know I should give an example, but my copy is in my backpack right now. :o Anyway, while Mafi writes beautifully, I feel like this writing style just isn't for me. Sometimes a sentence just wouldn't make sense to me because she would say something like "The sun and moon explode as he responds." I just DIDN'T UNDERSTAND.

The metaphors were crazy. I barely understood any of them. They were all so nonsensical and confusing that the writing was almost painful to read sometimes. The writing style seems to be what people liked most - except me.


The other problem I had? [Highlight text to read. It's extremely spoilery :P] I need an explanation for why Juliette can touch Adam and Warner and no one else. I mean, I'm sure that's coming, but I need a real reason. It's just too convenient.


Juliette was, by far, my favorite part of the book. She's an interesting narrator and an amazing character. I loved how she was strong yet vulnerable at the same time. She was so real that I loved reading from her perspective. She was even fierce at times, and the way she felt about Adam was so easily translated. Her emotions came through clearly and always made sense to me.


The rest of the characters were all really well done, too. Kenji was the comedic relief, sort of, even though he wasn't a huge character. James was adorable, and I felt like he had a purpose for being in the book. Warner was awesome, even though he was a total psycho :P Mafi did a great job on him - I could understand why he was crazy. He actually had a real reason, one that made total sense to me.


And Adam. Oh, Adam. I don't even know what to say about him. Sometimes I wish he'd seemed a little more manly, but then he wouldn't be Adam anymore, would he? ;)

The plot was a nice part of the book, too. While I wish The Reestablishment's history had been explained more, I liked the idea. I loved how the book started off, too, with Juliette locked up like a monster. I loved seeing how her feelings changed about herself.

Overall: Shatter Me was a great start to a series, although I feel like some of the questions that are going to be answered in the second and third (if there's a third. I'm assuming it's a trilogy. Everything is a trilogy these days) should have probably been answered in Shatter Me. Despite my problems with the writing style, Shatter Me is a solid read that I can see a lot of people enjoying. 3 stars.