Thursday 16 August 2012

GoodRead - Shatter Me

I've had this jumping on and off my Goodreads To Read list since I first heard about it. On and off and on again then off. It was only when I listened to a podcast review from one of my fave podcasts at the moment, Girls in the Stacks (guest-hosted by the ladies from Mystical Lit Lounge), chatted about the book, I went "Ok, I need to get this book or I will never read it". Then I hit a reading wall and, asking Twitter for what my next read should be, Twitter picked this book!

It's been 264 days since Juliette last touched someone. No one knows why her touch is lethal. Hence why the Reestablishment have her locked in a cell while the world slowly falls apart. But when the leader of Section 45, Warner, takes interest in her and plans to use her gift as a weapon and when Juliette is forced to share her cell with a stranger that who might be someone she thought she had lost forever, Juliette discovers that she has to fight back if she wants her freedom.

Now, as you can see, this cover is the old cover. The International Edition. The new cover has a creepy looking eye with trees and waterfalls and birds flying away. So, if you''re hunting and you go "That cover's different to your review", that's way.

Ok, I wanna say something right off the bat. This is a going to be a marmite read for some of you. You are either going to love it, or you are going to hate it. There is some middle ground, which is where I sat, but most of you will be one side of the marmite fence or on the other.

The main reason why I call this a marmite read is how the story is written. It is full of similes, metaphors, strikethroughs and, every now and then, misses grammar. And, for some of you, this will have you throw the book across the room in fury.

But, I liked that this story was written this way. I have never read a story in this style before where it felt like Juliette's notebook where she pours herself into her writing like it's a stream of conciousness without edits and, when she does edit, she crosses it out then write something new in its place, yet you can see what she wants to be rid of.


And it was interesting mix of dystopia (which I have seriously fallen out of love with and am planning to pull myself back into that world soon) and X-Men (and I loved the Avengers movie!), with an interesting mix of characters (there was one scene that made me scream a ton of swear words at the baddie, Warner, as it did something I was so horrified over!).

However, I do have faults with this book. Believe me, I do have faults. One of my main faults is that it took me a very long time to connect with the love story and, even then, I was going "Are you really in love with him, Juliette? Or are you in love with him because he's immune to your touch and you haven't be touched in how long?" I felt like I was continually questioning the relationship...

I think this book will divide readers. You will either love it or hate it. I'm in the middle (didn't love nor hate it) so I might read the next book, Unravel Me (that's out next year), or the eNovella, Destroy Me (which is out later this year). So, we shall see...




2 comments:

  1. Marmite!!!

    I agree, I <3 the book but I'm not sold on the romance either. I'm a Warner fan, I just know some goodness is there somewhere underneath all that meanness.

    Oh, I HAVE to know what scene you are talking about with Warner!

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    1. Everyone I seem to chat to about this book are Warner fans and I'm like "He's a lunatic!"

      The scene in question: it's the end of chapter 24 and the whole of 25 where Juliette was in the training room with a toddler. I just felt ill and furious while reading that.

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