The Problem with Shatter Me

Shatter Me Trilogy by Tahereh Mafi

This series is one that I’d seen around for a long time. It was published in 2012, around the same time that dystopian novels and movies were all the rage. I’d never actually really known much of anything about this series, but had just never gotten around to picking it up, despite raving reviews from the booktubers I watched and the book-Instagram pages I followed, it was one that just slipped out of my grasp.

Finally, about 8 years later, I’ve read it. Well, I’ve read the first 3. There are apparently 3 more, and about a million more novellas but I’ve chosen to just sit with the first 3 for now. Hopefully that doesn’t spoil this review too much…

I wouldn’t say I had high hopes for this book, but I also wouldn’t say I had low hopes – somewhere in the middle sounds right. And honestly, it met my expectations. If you’re looking for a dystopian novel that’s rich with world building, a plot that knits together seamlessly and characters with layers upon layers of development, then this series isn’t for you. If you’re looking for something that’s an easy read, a fun story albeit being predictable and a cheesy love triangle where the two love interests are just so incredibly, soul-crushingly in love with the main character – then this is your go to.

I’m not going to lie, I have more negative things to say than positive, so I might as well get the good out of the way first.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

I’m honestly, surprisingly really glad I picked up this series. It has been a long time since I’ve gotten back into reading seriously and this series finally did it for me. My reading dropped off when I hit high school as my mental health, work and just general life stuff got in the way. This series was the exact easy-read that I needed to push me back into the habit and remind myself of the love I have for books.

The story is relatively fast paced and super easy to follow – there’s no real beating around the bush with the plot and what is going on. Although it’s very tropey, and often times has that cringey love story fluff, it did feel almost nostalgic as it reminded me of reading in my early teens. It’s the kind of story I would have absolutely gobbled up when I was about 14, especially when Warner finally stopped being portrayed as an absolute psycho and became the main love interest. (What can I say, I had a thing for bad-boys – shocker!).

I did also enjoy the idea of Juliette’s power – it’s actually an idea I had toyed with writing about myself when I was about 13, a main character who’s touch kills. It’s kind of unique, I mean I may not be the right person to call it unique as my ‘read’ list of books really isn’t as long as say, Sasha Alsberg’s, but as far as I can recall, I haven’t heard of another book with a similar power.

The final thing I liked is actually a bit of a controversial one. If anything, the one thing that stood out the most on Goodreads reviews, is the hate on Mafi’s writing style. Now I will admit, it was overdone a bit, and there were definitely times when it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I honestly enjoyed it. The personification and imagery was pretty solid in my opinion. It made for a fun read, and gave the story character. It was a fun way to see inside Juliette’s mind and give the reader something to think about.

Unfortunately, it’s time for the negative…And boy is there quite a bit. I do want to note that I don’t know if maybe the last 3 books help to make sense of any of this, but I haven’t read them so I’m going off of what I’ve read – keeping an open mind though! 😉

The first thing I want to talk about is the obvious, the 180 flip that happened on Adam and Warner’s characters. In the first book, Adam is this sweet and gentle guy, who only wants what’s best for Juliette and genuinely seems like a pretty decent dude. I’ll happily admit I was rooting for him in the beginning. But then, by book 3, he’s this jealous hot head, who thinks he’s better than Juliette and Warner, and hell maybe the other characters too. He openly yells at Juliette, isn’t afraid of looking like an absolute jackass in front of a whole group of people and genuinely turns into a bit of a pick-me guy.

In book 1, Warner is what I would call a raving lunatic who doesn’t quite understand that when a girl is constantly telling you how much she hates you, flinching away from you and full on avoiding you at all costs, this does not mean she wants to kiss you. I mean come on, “If I’d known you didn’t want me to, I wouldn’t have”? Homie, are you for real? Anyways, by book 3, he’s turned into this tortured soul, who isn’t actually a bad guy. Just a good guy who does bad things because he’s broken inside. Real Damon Salvatore vibes. Don’t get me wrong, I love a tortured bad guy love interest - it’s probably one of my favourites – but I couldn’t really get passed his character in the first book. It all just felt very flipped. On a side note – I also just couldn’t buy that this guy was only like 17. I don’t know, maybe I’ve just grown up too much but it wasn’t working for me.

The second thing I didn’t like, which is kind of the same wave-lengths as the first, it really felt like everything was getting explained away too easily. For example, in the first book, when Juliette and Adam escaped Warner’s clutches, Adam conveniently already had a solution to the tracker serum in his blood as there was this area covered in so much radiation that it cleared it for him. He found this out on some missions that Warner had sent him on, he had also conveniently left a tank somewhere, you know, just in case. Like I could buy all this if maybe it had been alluded to beforehand. Maybe if they’d had some conversation about his missions and he could tell her that story, or even at least mention that there was some tracker serum in his blood. Like this is the first time it was mentioned at all.

And then this happened again in book 2 I think it was, where all of Warner’s past discretions were just explained away. Him forcing Juliette to touch and potentially kill a toddler? Nah it was just a simulation, all in your head, of course I’m not that cruel. Kidnapping Juliette to use her as a weapon of mass destruction? Nah, just wanted to do some research so I could help my poor sick mother. Basically, forcing her to make out with him? Nah I thought you were into me. Like there were just all these things that we’d essentially lived through with Juliette in the first book, that just magically got explained away with no real evidence that he was a good guy. We just had to take his word for it.

As a very, very amateur writer myself, I’m constantly having these debates with myself. If I want to develop a plot point or somehow have a twist, I try to think of ways to sprinkle a bit of foreshadowing in or at least have some line in there that could be the faintest hint that whatever is going to happen, is going to happen.

My third point is something that really bothered me for some reason. Like, more than I’d like to admit. But in the beginning of the third book, suddenly Juliette decides she’d be the best leader. Mafi had this prior discussion of what would happen if the rebellion did succeed in taking down this cruel supreme leader guy, and of course the only logical thing is for their leader to take over. You know, don’t bother trying to have a council of some kind and run the country like a democracy or a republic or anything. But for the first two books, Juliette spends the whole time whining about how she’s going to hurt people, and she’s worthless and she wants everyone to leave her alone – she doesn’t show a single sign of any leadership skills, nor any interest in leading until suddenly she has this thought in the last book that she’d be perfect for the role. I just-it really bothered me, and felt really out of character for her.

There are a few more nit-picky things, like how the fuck Warner managed to convince his father he’d use Juliette as a weapon (honestly, how on earth was he going to use her? I really don’t get it), but if I continued on, this would just drag. And it’s been about a month since I did read the trilogy so I’m a bit foggy on some details.

Overall, the story was an enjoyable read. There are a lot of issues of course, what with the plot and character development etc etc, but if you can get past that, you will find yourself enjoying the story even if it does turn into a bit of a guilty pleasure read.

I give it about a 2.5-3 out of 5 stars.