Ywa

I have a curse.I HAVE A GIFT.I'm a monster.I'M MORE THAN HUMAN.My touch Is lethal.MY TOUCH IS POWER.I am their weapon.I WILL FIGHT BACK

It's hard to pin point the biggest problem with “Shatter Me” because there are just so many things wrong with this book. Reading this was mostly like eating a cake so sweet that it burns your throat and makes your eyes water.

First of all, there's barely a dystopian tale to discover. The setting for the scary futuristic environment is weak and superficial. The dystopian elements exist only as a cover for the romance, which is was this really is. A done-a-million-times-before, stale, cookie-cutter paranormal romance. We have a weak, whinny, eternally suffering heroine, a love triangle made out of a villain who's not really a villain and the absolutely boring and humorless hero who keeps coming to the rescue of the damsel in distress. The sci-fi elements are whatever, they're there just to create a conflict that would justify the existence of the villain and of the love triangle.

This totalitarian regime that Juliette talks about with such horror is absolutely laughable. There's not way they would have managed to subdue such a large population in such an short amount of time. And the reason why the regime managed to take over was that a door had been left open by the chaos produced by the environmental disaster that ruined the entire planet. It seems everything was fine when she was a kid, then, all of a sudden the clouds changed color, the plants and animals started dying and the damage was so great that there was no point of no return. And all this in 5-10 years? Phuleeease. And then this new regime has nothing better to do than burn books and artifacts and moving people from their houses into weird compounds. Because building those didn't require resources?

Her childhood doesn't make any sense whatsoever other that it was very convenient for her parents to be these utter morons and monsters so it can be justified why Juliette is all alone. Why couldn't they just clothe her properly? With things that covered most of her body and put on some gloves on her little hand. They could've used gloves too. Even the dumbest, most uneducated people could have figured that out. Why did they hate her so much? I get that they were afraid of her but it's so unlikely that they treated her like the a disgusting rodent. And even if it would be case why wouldn't the doctors be interested in her well being taking into consideration that she was so unique? They could have stepped in and put her in the custody of the state. And then we're expected to believe that she accidentally killed that child because she just forgot about the effect of her touch, at the age of 14, after spending an entire life being unloved by her parents, being bullied by kids for this particular reason? Is she also mentally challenged? Because this is what it sounds like to me.

This book it's painfully overwritten. The author tried too hard to be clever and poetic. I was only a few pages in when I started getting annoyed by the myriad of metaphors and hyperboles. I didn't mind the strike-outs and the repetitions because they were meant to add an OCD flavor to her inner monologues. I get that we had to question whether she was insane or not. But the book was plagued with so many pointless, absolutely absurd metaphors. These were just unbearable. And it not likely at all that a girl who hadn't spoken to anyone in 3 years, who hand't read anything in 3 years, would be able to think like that.

This square courtyard could be my ballroom.I want to dance with the elements.

My heart soars and plummets at the same time.

They locked me up with a boy. A boy. Dear God. They're trying to kill me.My spine snapped in half with the pain. My stomach is a flimsy crepe, my heart a raging woodpecker, my blood a river of anxiety.

My jaw falls off. My jaw is dangling from my shoelace. My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps. I have to make a conscious effort to keep my jaw from unhinging.

Warner grips my hips and allows his hands to conquer my body. He tastes like peppermint, smells like gardenias. His arms are strong around me, his lips soft, almost sweet against my skin. There's an electric charge between us I hadn't anticipated.Let's talk about the J&A romance, shall we?. Ah, this I-want-to-scratch-my-eyes-out-romance. We have here one of the worst case of insta-love. Juliette and Adam barely know each other.They share a past together because they went to the same school, but they never actually interacted then. They just stared at each other from afar. Then they barely talked when they were in the asylum together and the same after she was released in his care. Juliette keeps changing her mind about whether he's a traitor or he's her friend. She gives in to what Warner says about Adam when he's clearly just to manipulate her into distrusting him. And then out of nowhere Adam tells her he loves her and she wants to cry and die in his arms. They spend the rest of the book having really naughty dry-humping make out sessions. Ha, and, very conveniently, Warner agrees to disable the cameras just in time for Adam to have a chance to confess his feelings and so they could enjoy the steamy moments with no audience. Yeah,right. Oh, almost forgot. How is it that everybody finds her so attractive when she supposedly spent 3 years in the asylum with not sun light, no proper hygiene and she was perpetually starved? She would have looked emaciated and extremely unhealthy. Instead, the second she's released she just needs a shower and every guy in sight wants her so badly.Some of the dialogues and inner monologues related to the “romantic” moments seem like they came straight from the cheese factoryHis hands at my waist, gripping my hips, his legs flush against my own, his chest overpowering me with strength, his frame built by bricks of desire. He chokes on a moan that turns into a kiss. My knees are knocking together and my heart is beating so fast I don't understand why it's still working. He's kissing away the pain, the hurt, the years of self-loathing, the insecurities, the dashed hopes for a future I always pictured as obsolete. He's lighting me on fire, burning away the torture of Warner's games, the anguish that poisons me every single day. The intensity of our bodies could shatter these glass walls.Adam pulls back just a tiny bit. Kisses my bottom lip. Bites it for just a second. His skin is 100 degrees hotter than it was a moment ago. His lips are pressed against my neck and my hands are on a journey down his upper body and I'm wondering why there are so many freight trains in my heart, why his chest is a broken harmonica.His heart is racing so fast I can't distinguish it from my own. It's 5,000 degrees in the air between us.I'm suddenly desperate to drink in every drop of his being, desperate to savor every moment I've never known before. I suddenly worry that there's an expiration date on this phenomenon. The possibility of losing him The possibility of losing him The possibility of losing him is 100 years of solitude I don't want to imagine. Realization is a pendulum the size of the moon. It won't stop slamming into me.His body presses closer and I realize I'm paying attention to nothing but the dandelions blowing wishes in my lungs.Overall many things were simply much too convenient: both of the love interests were immune to Juliette's curse (so she could properly make out with both of them); Juliette, Adam and Kenji were all immune to radiation which disabled the trackers; they found a car with keys in the ignition just when they were running for their lives; Kenji is a double agent that takes them to a compound where they have paranormal healers that simply erase Adam's wounds in 24 hours;Just to be clear, I'm not giving this a 1 star rating based on the writing style or because I did not gasp in awe while reading the metaphors. I would've gone past that if the characters hadn't been so horrible and there was more to the story than teenage hormones. What I can't get over is how pathetic and pitiful Juliette is, how sappy, boring and dry the romance was, and how weak the setting was for the dystopian elements. Too many inconsistencies, too many coincidences, way too disturbing relationships.There's nothing to be admired at Juliette. She's so incredibly damaged and pitiful. She doesn't need a relationship, she need psychiatric care. And so does Adam. He risked his brother's life for a girl he doesn't even know and he claims to love her just because. And Warner, I don't care he has mommy issues or that he's madly “in love” with Juliette, he forced himself on her which is indisputably wrong! Someone get these poor people a shrink!

The book was really fast paced, there was so much happening that there wasn't any time to properly digest what I was reading, I just turned page after page, until the last one. It gets two points for being so “readable”, however, the more I sit on, the more I wish I'd just skipped this one. The writing was not phenomenal, the characters were underdeveloped and the ending was unexpectedly flat, but the action until that point kind of made up of for that.

However, I can't overlook the gratuitous sexual violence. I don't see how it added to the story. The men were portrayed as the scum of the earth, the most sadistic and vile subhumans that could possibly be. Even Hatcher, who wasn't like the rest, who had a heart of gold, supposedly, behaved dubiously on a couple occasions. The women were utterly defenseless in the face of relentless abuse. Why there were resigned to this fate, and not armed to their teeth, beats me. A lot of bad guys do end up dying by the end, but only because Alice finds out she has special powers.

I have to give some credit to the author though, I don't think there's been another book that made me this sick to my stomach. It's going to take all of Rainbow Roswell's books before I'm able to smile again. And at least 50 videos with puppies.

“If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”

Why did it take me so long to pick this up?

Very addictive book, I read almost all of it one sitting (I had previously gone through only the first chapter). I was close to giving it 5 stars, but it wasn't quite there for me though. Overaall it was suspenseful story. Not as creepy/dark as I was expecting it to be, so I was a little disappointed there. Nevertheless, I still savored it.

I also enjoyed the characters despite the fact that they're all such terrible people, including Mrs. de Winter, the second, dear God, what-a-doormat. Fun to read about though. This is what I call unlikable characters done right.

I wish I had buddy read this. It's one on those books that provides plenty material for debates. The ending made me realize the parallels Jane Eyre which ignited in me the desire to read it again.

I'm not sure how I feel about this conclusion. I suppose it was rather underwhelming. But I still had fun with this, overall. I realize this series has a lot of flaws, nonetheless there are plenty of good things about it too and Armstrong will definitely be on my radar from now on.

P. S. I want to know why they put a white girl with bright eyes on the other covers, when the main character is 3 quarters Native.