Review for Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

4.5 Stars. Unique Writing Style, and an Intense Story.  This series blew me away. What I loved most was the growth Juliette’s character went through from the first book to the last. In Shatter Me there was a lot of description, especially in the first two chapters. The writing was beautiful, though a little wordy at times, but in a way that actually added to the story. The book is told through Juliette’s POV, so I could understand some of the repetition because these are her thoughts, and considering the book opens with her in an asylum it’s understandable that she’s going to have some jumbled thoughts. There are also some very interesting metaphors, some of which were things I’d never consider using to describe the things she was describing, but they added to Juliette’s personality. She’s quirky and a little crazy.

Juliette has a lot of growing to do in this book in order to be comfortable with who she is, but she’s still strong. I loved that despite everything she’s been through that she was able to hold herself together and hold on to her beliefs.

I also loved the romance between Adam and Juliette, though I felt like it happened a little quickly. I really wished there’d been a little more angst, and a little more build up between them. Having said that, after reading all three books, the pace of their relationship was perfect in retrospect.

In turn, the villain of this story, Warren, comes off as really sick and twisted, and he really gets into your head at the end of the book. When I first met him he wasn’t anything like what I was expecting him to be, and as the story progressed it was clear that there was more to his character than we got to see. There’s some mystery about him, and a vibrancy to his character that made me love to hate him.

This book starts out a little slow with Juliette locked up in the asylum, but it ends with plenty of action. I liked that Juliette takes the lead at the very end. For a little while it feels like she’s a bit of a damsel in distress having Adam save her, but she takes charge at the very end and ends up doing some saving herself.

Juliette is on a journey of self-discovery, she grows a lot in just this book, but even more as I look at the series as a whole. She’s very broken in Shatter Me, she’s afraid of what she can do, and this is just the beginning of her journey.