Juliette has a curse. Her touch is lethal. She has been locked away in a cell for 264 days. No talking, no light, no nothing. Until, that it, she is presented with a cell mate.
Unable to shake the feeling that they've met before, Juliette must embrace her powers and avoid being used as a weapon by those who imprisoned her. Is it possible for her to live this way?
Oh my goodness!! Words simply cannot express how incredible Shatter Me was. I was blown away by it all!! The story was so gripping I found myself mesmerised in every word.
I absolutely loved the writing style of this book. It was written in present tense first person from Juliette's POV. This is similar to other books, but what was completely different was that it was written like a diary or journal. It didn't have dates or 'Dear Diary...' or anything like that. But what separated it from other books was that it had every single one of Juliette's thoughts in. Some of these were crossed out and scribbled away as if Juliette herself was checking through her writing and got rid of the things she thought made her seem weak. This unique style meant that you had an insight of who Juliette was and who Juliette was trying to be. It was so honest and made her a really relatable character to read about. Normally I would hate it if books weren't grammatically correct or didn't really make sense in places but in Shatter Me it made complete sense to have them written this way. I loved it!
In Unravel Me, the second novel, Juliette is forced to come to terms with her powers and what they mean, but must also learn to contain them to avoid accidentally hurting people. Meanwhile, Adam is having problems of his own...
I loved Unravel Me just as much as the first book. I thought the Omega Point was great and loved how there were other characters with issues similar to Juliette's. It reminded me of X-Men in a way (which is never a bad thing!!). I thought Kenji's sense of humour (or just Kenji in general!) really lit up what would have been an extremely dark book. Without him, I think it would have been a little too dark!
The plot twist in this book upset me quite a bit. I wanted Adam and Juliette to stay together so badly, so when his 'immunity' to her touch was draining his life, I was disappointed. I was quite annoyed that Juliette wouldn't even try to help him and just wanted him to stay away from her. That did annoy me. I was also angry at her fascination with Warner! I hated him from the very beginning so I couldn't understand why she spent so much time with him towards the end of this book.
Despite all of this, I still loved how she was so head-strong and determined. I really love books with a strong female character in. Katniss, Hermione, Tris and Clary are among my favourites so when Juliette was as amazing as some of them, I was impressed!
Ignite Me brought the trilogy to an end. With Omega Point destroyed and Juliette separated from her friends, alliances must be made in order to bring down The Reestablishment once and for all. Can she really trust the man who locked her away?
Hmm... I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I loved it all the way up to the end, but the ending... It just let down the whole thing. However, it was great up to that part so I'll talk about that. The anticipation at the start of the book where we didn't know if Adam or Kenji were even still alive was pretty scary. I enjoyed the whole hiding out and planning for the battle part of the book. However, the battle itself? Well, there wasn't really a battle! I was expecting an ending as amazing as the Battle of Hogwarts!! I know this sounds bad, but I wanted some characters to die. I wanted the book to tug at my heartstrings. But I got none of that. Juliette simply killed Anderson and proclaimed herself as the new leader. And everyone was just okay with that.
It really did confuse me. It felt like Tahereh Mafi couldn't think of much of an ending so just left in as a draft form. I wanted a battle! I wanted a huge finale! I got none of it. I'm still a little confused at why Juliette wanted to be everybody's new leader and why everyone accepted her as it. Surely someone else would have been better?
But what annoyed me the most was that Juliette got together with Warner rather than Adam in the end. First impressions mean a lot, and I hated Warner from the beginning. I know now that he did what he did for a reason and he wasn't as bad as Juliette made him out to be, but I just don't like him. Adam was quite stroppy in this book, but you can't really blame him since everything he did was for Juliette.
Despite all of this, I really did enjoy the book and I gave it 4 stars.
All in all, I thought the series was great. It was original and thrilling and I was hooked after the first chapter. However, none of these books got a full 5 stars from me and here are the reasons...
Kissing! I have never minded a bit of kissing in books. Most of the time it's really cute and puts a weird looking smile on your face. But there is a limit on how many pages you can fit one single kiss into. Honestly, some of the kisses in this series took up at least 4 pages!! At the end of the first page, I was still in that 'Awwwhhh!' period, by the second page it was starting to wear off and by the third or fourth page I sat there with my eyebrows raised, tapping my watch! None of it was really very explicit; it just dragged on a bit!
My only other reason for deducting a star from each book was from their endings. I've already ranted about the ending to the series, but I was honestly also a little disappointed by the endings of books 1 and 2. I felt like the author closed her eyes and picked a point at random to end the book.
From what I can remember, Shatter Me ended with Juliette being given her new 'body suit' and Unravel Me finished when Juliette is with Warner and realises that she wants to fight.
Neither of these endings made me urgently want to pick up the next book (but I did it anyway!) and I think the books would have benefited ending on cliff hangers.
For example, it's near to the end of Shatter Me when Juliette goes to Omega Point. I think it would have been great if the book had ended at this point, finishing with the words "Welcome to Omega Point." or something along the lines of that.
As for Unravel Me, I think a great ending would have been for Warner to tell Juliette that Kenji and Adam are dead, as he does in the opening pages of Ignite Me. Even though it's false, it would have made a great cliff-hanger.
The endings feel almost accidental as they are.
I really, really, really enjoyed reading this series though and the duo of novellas in Unite Me made a great accompaniment to the series. All the books made my 'favourites' shelf and I look forward to reading them again.
I would recommend them to fans of dystopian novels such as Divergent and Delirium, as they reminded me of those books a little bit.
Well, that's it for this blog post! Bye!
Charlotte xxx
I absolutely loved the writing style of this book. It was written in present tense first person from Juliette's POV. This is similar to other books, but what was completely different was that it was written like a diary or journal. It didn't have dates or 'Dear Diary...' or anything like that. But what separated it from other books was that it had every single one of Juliette's thoughts in. Some of these were crossed out and scribbled away as if Juliette herself was checking through her writing and got rid of the things she thought made her seem weak. This unique style meant that you had an insight of who Juliette was and who Juliette was trying to be. It was so honest and made her a really relatable character to read about. Normally I would hate it if books weren't grammatically correct or didn't really make sense in places but in Shatter Me it made complete sense to have them written this way. I loved it!
Spoilers from this point on...
In Unravel Me, the second novel, Juliette is forced to come to terms with her powers and what they mean, but must also learn to contain them to avoid accidentally hurting people. Meanwhile, Adam is having problems of his own...I loved Unravel Me just as much as the first book. I thought the Omega Point was great and loved how there were other characters with issues similar to Juliette's. It reminded me of X-Men in a way (which is never a bad thing!!). I thought Kenji's sense of humour (or just Kenji in general!) really lit up what would have been an extremely dark book. Without him, I think it would have been a little too dark!
The plot twist in this book upset me quite a bit. I wanted Adam and Juliette to stay together so badly, so when his 'immunity' to her touch was draining his life, I was disappointed. I was quite annoyed that Juliette wouldn't even try to help him and just wanted him to stay away from her. That did annoy me. I was also angry at her fascination with Warner! I hated him from the very beginning so I couldn't understand why she spent so much time with him towards the end of this book.
Despite all of this, I still loved how she was so head-strong and determined. I really love books with a strong female character in. Katniss, Hermione, Tris and Clary are among my favourites so when Juliette was as amazing as some of them, I was impressed!
Ignite Me brought the trilogy to an end. With Omega Point destroyed and Juliette separated from her friends, alliances must be made in order to bring down The Reestablishment once and for all. Can she really trust the man who locked her away?Hmm... I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I loved it all the way up to the end, but the ending... It just let down the whole thing. However, it was great up to that part so I'll talk about that. The anticipation at the start of the book where we didn't know if Adam or Kenji were even still alive was pretty scary. I enjoyed the whole hiding out and planning for the battle part of the book. However, the battle itself? Well, there wasn't really a battle! I was expecting an ending as amazing as the Battle of Hogwarts!! I know this sounds bad, but I wanted some characters to die. I wanted the book to tug at my heartstrings. But I got none of that. Juliette simply killed Anderson and proclaimed herself as the new leader. And everyone was just okay with that.
It really did confuse me. It felt like Tahereh Mafi couldn't think of much of an ending so just left in as a draft form. I wanted a battle! I wanted a huge finale! I got none of it. I'm still a little confused at why Juliette wanted to be everybody's new leader and why everyone accepted her as it. Surely someone else would have been better?
But what annoyed me the most was that Juliette got together with Warner rather than Adam in the end. First impressions mean a lot, and I hated Warner from the beginning. I know now that he did what he did for a reason and he wasn't as bad as Juliette made him out to be, but I just don't like him. Adam was quite stroppy in this book, but you can't really blame him since everything he did was for Juliette.
Despite all of this, I really did enjoy the book and I gave it 4 stars.
All in all, I thought the series was great. It was original and thrilling and I was hooked after the first chapter. However, none of these books got a full 5 stars from me and here are the reasons...
Kissing! I have never minded a bit of kissing in books. Most of the time it's really cute and puts a weird looking smile on your face. But there is a limit on how many pages you can fit one single kiss into. Honestly, some of the kisses in this series took up at least 4 pages!! At the end of the first page, I was still in that 'Awwwhhh!' period, by the second page it was starting to wear off and by the third or fourth page I sat there with my eyebrows raised, tapping my watch! None of it was really very explicit; it just dragged on a bit!
My only other reason for deducting a star from each book was from their endings. I've already ranted about the ending to the series, but I was honestly also a little disappointed by the endings of books 1 and 2. I felt like the author closed her eyes and picked a point at random to end the book.
From what I can remember, Shatter Me ended with Juliette being given her new 'body suit' and Unravel Me finished when Juliette is with Warner and realises that she wants to fight.
Neither of these endings made me urgently want to pick up the next book (but I did it anyway!) and I think the books would have benefited ending on cliff hangers.
For example, it's near to the end of Shatter Me when Juliette goes to Omega Point. I think it would have been great if the book had ended at this point, finishing with the words "Welcome to Omega Point." or something along the lines of that.
As for Unravel Me, I think a great ending would have been for Warner to tell Juliette that Kenji and Adam are dead, as he does in the opening pages of Ignite Me. Even though it's false, it would have made a great cliff-hanger.
The endings feel almost accidental as they are.
I really, really, really enjoyed reading this series though and the duo of novellas in Unite Me made a great accompaniment to the series. All the books made my 'favourites' shelf and I look forward to reading them again.
I would recommend them to fans of dystopian novels such as Divergent and Delirium, as they reminded me of those books a little bit.
Well, that's it for this blog post! Bye!
Charlotte xxx
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