Shatter Me
Tahereh Mafi
Narrated by: Kate Simses
Summary (from amazon.com):
"You can't touch me," I whisper.
I'm lying, is what I don't tell him.
He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.
But things happen when people touch me.
Strange things.
Bad things.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.
But Juliette has plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.
My thoughts: Well...I'm conflicted about this one. I really wanted to love it as I've heard many good things about it but alas..I did not. I'm not certain if my experience of it was less than desirable due to it being in audiobook format or if the writing style is just not for me. I think I will have to read the book itself someday to make that decision. Let's start with what I didn't like and end with a positive note :)
First off, I am not a big fan of this narrator. She is too lightspoken for my taste although the MC is very fragile in the beginning so I can see the reasoning in picking her. As the story progresses, the MC gains confidence and strength but when she asserted herself I didn't believe it due to the narrator's reading of it. Her enunciation felt off to me at times. Having recently delved into the audiobook world, I am seeing how crucial it is to have a good narrator. I have listened to good narrators...ahem Nick Podehl narrating The Chaos Walking Trilogy was INCREDIBLE. But I digress...this narrator is just not for me, thats all there is to it.
Secondly, the writing style in this is incredibly flowery. There is a metaphor in practically every single sentence and I found it weighed down the story. Now don't get me wrong, I love some flowery writing but it has its place and time. If a book is laced heavily with it, I don't appreciate the beauty of it, I just get irritated. I find it so much more enjoyable when you are reading a novel to be surprised by a lovely use of metaphor, than to be bombarded over and over again. There were some truly beautiful passages that had they not been surrounded by so many other melodramatic comparisons, I would have appreciated them much more.
Alright now on to the things I did like. The story was creative and different than anything else I have read recently so the author certainly gets props for that. I did like the MC and her love interest, I felt their relationship was developed pretty well. I appreciate a complex villain and this story certainly had one, I couldnt decide from one minute to the next whether he was evil or just misunderstood. The story wrapped up well enough that it could stand alone, no true cliffhanger, so that's another plus.
All in all, I think this would appeal to many fans of the young adult dystopian genre, I'm just not one of them. I will make sure to amend this review if I read the hard copy and change my mind :)
I'm lying, is what I don't tell him.
He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.
But things happen when people touch me.
Strange things.
Bad things.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.
But Juliette has plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.
My thoughts: Well...I'm conflicted about this one. I really wanted to love it as I've heard many good things about it but alas..I did not. I'm not certain if my experience of it was less than desirable due to it being in audiobook format or if the writing style is just not for me. I think I will have to read the book itself someday to make that decision. Let's start with what I didn't like and end with a positive note :)
First off, I am not a big fan of this narrator. She is too lightspoken for my taste although the MC is very fragile in the beginning so I can see the reasoning in picking her. As the story progresses, the MC gains confidence and strength but when she asserted herself I didn't believe it due to the narrator's reading of it. Her enunciation felt off to me at times. Having recently delved into the audiobook world, I am seeing how crucial it is to have a good narrator. I have listened to good narrators...ahem Nick Podehl narrating The Chaos Walking Trilogy was INCREDIBLE. But I digress...this narrator is just not for me, thats all there is to it.
Secondly, the writing style in this is incredibly flowery. There is a metaphor in practically every single sentence and I found it weighed down the story. Now don't get me wrong, I love some flowery writing but it has its place and time. If a book is laced heavily with it, I don't appreciate the beauty of it, I just get irritated. I find it so much more enjoyable when you are reading a novel to be surprised by a lovely use of metaphor, than to be bombarded over and over again. There were some truly beautiful passages that had they not been surrounded by so many other melodramatic comparisons, I would have appreciated them much more.
Alright now on to the things I did like. The story was creative and different than anything else I have read recently so the author certainly gets props for that. I did like the MC and her love interest, I felt their relationship was developed pretty well. I appreciate a complex villain and this story certainly had one, I couldnt decide from one minute to the next whether he was evil or just misunderstood. The story wrapped up well enough that it could stand alone, no true cliffhanger, so that's another plus.
All in all, I think this would appeal to many fans of the young adult dystopian genre, I'm just not one of them. I will make sure to amend this review if I read the hard copy and change my mind :)
i totally want to be one of those people who records audio books. i wonder how a person delves into that realm?! that would be so much stinking fun!!!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I dont have any idea how you get into that...maybe you should look it up
ReplyDelete