“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters."
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BLURB: A fragile young teenage girl is held captive. Locked in a cell by The Reestablishment – a harsh dictatorship in charge of a crumbling world. This is no ordinary teenager. Juliette is a threat to The Reestablishment's power. A touch from her can kill – one touch is all it takes. But not only is she a threat, she is potentially the most powerful weapon they could have. Juliette has never fought for herself before but when she’s reunited with the one person who ever cared about her, the depth of the emotion and the power within her become explosive . . .
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BOOK REVIEW
SERIES READING ORDER (with my rating):
1 SHATTER ME (3/5)
1.5 DESTROY ME*
2 UNRAVEL ME (4/5)
2.5 FRACTURE ME*
3 IGNITE ME (5/5)
4 RESTORE ME (3.5)
4.5 SHADOW ME*
5 DEFY ME (4.5)
5.5 REVEAL ME*
6 IMAGINE ME (5/5)
* Novellas
Novellas 1.5 and 2.5 can also be found in one bound volume: UNITE ME.
Novellas 4.5 and 5.5 can be found in one bound volume: FIND ME.
SERIES RATING
PLOT: 4.5/5
CHARACTERS: 3.5/5
WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT: 5/5
OVERALL RATING: 16.5
I was pleasantly surprised by this series. I was not prepared to be as engrossed as I was. The books are very easy reads and I sped through them, the first couple of books were certainly full of the usual YA tropes that I cannot mention without spoilers. but that isn't to say that they were devoid of an engaging plot. Each book had so many twists and turns I had no idea where the story was going from one chapter to the next!
Book one (Shatter Me) definitely has the sort of elaborate prose that you either love or hate (in the nails down the chalkboard kind of hate) there is no in between. The over abundance of metaphors and convoluted similes are, at times very confusing. The repetitive technique of crossing out sentences was a bit distracting. BUT as soon as I hit about the halfway point, it started to flow better and the writing style started to make more sense. We are occupying the mind of a 17 year old who has been in and out of one form of institution or another for years. She no longer has any connection with the outside world, she cannot separate real from fiction. We experience first hand the chaos and confusion that is her feelings and thoughts.
As the series progresses and Juliette becomes more self aware and confident and her knowledge gap is filled, the prose calms down and Mafi seems to follow a more traditional writing style. This was much needed as the plot becomes more and more complicated as the series progresses and it would have been detrimental to continue fully with the complex metaphors.
In terms of the characters I wasn't drawn to one particular character over another. Though I felt Warner and Kenji were the most interesting of them all. Warner's character development was certainly the most interesting. My ideas and emotions about him were the most varied out of all of them. Juliette was a character that I made allowances for in the first book because of the circumstances she was in, but very quickly her attitude and thoughts about her situation and others, really grated on me, I found her particularly frustrating in Restore Me (book4) though she improved after that she never endeared herself to me. Kenji was a much more likeable character and I appreciated his comedic timing and his bluntness. There are many more characters that are introduced from book 4 onwards, some are more successfully than others. There were many characters that had the potential to add a different dynamic to the core group of characters, but unfortunately they were not explored, in fact in subsequent books they sort of fade into the background along with a couple of the main characters, which was disappointing. I feel the cast got too big and there just wasn't enough plot for them to take part in. Mafi did include a lot of diversity in her characters, and I really liked how they were casually introduced, it showed that in the future it was more acceptable and the norm. I feel though this series can be billed as a dystopian you would be disappointed if you are looking for a typical dystopian. These books are more focused on character interactions and is mainly plot driven. There was a lot of focus on the romantic elements of the story. There isn't much world building, however if you stick at it, I believe that Mafi gives a good enough reason for this. I personally enjoyed it and did not see it coming. in fact in general I think the plot twists kept me highly entertained, enough so that I was able to overlook the previously mentioned issues. I found the series as a whole, to be a well paced, fast read, that got me more invested in the characters the more I read about them. I felt Book 6; Imagine Me was a much more surprisingly emotional read than the others in the series. As finales go I felt it could have easily done with a few more chapters, even though all my concerns and loose ends were addressed, I really wanted to stay with the characters a bit longer and see how they dealt with things. Though this series is not perfect, It has an old school vibe that was very nostalgic, I found it to be highly entertaining and I would recommend you give it a go.
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FAVOURITE QUOTES:
“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.”
“Find me a cure for these tears, I'd really like to exhale for the first time in my life.”