Emily May's Reviews > Shatter Me

This is not a dystopia, it is a romance. This is not a novel, it is a collection of similes and metaphors, most of which do not make sense. I originally gave Shatter Me two stars because that's my sort of kneejerk reaction to books I don't like, but after thinking it over for a while, I can't recall anything positive about it that would justify a rating of more than one star.

You're probably assuming - correctly - that I went into this book with low expectations. This is completely true. Any so-called "dystopia" with a runway model on the front cover leaves me feeling sceptical. However, I was also prepared to allow myself to be surprised; a lot of my friends loved this and one of the biggest criticisms didn't actually bother me - purple prose. I think there's a fine line in writing between the pretty and the purplish and different readers will define it in their own way. For example, some reviewers thought that Lips Touch: Three Times was just a mess of bloated purple prose, whereas I thought it was one of the most beautiful books I read last year. I have a high tolerance level for flowery writing. But...

Shatter Me's numerous metaphors, similes, and endless descriptions just didn't make sense. What is this?:

"Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into semblance of something too passive to punch."

I just... WHAT??? This is one example floating around in there, but every second sentence is like this! That's not even mentioning the annoying strike-outs. Trust me, no really, trust me, I thought people were being overly picky when they said the crossed out sentences were annoying. I actually thought it sounded interesting, unusual, especially because the whole thing is meant to be written in a notebook and I cross stuff out in mine all the time. But you have no idea how bloody annoying this is to read. All the effin' time. People didn't exaggerate: it will most likely drive you crazy.

However, there was one thing that for me was even more annoying than the descriptions, the similes, the strikes, and that was the stupid repetition thing: "and then and then and then..." Again, if it had been used once, or sparingly even, then it wouldn't be so bad. I may have thought it was an interesting literary technique. But Shatter Me had way way way too much of everything (see what I did there?).

And story? What story? *sigh* It's about time we just opened up an entirely new genre called "Dystopian Romance" or alternatively "Romantic Dystopia", though I don't wish to be pessimistic, I'm pretty sure half the new releases of 2012 will make it into that category. If there was a story then it drowned amidst the waves of overenthusiastic and flowery prose. This reminded me of Article 5 in that the dystopia was there to make the romance interesting. One was certainly there to complement the other, but it was the wrong way around.

Also... kissing when you are fleeing for your lives?? I'm sure this is not the correct way of things, right? And yet it occurs in way too many young adult books. I'm like: "run, run, run!" but the characters are too busy swapping saliva. I must be old-fashioned in my thinking that staying alive is kinda important.

There are a lot of things that, had they been there, could have convinced me to up this to two stars. One star ratings make me feel sucky. But I'm sorry guys, I wasn't even entertained. The beginning was intriguing but there was so little plot beyond the romance that it quickly became tedious. I hated the prose, I felt nothing either way for the characters, this series ends here for me.