Saturday, March 21, 2015

Shatter Me- Chapter One - That Wasn't Very Nice

This book begins with our protagonist (Juliette Ferrars, though her name won't actually be said until the end of the fourth chapter) countin' stuff.

She's been in an asylum for 264 days, locked up by members of The Reestablishment, an" "initiative that was supposed to help our dying society." This book, at least for the first book, follows the YA guidelines very closely, so for now, we can expect oodles of apocalyptic and romancey babble.

Juliette is writing in a notebook with a broken pen, because it's all she has. Throughout the book, there are crossed-out lines of text featuring such lovely thoughts as "We hope you rot to death in this place" and "Another psycho just like you". Does anyone else feel all warm and fuzzy inside? As the series progresses though, she crosses out words less and counts less as she realizes who she is and how strong she is. It's a pretty cool concept.

Anyway, all this obsessive counting and crossing out stuff gives the impression that she's crazy, and at this point, she seems to believe it herself. Tahreh Mafi uses lurid metaphors constantly to explain Juliette's experiences and thoughts, but they don't always make a lot of sense. Take this for example:

"The sun drops into the ocean and splashes browns and reds and yellows and oranges into the world outside my window." Probably indicating something about how she's cut off from life in her cell, but there are a lot easier and more practical, for lack of a better word, ways to say this. There's some babble about less trees and scientists talking about the world that once was, so on, so on.

The main focus of this chapter: our girl gets a friend. Problem is, right now, he's being an ass. She's given a male cellmate, and her reaction to this is pretty severe.

"Dear God.
They're trying to kill me."

He has very tattooed arms, a missing eyebrow ring, dark blue eyes, brown hair, a sharp jawline, and a "strong lean frame." All of this, by the way, is written without commas, which I get for the purpose of the writing style, but seriously? It's like torture. I just want to go over the whole thing with a red pen.

She crosses out the word "gorgeous" and replaces it with "Dangerous. Terrifying. Horrible." When she runs to the corner, he steals her bed and pillow and connects it to his, making her sleep on the floor. 

In the other review, Hector got the Terrible Parent Award, and I think this guy deserves an award, too.

I wish I could say he gets better.

He then expects some conversation from her, telling her he won't hurt her and then asking her name. When she doesn't respond, he has the nerve to get irritated, before turning over on the bed that's, you know, HERS. Dammit Adam, (that's his name, though that's not said either), how do you expect Juliette to like you? By some miracle though, she does, which makes sense because 99.9% of the people on Earth are physically unable to touch her and he's the first one who can, but for your sakes, people, don't get attached to Adam. The person behind Juliette's Door Number Two is far better.



Sorry, but I can't bear to string people along this time.


This chapter ends with Juliette sleeping on the floor and refusing to sleep, because "I cannot hear those screams again." 

Chapter Two should be out by next Saturday, as well as The Night Circus Part One Synopsis. In case you haven't noticed, Saturday is the day my production spikes upward.

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