_Shatter Me_ was a nonstop thrill ride! There were moments that kept me on edge, and periods that had me practically burning pages beneath my fingers. This is a solid start to a series. Throughout the 300-page romp, I had to stop every once in a while to admire some of the beautiful prose Mafi penned--some I even wrote down to keep as memorable quotes! My big nag is that sometimes this beautiful prose had a penchant for just...being overdone. The metaphors were magnificent, to a point. That was the only problem I came across. Besides that, I've got nothing bad to say about _Shatter Me_. It's a great foundation to a series I'm sure will be great (when I get to complete it!), with a few minor nitpicky areas. I don't know why I should even give this anything less than a five. Except for the prolonged paragraphs of kissing and emotion repeated again and again. Oh, and Adam. Ugh Adam. 4/5.He is the most boring character in the book. Warner is way more interesting and pitiful and complex. And even James, Kenji, Castle, and Winston are more interesting than Adam! Adam seems to be there to be the love interest. (I don't even find their love story interesting, it seems to built around grade school kids both noticing each other's niceness) A plot device. I don't know if he'll expand in the next books but well, here he was boring. First thing I liked was the writing. This is beautifully written. The words and sentences and pauses flow together like poetry. I was so impressed with the timing of the words. The use of punctuation. The painting of the atmosphere. The numbers. The way Juliette checked her thoughts. How effectively she (Miss Author) narrated how we think some thoughts but cross it out as wrong. This is more emotion than anything else, but the politics and world building are smart and unique enough not to be annoying, to be interesting, to be believable.The last chapters got more interesting (Yes, I have to find a word other than interesting.), it started feeling like a superhero story, what with all the x-men and Magneto-like Professor X, and the superhero bodysuit, and the Edna Mode modifications. I loved the last page, just before the Epilogue.That's it, i guess. All mah thoughts. Goodbye. Interest/Interesting word count: 6. Ugh.
