I avoided purchasing Shatter Me for months. In fact, I first became interested in the story when I read a review from an author I admire who loved Sha..Show More »tter Me. But when I tried the sample on Audible.com, I thought the narrator's voice sounded whiney and I couldn't get past the "scratch out" noise.

Then I kept finding new authors I enjoyed, and when I would read their blogs, many of them raved about Shatter Me. So then I put it in my "wish list" category and it sat there for months. I just couldn't get past the sample offered.

Finally, I downloaded the book , being too lazy to research a new book and settling on just choosing from my wish list. WOW! What was I waiting for? Shatter Me is exciting and such a good listen - - probably more so for females as far as following the main character's erratic thought process.

The narrator's voice is not whiney at all. I think the sample doesn't do Kate Simses justice. Yes, her voice is higher pitched, but after a moment or so, it's not at all annoying. And the narrator does a great job interpretting and relaying Juliet's (protagonist) internal thought process and emotions. The narrator also does decent male voices - - I just finished two separate books with horrible male voices by a female narrator so this is quite a relief.

Further, the sample (and another review on here) give the impression that the entire story is going to be full of the "scratch out" noise. I interpret this noise to be Juliet's mental stopping or scratching out of her thought process to redirect herself in a different way. In the beginning of the story, Juliet's mind isn't exactly in the most stable place, so her thoughts are more jumbled and the "scratch out" noise happens more often. However, this noise is not as overwhelming or distracting as I thought it would be, and eventually, you don't even notice it at all.

As for the story itself, it's terribly romantic - - not in a horrible gushy way, but in an appropriately steamy way. I love the relationship between Juliet and Adam. But I especially love how the antagonist (Warner) really complicates matters. I have my suspicions as far as his significance, and I can't wait for book 2 to see what happens with him.

I think the author does a great GREAT job of keeping the reader (listener) guessing as far as what Juliet's "issue" is, as well as the current state of civilization (don't want to give away spoilers) as well as a whole array of twists and surprises that actually make sense to the story and help it develop.

I read another review that complains this story is not really a Dystopian novel. I disagree. While yes, this story focuses mainly on character and relationship development, and less on formation of the Dystopian realm of the novel, the end of book 1 clearly sets up the Dystopian world that is about to be revealed to Juliet. It's basically a huge teaser, which worked on me. FYI, Book 2 is said to be set to release in February 2013.



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