Destroy Me

I loved that we got Warner's perspective in this novella. We start to understand why he is the way that he is. He sees a similarity between himself and Juliette. Although it might come across as obsessive, I believe he wants to share his experiences through abuse with someone else that would understand, and that person is Juliette.

Warner has no friends and potentially no one that likes him based on who he is within the Reestablishment. His father's expectations reinforces the inadequacy Warner feels in himself. I think he yearns for connection and his feelings for Juliette are misguided.

Although he saves her out the asylum and gives her an opportunity at a proper existence, his love for her is also possessive. He doesn't really know Juliette, but reading her notebook feels closer to anyone he's ever come across in his existence.

I appreciated this POV and am addicted to finding out how it all transpires in future books in this series.

Shatter Me

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I had seen this series all over TikTok and it was also chosen as a book club read. I don’t know why I haven’t read this sooner because I love dystopian stories!

At first I wasn’t sure what was happening with the scrubbed out sentences, but after reading online, that it was a representation of Juliette’s mental state, I started to appreciate it more.

I like the premise of the world’s resources being limited, the sky changing and a group called the Reestablishment making false promises of a better future. It just spews emptiness. Everyone thinks they have a better way, until they don’t. It’s always about power and greed.

With Juliette being locked up in the asylum, I kept wondering why. She didn’t seem like someone with mental health issues and only developed them whilst being locked up for years, so when it’s slowly revealed, I was thinking “this is interesting”. How has she developed a fatal touch? It’s still not even answered, so now I have to read on!

I thought the love interest Adam was a great connection to establish. Gives Juliette hope that not everything in her childhood was sad. Someone noticed her kindness and good nature, something she still holds.

With Warner letting her out, we still don’t know his true motivations behind that. Does he want to really use her as a weapon or are there other reasons?

As she’s in Omega point with others that have powers also, I hope she understands why they are special and why not everyone in the world develops powers/super human abilities. I did find this reminded me of x-men and Xavier’s school of the gifted.

This book has left me with enough intrigue to continue on!

If We Were Heroes

⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟

I was contacted by the author to check out her book which is a dystopian YA novel. She described it as the walking dead meets the fault in our stars and I would say that's a fairly accurate description.

Ember has survived the apocalypse, though she's held up in a government facility and soon will come a vote where they decide if she lives or dies. Although she holds the cure for a virus that was unleashed onto the world killing many people, she also has a mutated version of the virus in her bloodstream. The world can't go through such devastation once more. As she recalls her harrowing experience for a film crew, humans were becoming the undead with a blood thirst and her story touches on her adoration for her best friend Sam. It's been years since this catastrophic event, but is she still a threat to society?

I love me an apocalyptic story as much as the next person. I'm always interested in someone's take of what could happen and how the world would deal with it after. What happens to the humans in this story is nothing that I've read before so I did find it enjoyable.

When Ember recounts her story for the film crew (who want to make a movie based on her life), there were moments when I thought maybe her or Sam might die. So you really didn't know what was going to happen as they ventured to find their parents. It was all so risky, but you do whatever you can to get to your loved ones.

I thought the love triangle in the story might have played out differently. Honestly didn't know who I was rooting for because in any love triangle, I'm always thinking "why not both?"

Really enjoyed the ending! I did guess the government's decisions, but it was the actions of all Ember's loved ones that was lovely to read.