I warred between 4 stars and 5 stars for my rating on this book, so I suppose I'll give it 4.5 and round up. There were some parts where this book slogged, but the last 200 pages made up for everything. I love these characters. I'm going to have to hold off for a while before beginning book three to read some YA literature to booktalk to my classes, but I don't' want to wait. I can't wait to read the next 1000 some-odd pages, so that's a ringing endorsement, right?

I seem to have stumbled upon X-Men with a worse plot and better poetry. Honestly, I'm not sure if there was much of a plot to this book, or if what little plot existed served only as background noise for descriptions of how the main characters touched each other...
The first fifth or so of this book had such potential. It all went downhill after Juliette left the cell, though.
Mafi's writing is interesting. Parts of it I loved. Parts of it fell so flat that it was laughable. The strikeouts didn't bother me, nor did the repetition. I feel like that showed Juliette as a bit less than stable.
I feel like I wasted my time reading this, despite some of the poetic appeal, because I still have no idea about Juliette's world. I don't know why there are warring factions, what their motives are, or even who the characters are beyond the surface level. I know that this is the first book of many, but something should be revealed here in the way of world building. I feel like this book is 95% emotion and only 5% substance.
I'll try the next novella because it's supposedly from someone else's point of view (and I've already purchased it), but I'm probably done with this series otherwise.

I was pleasantly surprised by this novella. It was much more pleasant to be in Warner’s head than in Juliette’s. I feel like Shatter Me would have been a much better book if Warner has been a duel narrator with Juliette. I still feel like Mafi is excellent at writing emotions, but terrible at actual, concrete descriptions. I’m still undecided on pursuing this series further, especially if Juliette is the narrator.

I'm thoroughly surprised that I did not care for this book. I've really liked (or even loved) everything else that I've read by Kwame Alexander. I enjoyed Solo by the same two authors, so I'll continue to read anything by either or both of them.

This one just didn't hit it out of the park for me, pun intended.

The pacing was off. Without spoiling the book, the plot leaves off right at the climax and there isn't any time for reflection which is what this book needs. I'm okay with no resolution. That's how life works most of the time. However, this book needed a bit of time to process. Trying to gain the love interest lost my interest three of four times and I had to force myself to finish the book just to get credit for my reading challenge. Then, that ending hit - BAM. It felt like the book was trying to suddenly cram in too many huge topics that deserve the time and space to breathe and be heard.

But maybe that's just me.

This book is so realistic. It walks the line perfectly between the savagery that would (and does) occur in these types of disasters and the compassion, humanity, and personal growth that occurs as well. It's the perfect amount of terrifying for a YA novel. I had to have a huge glass of water beside me as I read it and it still made me feel thirsty.
I'm all too afraid Dry is prophetic in some ways. Perhaps that is the book's greatest strength. If this book gets today's students to put their minds toward solving the climate crisis, or at least mitigating it, then this book may help save us from its own contents.

I'm ready for the sequel now. The plot was strong. The characterization was intriguing and good for a first novel in a series where not everything can be revealed. The descriptions were excellent in places and slightly lacking in others. I did want more, especially when describing Yumiko's emotions and in the tension-building between Tatsumi and Yumiko. Overall, a fantastic read. I feel like 4 stars is a bit harsh, but that's how Goodread's rating system works.

I'm eagerly awaiting anything else by the master Julie Kagawa.

When it takes me several days to finish a graphic novel it's usually because the book isn't very good...

I'm a fan of Outlander and I love graphic novels. I wish I had enjoyed this. I wanted to love it. Unfortunately it wasn't enough in the ways that needed more and it was too much in ways that needed less.

The Exile's sins:

1. Art - Expressions are comical when they shouldn't be. All the young to middle aged men look the same except Jamie, so it was hard to tell Murtagh and Dougal apart. Claire's boobs grow and shrink over the course of the novel. Many point this out in their reviews and I took issue with it too. Diana even mentions the problem in the back pages of the novel and yet did nothing to fix the mistakes. I'm not certain this art style was the best to portray the depth of characterization and the beauty of the landscapes. I've seen such work before in graphic novels, so I know it can be done.

2. Plot - The new character addition of Kenneth is pointless. He accomplishes nothing in the novel. The novel is supposed to be more from Murtagh's point of view but that only lasts for the first few pages. Those pages were the most promising. The graphic novel also rushes through events so quickly that it felt like I got nothing of substance. Sometimes events were so squished together that it was comical, and that was certainly not the desired effect. I feel the graphic novel would have been better served by simply including one new scene not in the Outlander and getting Murtagh's take on that. That's it. Instead the graphic novel tries to cover 500 pages or more of the actual novel and that's simply too much for the space here.

3. Character Development - Since the graphic novel is so rushed, there's no room for the characters to grow. Everything feels forced. It makes Claire seem like she only wanted to stay with Jamie for sex because that's all this books quickly shows between them. All other characters save Claire and Jaime become flat and boring.

4. Dialogue - Again, this is mostly due to the compact nature of the graphic novel, so... the dialogue is simply awful. It's terrible. It's oversimplified and there are portions in Gaelic that shouldn't be, since very few readers will understand and retain the knowledge of complete Gaelic sentences. I love Gaelic, but it wasn't used effectively here.


There's more, I'm sure, but I'm so ready to put this behind me that I'm finished reviewing. This was a total flop. I'm glad I found it used for $3.00 and I'll be happy to lend it on to someone else who's simply curious like I was. Final verdict, don't purchase this graphic novel, even if you're a huge fan of the series.

This book was so much better than the first. It actually has a plot and more than just quasi-erotic descriptions of the main characters touching.
I'll finish the series to see where it goes.

There wasn't really much of a point to this. Adam's perspective is dull. There's no new information worth having. What little is new could have been added into Unravel Me easily.

There's no emotion in this. I thought that was one of Mafi's few strengths when writing, but it isn't evident in this novella. I just didn't find myself immersed in the battle or even caring about it. It's too limited in scope and limited in description. We're told Adam is horrified, but we don't see it. We're told Adam is terrified at a certain point in the action, but we don't see it, and so, I don't feel it.

This series seems pretty hit or miss to me. I gave the first book 2 stars, the first novella 4 stars, the second book 3 stars, this novella 2 stars, and from what I've read already of the third book, it's looking like a 2 star read too. I think I may be wasting my time.

This book was adorable. I loved how Jensen related everything to video games. I was glad to see the diverse cast make reappearances and for more new characters to enter the stage. I love these graphic novels. They have such a great message.