Review: Adds nothing new, but it's still fun; Warner is such an interesting character
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 2, 2012
See more of my reviews sooner on The YA Kitten!Shatter Me. For a reason I can't remember (Google searches turned up a "major pre-empt" and the movie rights being bought; according to my ARC, it had a $150,000 marketing campaign too), it was one of the most hyped-up novels of 2011 and I gave it three stars, though it has now been downgraded to two in my head. Destroy Me went on my list for one reason only: Warner.I mean, come on! The guy has absolutely no marbles to speak of and in a book full of bland characters, I liked that. His obsession with Juliette had more to do with why I liked him, though; I find obsession and what it does to people morbidly fascinating. Besides, his character reminds me of one of my own and I want to see how another author did it. And so I dove into Destroy Me.It's written in normal prose rather than the over-the-top ultraviolet prose of Shatter Me, and I was excited to be in Warner's head from the very start. If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now that he is head-over-heels obsessed with Juliette. He thinks himself in love like more than a few obsessed people do, but I know better! He's the kind of guy one would call the police on in real life, but here, it's good. Knowing the boundary between what's okay in fiction and in real life is always good.The problem with this novella is that it is completely unnecessary and doesn't give me any richer knowledge of the world of Shatter Me. We get a little more insight into Warner's other obsessions like his need to be clean and some hints at how he grew up, but most of what Destroy Me reveals is stuff I'd already put together. His dad sucking? Check. The poor conditions of the people? Check. If any fan who refused to read this because they hate Warner skipped it, they would miss absolutely nothing. The Reestablishment is still a typical dystopian society with little to no plausibility and it is therefore too easy to put together what their world is like.I'll be reading on to Unravel Me, which looks like it will be just as purple prose-filled as Shatter Me if the excerpt is anything to go by, for the same reason I kept with this novella: Warner.He better not find his marbles and/or become a serious love interest. I mean it. If he does, he'll get boring and then I'll be done with this series.