This Shattered World

While I really enjoyed this book, it did not live up to the first one for me. I really enjoyed Tarver and Lilac's story but did not feel as drawn to Jubilee and Flynn. That being said I did appreciate all the extra knowledge and information we learned about the whispers and where the come from and what they are doing.

I really wish we had gotten more of Tarver and Lilac but I get that these are companion novels not really sequels. Flynn and Jubilee were quite the pair though. This is another great example of true hate then love relationships and I really enjoyed it. Plus it was not over the top. Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner do a great job of having the action and story take the forefront in the book with the romance being a side character.

I actually started this series, reading These Broken Stars, so I could read this book and understand what was going on. I liked These Broken Stars a lot more than I thought I would. (It was weird and quirky and hit EXACTLY the right notes for me to adore the two mains.)

But this one... Okay, they say These Broken Stars is dystopian. To me it's not. I consider it a strange hybrid between space opera, survival story and romance. I don't understand it, and I sure have no clue how it works, but for me it did, beautifully and unexpectedly. This Shattered World IS dystopian though, through and through. I don't like dystopian.

I have tried so many times to read dystopian books and I've never found a single one that I actually like. It's just one of those genres that I don't like and I probably never will. So, the fact that this book is so strongly dystopian does it no favors for me.

Also, I really don't like Jubilee or Flynn. Lee is the type of girl I just never like, all ‘badass' and ‘tough' even though she's really an emotional basket case most of the time. And Flynn...well, okay, he's not terrible, but I feel nothing for him.

The plot seemed like it was on a yo-yo. There was a constant back-and-forth that got so aggravating to me because it seemed like the story literally never went anywhere. Every time I thought ‘well, that'll shake things up' we snapped back to square one.

If this book hadn't been the middle book of a series, I would have stopped reading it about halfway through. Ultimately, I am glad I didn't because, plot-wise, things did improve in the second half. (And I loved getting more information on the whispers.)

Hearing from Lilac and Tarver again, in a way I totally never expected, was nice - especially Lilac. But it did Lee and Flynn no favors as it just showed me how much more I liked Lilac and Tarver than these two.

I will be reading the third and final book in this series, but I am hoping the setting is not dystopian this time around and also that I like the characters more.