I agree with Raelke that Camille and Therese foremost seemed to be ruled by instinct rather than reason (which is one of the essential differences between humans and animals), but as Freya said, they were also moral agents, which is perhaps even more fundamental in separating the two. So although Zola may not have intended them to be well-developed characters, he instilled them with the foremost quality that does distinguish humans as indeed humans.

I’m not sure if I sympathised with them. To be completely honest, I think after Camille’s death, I began to lose interest in the books and consequently, lose interest in the characters. I didn’t feel anything about them. Zola may have thought it would be a more interesting character/human study to create Therese and Camille in such a flat manner, but it also means that the space for emotional response is rather limited, and this is what makes us love books, is it not? ‘Therese Raquin’ may be well-crafted, but it lacks (cliche alert) heart.

Shatter Me was strangely difficult for me to get into.. Firstly, Juliette spends much of the first half of the novel being completely obedient to the horrible regime that locked her away and seemed completely resigned to her terrible fate. It also doesn’t help that she spends far too much time feeling sorry for herself, calling herself a “monster” and dripping with angst. There were times I wanted to tell her to just get over it. Thankfully, throughout the novel Juliette’s adventures help to meld her into a stronger, better person who is more confident and empowered.

I’ve also read some interesting reviews that have discussed how much they loved the writing style in Shatter Me. I’m not sure I like it -in fact, I was torn for much of the book. Most of the writing is done in stream-of-conscious style that really gets into Juliette’s head, but left me out of breath by the end of most sentences. It didn’t seem that polished or crisp to me. Again, this did get better as the book went on, but I wouldn’t rave about the writing style here. However, some sentences here were amazing emotional gems that really were beautiful.

I wouldn’t call Shatter Me the best dystopian novel I’ve read this year, but it’s still worth reading. It’s certainly something different in the genre with a unique style approach that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read. Recommended for fans of dystopian romance.

Have a nice day,
Sara
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But that said – isn’t it fantastic to have fat-positive articles instead of fat hating ones?