I think one of my least favorite things about reviewing books is the situation where I'm faced with writing a disappointed review. I think it's especially more difficult when I'm so full of anticipation, having seen page after page of glowing 5-star reviews -- and then I read the book myself and think, oh, ok, WHAT did I miss here? 
 I think when I first saw SHATTER ME described as "X-men meets Hunger Games" I decided I was completely uninterested in going further. I mean, no offense, but the X-men movies are boring. Superhero and comic movies, in general, bore me. But, then I saw a book trailer on SHATTER ME and I was absolutely mesmerized by it! I couldn't *WAIT* to read this novel, and I waited not-so-patiently on the hold list at my local library before finally having it in my possession just a few days ago. 
 If you don't know the plot by now, Juliette has a freaky "magic" power -- her touch can kill. In this dystopian modern society, everything's pretty much gone wrong. The world is polluted and toxic, the plants and animals are dying, and The Reestablishment has complete and utter domination of the universe. So, they lock up Juliette in a cell where she was remained for over 250 days, all alone, without any human words or touch to get her through the day. 
 Of course, as with (nearly) all YA novels, Juliette meets a boy, and suddenly this fact is more important than anything else, including the desperate, bleak, dystopian madness outside her prison cell. She thinks she knows Adam, she thinks Adam is beautiful, and she's figured out that Adam can touch her without dying -- which is supposed to be something crazy and miraculous... 
 Except, it doesn't even turn out that he's the only one who can touch her. Just like he's not the only one who can survive nuclear bombs, like Juliette and everyone else doing crazy, freaky, magical things. 
 I mean, I know I'm biased against action-y type books. My reviews certainly show this, and I'm heavily drawn towards more character-driven novels with viewpoints and characters that I find relatable in some meaning way. I think SHATTER ME started out with this intention, showing Juliette's extreme confusion and isolation through a series of emotional, striken words that really captured my attention in the first several chapters. However, soon enough it feels like we're just watching a succession of one plot point after another, and I really started losing interest in the story. 
 I think I'd like to read more about why Juliet has magic powers and how the universe got to this insane dystopian state. I guess I find it to be pretty frustrating when I'm given a foreign setting like this without any sense of backstory there to demonstrate to me how this universe could be theoretically possible in the future, even if great fiction liberties are taken. Since this is book 1 in the series, I'm sure the author will have enough opportunity to expand on these things later; however, I'm feeling we're going to have a lot more "X-men" type influences than I'm really interested in reading. (Like the superhero costume ... oh geez.) 
 I'd like, for once, to read a YA dystopian where the girl doesn't lose her senses when a cute boy comes in the future. And, I'd like to see the romance on the back burner, rather than seeming to be the main focus in a crazy screwed up universe that just happens to be the background noise for hopeless teenage lust. Bah-humbug. 
 But, don't just take it from me -- this site is full of five-star reviews that obviously disagree greatly with me. I'm pretty disappointed in SHATTER ME, and I can't see myself going any further in the series -- but I do think I'd still recommend this book to anyone looking for an action-y type dystopian (especially if they're not put off by a love story!)