Shatter Me Review

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #1
Published by HarperCollins on November 15, 2011
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

 

 

 

 

  Julie’s Review

 

Shatter Me is one of the books I’m kicking myself for waiting this long to read. The story is intriguing and I read it in pretty much one sitting. I just couldn’t stop once I got started. I had no idea what to expect and as I read more of the book I still did not see where it was going. There are secrets and twists and reveals in just the right places to keep the plot moving. I thought the pacing was spot on and I was never bored, never wanting to skip ahead and find out what will happen.

We start out with Juliette locked up in a mental institution and we suffer with her through her isolation and neglect. All we know is bad things happen when she touches people. We experience Juliette’s terror and self-loathing when she interacts with people. On the one hand we encounter a true sociopath who is obsessed with Juliette’s “power” and wants to use her as a weapon. Then we have the super sweet budding romance between Juliette and Adam, the boy who she will never forget but fears does not remember her. We learn the depth of their feelings and history, and see how they do anything to keep each other safe. We learn about the broken world where birds no longer fly and people are starving. Then we get to the excellent ending with a great set up for the rest of the series that left me wanting more and buying the next book and novella.

In addition to the intriguing plot, and unique characters, Mafi’s writing style is unique and beautiful and seriously inspiring. I read my signed hardback but I kind of wish I bought and read the ebook so I could highlight everything! There are such interesting passages and quotables in this book.

Here’s are some examples of this amazing writing:

 

I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.

 

I’m too poor to afford the luxury of hysteria right now.

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