Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Pages: 352
Publication Date: Nov. 15, 2011
Back Cover: 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 colour.
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.
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 colour.
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.
First Lines: I've been locked up for 264 days. I have nothing but a small notebook and a broken pen to keep me company. 1 window. 4 walls. 144 square feet of space. 26 letters in an alphabet I haven't spoken in 264 days of isolation.
My Thoughts: Honestly, it took me a while to really get into this book, and even at the end, I was still unsure about some of the characters and their motives. The writing style was also different, but that just added to the personality of the protagonist.
Juliette is the leading character in Shatter Me. Her emotions in the book really let the reader to feel connected to what she is feeling; how she has to live knowing she won't be able to touch anyone without severely injuring or even killing them. When her love interest appears, although she seems happier, she is always confused about why he is there and why he is around. This makes the reader suspicious of that character, which I believe is not the direction the author wanted to take. In saying this, there are also some characters which people can really connect with and feel pity for them without thinking that they are hiding something.
The lines crossing out some of the sentences took a while to get used to, and even by the end of the book, I never really liked them. The author still could have written the smae story and shown the characters' emotions without slashing out sentences. The only positive thing about this, is that it goes with the theme and title 'Shatter Me'.
Shock, shock, shock! Although some of the twists were predictable, the ending leaves the reader hanging in suspense. It leaves them wondering about what will happen next, how this could possibly happen? This is one world which has never been imagined before.
This debut novel by Tahereh Mafi is a quick and easy read for someone looking to get their fix of dystopian, young adult romance.
Rating: 3/5
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