Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication date: 15th November 2011
My rating: 4.5 stars

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.

Shatter Me was another book after finishing it I wanted to pull my hair out and scream why DID I NOT READ THIS SOONER!!! Seriously after receiving a copy of Unravel Me I decided to get my butt into gear and do some serious damage to my mountainous tbr pile and I’m so, so, so glad that I decided to pick Shatter Me up. I was a little wary at first as me and dystopians never really click, but I’d had a good run lately but then picked some not so great ones. But with Shatter Me it was a whole another reading experience, I was happily hooked from the first page.

Juliette has been locked away without touching anyone for 264 days; she’s locked away for her own good, as her touch can be deadly. (Remind anyone of Rogue from X-men?). But then she’s given a roommate Adam out of the blue, she hasn’t spoken to a soul in what seems like ages and so it’s a shock to the system having someone so close trying to talk to her especially someone from her past. But things get stranger when Juliette’s yanked out from the asylum and things she assumed about her roommate aren’t what she expected.

The whole world Juliette found herself in was so crazy, because of her ability Juliette saw herself as a monster but others such as Warner the guy who took her out of the asylum thought she was the best thing ever. Warner, I never could really hate him, despite everything he did and his whole end plan he never really got under my skin, in places I did want to thoroughly pummel him for putting Juliette and Adam through so much and he was very much deluded, but I think I don’t know his character that well to go into a full blown Warner hate campaign. I’m sure there are several valid explanations as to why he thinks the way he does and why he’s proposing such a heinous plan. So I’m just waiting to get to know him that bit more before I make my judgement. Also I may have heard some interesting things coming through Destroy Me and Unravel Me which may have got my interest piqued.

Adam *sigh* there seems to be a strong pattern emerging through ya books that all male characters with the name Adam seem to have the ability to make me melt into a puddle and I tend to lose my stream of thoughts. Adam strongly reminded me of Four from Divergent, he was tough, would defend what was right, even if that meant going against the right path or rules and did I mention hot?

The writing style of Shatter Me I would say was unusual; there was an overload of metaphors all over the place, which took me a while to get my head around. I found myself breezing through the book, but then the overuse of metaphors would jumble everything up for a while. I’m sure some of them clashed too, which made things a bit confusing. Also the use of strike text, I was like what is the point of this, is this really necessary? But as the book progressed we saw far less of it and I did begin to miss it. These are my only minor gripes with Shatter Me, I know these really irritated some readers, but I do think that if you are able to overlook this then Shatter Me is a worthwhile read.

Overall Shatter Me was a thrilling read, I love books which are full of action, are fast paced, have a sizzling romance and always keep you guessing with what could be lurking around the corner. I salute Tahereh Mafi for creating such a gripping read. Please excuse me if you don’t hear from me for the next few days as my face will be stuck in Unravel Me!

Also how cool are these banners by Rachel over at Parajunkee. I’m so torn between Adam and Warner, so I think I’m going to put both of these banners up!