Review: Shatter Me by Tarereh Mafi

Shatter Me by: Tarereh Mafi

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

Review:

My suitemate kept insisting I should read this because it was her favorite dystopian novel of all time. I knew I would like it, but I didn’t expect to freakin’ love it!

Juliette has a deadly touch. After an accident, she was locked up in a mental asylum by the Reestablishment with no companions, interactions, or anything to keep her sane. Her only release in life is a small notebook in which she writes in to keep her mind intact. Around a year after her commitment, the Reestablishment decides she is more useful as a weapon. But will she comply?

Juliette is such a strong heroine. She is strong more in mind, but also in body. She has managed to stay stable and lucid even after a year with no human interaction. I truly admire her tenacity and strength. But she also is kind of a badass, and she shows extraordinary physical power in times of extreme adversity. She has had a horrible childhood where her parents wanted nothing more than to not have Juliette in their lives. In spite of this, she still is able to love fully. It’s inspiring. To say the least, I loved Juliette.

Adam was such a sweet boy. He was exactly what Juliette needed to make her feel special and normal, which is all she has ever wanted. He was different from anyone else that she knew and didn’t treat her like the plague. He would do anything to keep her safe and took a lot of hits for her. While I liked him, he somewhat was a bit boring at times.

Warner, the bad guy, was such an interesting character. Beneath his cruelness, I feel there is more going on with him than meets the eye. Perhaps my favorite character was Kenji, a fellow soldier. He was definitely comedic relief and I was definitely surprised about his character. Adam’s brother, James, was beyond cute, and his brother cares so much for him.

The plot starts out where Juliette was committed. When she leaves, the story goes at a much faster pace. The whole story was really exciting and I didn’t want to put it down. The romance was really cute, but I felt it was a bit off sometimes. It’s hard to explain. It happened pretty fast, but I could definitely tell how much they cared for each other. Mafi’s writing is incredible. It was so real, and I knew exactly how Juliette was feeling. I was just so connected to her. I usually don’t highlight a specific example of the writing, but I have to this time. Here is an example of her perfect 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.”

So recently I read Destroy Me, the novella taking place after Shatter Me in Warner’s perspective. It was so good and I really love Warner. It was perfect and I am psyched to hear there is a lot of sexy Warner time in book 2, Unravel Me! Go pick up Shatter Me to start a wonderful journey!

Favorite Swoon-worthy Quote: I gasp and he’s kissing me, deep and powerful and unrestrained. His arms wrap around my back, dipping my body until I’m practically horizontal and I don’t care. My head is on the seat, his frame hovering over me, his hands gripping my hips from under my tattered dress and I’m licked by a million flames of wanting so desperate I can hardly inhale. He’s a hot bath, a short breath, 5 days of summer pressed into 5 fingers writing stories on my body.

Rating: 5/5 Tar Heels!