Book #2: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Synopsis:
The last time she did it, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment charged 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.
***
This dystopian is the first in the Shatter Me trilogy. It took me a long time to convince myself to read because I told myself I was going to stay away from dystopians for awhile and try something new. Obviously that idea didn't go as planned. I saw the book on paperback one evening at Barnes & Noble and couldn't put it back after picking it up. The cover alone was enough to make me want to read this book. And it's a good thing I bought it or I would have missed out on a marvelous read!
As with every dystopian, Juliette lives in a society run by a corrupt government that is trying to control everything everyone does and thinks. But the catch is in the synopsis. Juliette has a lethal touch. That addition to the plot made me completely interested in what Juliette is capable of. It is such a different concept, and I loved how it played in to the story. Something else that really made this a unique book was the writing style. Not only is Mafi an incredibly poetic author, but she did something that is rarely seen. Shatter Me contains many strike-throughs of a single word, a sentence, or an entire paragraph or page. The strike-throughs are used to show what Juliette is really thinking even if she wants to think/says something different. I thought is was very effective. Another aspect of the writing I enjoyed was how personal the reader gets with Juliette through the pros. Mafi makes it seem as if we share the mind of Juliette. She uses run on sentences with no punctuation, repetition, and the strike-throughs to make this a more personal experience. That might even be my favorite thing about the novel.
Writing and plot aside, the characters are fleshed out beautifully and the setting and pacing is right on. There is a perfect balance of action and romance. And the ending leaves the 2nd book open to explore so much more. The only thing stopping me from giving this book 5 stars is the love interest. Most people love him, but I found him bland. However, I took a great liking to the villain, so I didn't totally mind the romance. But like I said, most people do like the love interest, so don't let him stop you from reading this book because it's still amazing!
And if you thought this book was good or if you aren't sure if you want to read this, let me just say that the second book (Unravel Me) is even better! By A LOT! And I grew to appreciate this book more after reading the second.
I will do a review for Destroy Me (#1.5) and Unravel Me (#2) in the near future, so stay tuned for those!
Shatter Me is a definite must-read!
Stars: 4/5
Favorite Quotes:
"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."
"His smile is laced with dynamite. 'Go to sleep.'
'Go to hell.'
He works his jaw. 'I''m working on it.'"
"Hate looks like everyone else until it smiles."
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