Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me



Tahereh Mafi
Published by: HarperCollins
Released: November 15, 2011

Yes, I know. Another Dystopian novel. But this one is probably my favorite!

Shatter Me is about a girl named Juliette Ferrars who has been locked up for 264 days. She hasn't touched anybody in 264 days. Juliette's touch is fatal, anyone who touches her feels imense pain and well...to put it bluntly, dies. The Reestablishment has too much on their plate to deal with a girl who can kill with her hands. The world is dying, ravage with disease, and changing before peoples' eyes. She has been in total isolation for 264 days, until they decide to give her a roommate, Adam. Adam is from Juliette's past, the closest thing she can ever call a friend. So when a leader from the Reestablishment wants to make Juliette his pet, she has to make a choice: Be a weapon or be a fighter.

I just LOVED this book. It is probably the only dystopian novel I have read so far that mixes the dystopian future with a paranormal twist. It was almost as if Tahereh Mafi placed X-Men into a time machine and sent them into the future. Amazing, I know.

And the characters. Holy crap! These guys were AMAZING! I don't think I have ever felt so sorry for a character before I met Juliette. That girl's life just sucks. And Adam. Oh Adam. I love that guy. And Warner. AAWW!! I am so confused with that guy! I don't know whether to hate him or pity him. One second I was saying "CURSE YOU WARNER! GO DIE IN A HOLE!!" Next I was "Oh Warner, you poor, twisted soul." That drove me crazy! I still don't know how I feel about the guy.

The writing is just beautiful. I am jealous in awe at the writing. It's being narrated by Juliette's POV, present tense, so when she's telling the story, she would want to say one thing, and then cross it out and say something else. That is SO DIFFERENT AND COOL! I have never read anything like it. And it's so poetic. Some of my favorite quotes come from this book.

The only thing that bugged me was the language. Can Kenji say something other than S**T?? Seriously? It really distracted me from the story because my brain would keep going back to that. I felt like it broke the flow of the story. I think it would have been fine without Kenji's foul language.

So if you are in love with X-Men or Dystopian Novels or just want to read about some guy named Kenji (Seriously. He's hilarious! But doesn't show up until halfway through) I highly recomend this book. I could not put this down and basically got really sick in the car.

Review by Calypso  

SIDE NOTE:

I own the old cover of Shatter Me, but they are switching the covers for the novella Destroy Me, and book 2 Unravel Me. Frankly, I like the old cover better than this new one that features an eye. But oh well. At least the author loves them.