Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me

Author: Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publishing Date: November 15, 2011

Pages/Format: 338, Hardcover

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.

Initial Reaction of Book in One Word: Wonderful.

Like so many books I read, Shatter Me was not what I expected, and that's not a bad thing. I was expecting...well, I don't even know what. I didn't think it'd be such a broken, military-run world. I didn't think the writing style would be like it was, or the romance so loving yet steamy. I didn't expect it to be like a thriller, and one that could easily and wonderfully fit on the big screen. I'm not sure if it was as amazing as everyone said it was (however, too much hype can affect the feeling of a book), but it was definitely very good.

When I first started reading the book, I noticed that how Mafi wrote was different than how most people write--she'd take out punctuation, exude thoughts, and write words so that they were somewhat poetic. There was also the lines running through some words, which I still don't quite understand, but I got over it. This all took some getting used to, but I decided that I didn't mind it. It was kind of refreshing, really. The story itself was, in my opinion, fast paced. Usually I feel the pace in a book, and when it's too fast I feel like the story is rushed and I don't like that. Mafi must be a word wizard or something, because she managed to write a fast paced story without making it feel rushed--she made it flow almost perfectly. It worked.

I liked the characters. Juliette was a strong MC, and such a fighter. Adam is one of my new fictional boyfriends, and I love everything he does for Juliette. And their scenes together are HOT without being erotic or anything. (SPOILER ALERT: When Juliette said "Touch me" to Adam, I was all OMGosh.) Warner was just...ruthless. He was a strong albeit evil character, and I look forward to reading Destroy Me to learn more about him.

There was very little I didn't like in Shatter Me. I'm doing this unfortunate thing when I read: I, somehow, notice words that seem to be used a lot (which really sucks on my part). In this book, it was the word "gasp." I don't know how many times Juliette gasped, but every time I lost a little bit of my mind. It's not really a big deal, and it definitely isn't something that would make me dislike the book--it's just a current peeve of mine. The other thing I didn't like (SPOILER ALERT) was a lot of what happened after Juliette and Adam escaped from Warner. Warner has a brother. Okay, didn't see that coming. (Stupid kid got in the way of kissing!) He didn't bother me much; he ended up being kind of entertaining. Then Kenji showed up, and I smelled BS. Then things happened that I liked, then all of a sudden they're at Omega Point and I kind of feel like it's a cop out. I couldn't help thinking of The Hunger Games (District 13) and Uglies (all the secret hideouts, Specials, etc.). I was kind of disappointed. Like, why is there some underground rebellion and why does Juliette go there, why does Kenji have to be undercover, why why why. I don't really like it, and I'm interested to see what happens with it in Unravel Me. 

In the end, I really, really liked Shatter Me. And I'm kicking myself for not meeting Tahereh Mafi when she was in town forever ago for a signing. While the negatives may make it seem like I didn't love the book, that's totally not the case. Shatter Me was full of strong characters, thrills, a romance that will simultaneously shatter and unravel you, and several moments that are just WTF. I took almost a year to read this book, and I have no idea why--please don't make that mistake, so read this book!

Did I like it? A lot!

Did I love it? Pretty much.

Would I reread it? Probably.

Would I purchase it? YES! (With the new cover; I like it more than the original one.)

Would I recommend it? Definitely.