Book Review: Shatter Me-Tahereh Mafi

Saturday, March 12, 2016

General
Shatter Me
Series: Shatter Me book 1
Pages: 338
Genre: Teen/romance/fantasy/sci-fi
Rating: Four stars





Buy it here: Amazon


Synopsis

I have a curse.
I have a gift.

I'm a monster. 
I'm more than human.

My touch is lethal.
My touch is power.

I am their weapon.
I will fight back.

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.


"I've been locked up for 264 days."

When I first started off reading this, I had no idea what to expect. I hadn't read any reviews on it, I wanted to be surprised. Well, surprised I was! 

Let me start off with the writing style. It's so different from any other style I've seen. Which was great! I felt like I wasn't just reading from the main characters POV, but it was like I was reading what she wrote, because she keeps a notebook. There are little scratch outs throughout the book on certain words, which make it interesting. The way the words forge together is almost poetic at times. 
"I know the sky falls down every day. The sun drops into the ocean and splashes browns and reds and yellows and oranges into the world outside my window. A million leaves from a hundred different branches dip in the wind, fluttering with the false promise of flight. The gust catches their withered wings only to force them downward, forgotten, left to be trampled by the soldiers stationed just below."
This was the moment I knew something was different. Soldiers? Why would there be soldiers? Like I mentioned, I hadn't checked up on this one before reading, so I didn't know it was dysoptian either. If you didn't know, you now do! 
The beginning of the story really caught my attention. We begin with Juliette, our main protagonist, in a cool and sterile room. I had no idea why Juliet was in this room, what was going on with her, or what happened to put her there. It was very crazy chaotic (see what I did there)? Her inner thoughts were scattered, which really put into the effect of how she was mentally. It's been a long time since she's been around a normal human being. Her parents went MIA on her, and while we didn't get to read much about them, I've already grown a general dislike for her parents.
"My parents emptied their pockets of me and left me to evaporate on a concrete slab."
Yeah, parents of the year right there.
Enter Adam. Adam is familiar to Juliette, but it isn't until a few pages later that we learn why. It was interesting to find out that they knew each other before the world went to Hell in a handbasket (is that how it goes)? Anyway, Adam. He's mysterious, seems to be confused and doesn't remember who she is. This all happens in the first few chapters, so the mystery starts from the get go. I'm trying to figure out what's going on. 
The world has fallen apart. Something happened (that I'm not completely sure about), and birds no longer fly, animals are going extinct, and people are dying of starvation. And Juliette is in an asylum while this is continuing to go on, with Adam. 
The romance between Juliette and Adam build at a right pace for them. They love each other, and they know it from the moment they meet. Which is sweet. I loved reading scenes with them together!
"I whisper his name. And he's breathing harder than I am and suddenly his lips are on my neck and I'm gasping and dying and clutching at his arms and he's touching me touching me touching me and I'm thunder and lightening and wondering when the hell I'll be waking up."
Now this story wouldn't be real if it didn't have a villain, right? Well, our villain is Warner. He wants Juliette for her "special" abilities. At first I wasn't too sure about him. I mean, we aren't supposed to like the bad guys. I immediately didn't trust him. But, as time went on and Juliette was around him more, my heart started to soften toward him. I still don't know much about him, and I hope he's in book 2 more. It seems like he has a reason for being cold hearted. This is a scene between him and Juliette, which I loved for some reason:
"His smile is laced with dynamite. "Go to sleep"
"Go to hell."
He works his jaw. Walks to the door. "I'm working on it."
The end of the book was not something I expected the story to go to. I was thinking typical, cliche dystopian. Not at all, and I loved it! Just thinking about it makes me giddy to continue reading onto book 2! Each chapter ends with some sort of cliffhanger, whether it be a major one or simple. And the end, though we know its a series, doesn't really end with a huge cliffhanger, which I like. But it makes me want to read more!
The only downside I have about it, and the reason why it's four stars and not five, is I feel like the outside world wasn't explained well enough. I was confused (still am) about what happened to the world and how they all got to this point. I'm hoping that will be all cleared up in the next book. 
If you love romance, sci-fi, fantasy, and dystopian books, this is right up your alley!

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