Review ~ SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi

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.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.(From GoodReads)

In One Word ~ Spectacular

Once again, I find myself stumped.  I haven't a clue as to how to write this review in a way that
fully conveys my feelings without being   a)completely over-the-top fangirly;    b)so afraid of being ridiculous that I lack adequate enthusiasm;   c)wait...what was I talking about again?

All jokes aside, I think the above rambling sort of tells you where my mind is when it comes to Shatter Me, all over the place. Shatter Me is, in my opinion, a game changing book. Maybe there are other books out there that are written in the same manner. If they're out there, I don't know about them. But author Tahereh Mafi seems to have taken everything that I know about books and the conventional manner of writing, and completely broke it down, building something new and remarkable.

When I started reading Shatter Me, I was struck by the starkness of Juliette's world. This story is told solely from hear perspective, mainly through her thoughts. At first I was totally thrown by the writing. Juliette's narrative is quick, sometimes abrupt and other times rambling. There are incomplete sentences, then run-on sentences. My brain was screaming at me: DOES NOT COMPUTE!  And I thought that I may be headed towards a short-ciruit. But within a short amount of time, the realization hit me that since this is coming from Juliette's thoughts, the writing makes complete and total sense. Juliette is struggling to understand what is happening around her; she is learning to deal with human interaction for the first time in a year. With all that she is dealing with, it is no wonder her thoughts are erratic. Once I made the connection, the writing style made sense and didn't disract me at all.

Now it's time to talk about my favorite book subject, boys. I'll start with Adam. (Swoon, sigh) He is so darn dreamy, and honorable, and strong, and courageous. He's practically perfect, and I love, love, love him. But....there's this other guy, Warren. (swoon, sigh, and cringe) Warren is what I'll call... a psychopath. Maybe. I don't know, he certainly seems to be quite unhinged. But I have a feeling about Warren, I think he's full of surprises. I tried to trick a hint out of author Tahereh Mafi on Twitter but she wasn't spilling, only saying that he has a big part of book two, yay! Because as much as he creeps me out and angers me, there's something about him. I thought I was just odd, liking him, until a HUGE conversation about Warren erupted on twitter the other day. I was confused, because I shouldn't have the hots for the bad guy, right?  As it turns out, I'm not the only one. There is a enthusiastic Warren following out there. We have named ourselves #teampsychopathlovers, and we are loud and passionate.  I think Adam should be with Juliette, and Warren should be with me. I clearly am a sucker for damaged goods, I have a "I want to fix him" complex.
In all honesty, Shatter Me was on my radar for quite a time before I read it. There were so, so many bloggers professing their love for the book. I've been burned before by hype. I haven't read a dystopian book that I have loved in a long time. In fact, I've even said that I don't like dystopian, at all, and I didn't care to read any more. I think the difference in Shatter Me and the other books in the genre is pretty simple. Many of the other books focus on the bleak harshness of the conditions in the world. Shatter Me is this amazing, heartbreaking, empowering story of a girl who just happens to live in a dystopian future. The fact that it is overtly character-based makes Shatter Me stand out and has made it the book that made me eat my words about dystopian books. They tasted delicious.

Favorite Quote:

"He's a hot bath, a short breath, five days of summer pressed into five fingers writing stories on my
 body."

The Trailer

Hardcover, 342 pages

Expected publication: November 15th 2011 by Harper/HarperCollins

Buy Shatter Me at:

Book Depository  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Amazon

* I received an ARC of Shatter Me from Harper Teen, in exchange for an honest review.*