Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Published: Nov. 11, 2011 by Harper

Hardcover, 338 pages

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. --GoodReads

Review

Shatter Me is a dramatic, beautifully written story of a girl who is given the chance to hope, smile, and laugh once more. It's emotional, heartening, and many times, very DEPRESSING. And a bit very really uber repetitive. To those of you who have read the book, you will understand my stylistic joke.

Okay, so I know a lot of people out in the YA novel world think that this novel was "ahbsolutelygoodohmygawditwassodramaticandallthat." I can't say that it was perfection, but I would like to point out a few things. For those new and have yet to read it, I would suggest "Go for it!," but I shall warn you. It is quite, no, VERY d r a m a t i c. With an extra "-uh-"

That's my representation of the story in about three pictures. Oh, I kid, I kid. But really.

Soooo, for the new people around town that just skipped to the review. The story's about a girl, Juliette, who's lived a life without love - even from her parents! Yippee, that sounds like just a SWELL childhood. She's completely good, and takes crap from people around her just because of one thing. When she touches people, she kills them. Sorta like Rogue from X-Men. Except that she's blond, 5'3, can't fly, and just kills them (you know, instead of making them pass out.)

But, oh, hey! They both end up wearing dorky jumpsuits!! Oh, and every man she encounters, which is a lot,  by the way, thinks she's "stunning, gorgeous, beautiful." Yeeeeet, she can't see for herself that she's attractive. I don't understand YA heroines. JUST LOOK IN THE MIRROR. If you're gorgeous, you KNOW you're gorgeous. Don't beat around the bush. Just admit it. No body likes an indecisive girl.

But anyway. Juliette is really an unstable (sort of annoying) girl. It's narrated in her POV, so we get to hear her innermost thoughts! My joke from before was that Tahereh's writing style was to depict the story such a way that looks like the notebook she writes in all the time. There are fragments that make no sense, yet still work with the story. Those things are fine.

My only real pet-peeve is that she crosses out thoughts she thinks she shouldn't be thinking ALL THE TIME!!!!! It happens at least 4-5 times per chapter.  It's really annoying. No it's super annoying. Terribly horrible. And then you can barely read the letters because the darn line is right in front of eeverything so how are you really supposed to tell an "E" from a "C" in lowercase????

One more thing. This book is really emotional and deep so if you flip to a random page in the middle and start reading aloud to your friends, you'll probably burst out laughing because you won't know what's going on. I feel like you have to have understood the plot line and be really into it in order to feel the emotions that Juliette is trying to convey. Otherwise, it's just silly.

NOT TO MENTION, Adam (the love interest) and Juliette enjoy each other's presence. A LOT. Probably way too much. Every other chapter they're going at it like rabbits.

Frankly, I'm surprised it's still a YA novel.  Shut yer eyes, you little kids that shouldn't be reading YA lit!!

However, I cannot deny this book's addictive quality. Although the drama may be a little over the top, I can't ignore the fact that I couldn't put it down! Setting the cliché factor aside and an author who may have went a little too happy with the "strike-through" option, this book was over all pretty good. I would suggest this to anyone willing to give an emotional/feels book a try and/or loves Rogue from X-Men.

Order Shatter Me at: Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ The Book Depository