Shatter Me Review
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi (338 pages)
Date Read: 7 September 2016
My Rating: 5 Stars
Synopsis:
I have a gift
I'm more than human
My touch is power
I will fight back
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.
My Review:
This is my second time reading this book. I have been wanting to do a re-read of this series for a long while, so when I got the audiobooks, I started reading almost immediately. There will most definitely be spoilers for this book and the rest of the series in this review, so if you have not read (or listened to) it, stop reading this review now and come back after. I promise, it is worth it!!
This book is so much more heartbreaking than I originally remembered. Seeing the depths of Juliette's pain whenever she is about to break apart is just so beautifully written. It makes the character sympathetic, but also gives her a hidden amount of strength that she doesn't even see in herself. Being able to look for beauty in the world is something not all people can do, especially people who have been left and hurt so much in their lives as Juliette has been.
Since Juliette has lived only through stories, that is how she knows how to describe the world. It's all so romantic and new to her in every action and experience. I love seeing how she creates relationships and her desperation to find connections. After being alone for so long (long before her stay in the asylum) she latches onto any kind of love she can get.
It is definitely interesting to see the relationships in their baby forms, especially since I know how the series sends. Knowing this, it's really cool to look at the little hints to the characters' true personalities. Hints at Adam's overbearing entitlement he feels over Juliette, Juliette's hidden strength (as I said before), Kenji's awesomeness (just because I freaking love him).
There are also hints about the white bird with the golden crown that are hidden throughout the series and is not what one would think it would be.
I love seeing Warner in these early parts of the story because he is such an arrogant ass. He hasn't shown anyone his humanity, so there is no way for any of the characters (especially Juliette) to know who and what he really is. Ugh. Why couldn't he be the cool version of his self throughout? Oh and when Warner finds out he can touch Juliette, holy hell! When I first read that, my heart was skyrocketing! I was so scared for her and Adam, but also for Warner because what did that mean for him? When he first touches her, he is writhing on the floor, in a moment of pure terror and pain because he cannot have the one thing he wants more than everything. While that's a very entitled thing to think, to want to have another person, it must have been a terrifying moment for the both of them. By the way, I am in no way condoning his actions throughout the series. He did horrible things that cannot be forgiven so easily, but I do find him a fascinating character.
Kenji is still my favorite side character and will always be. He is an idiotic, crass, sarcastic ass hat, but I wouldn't have him any other way.
I love the writing style in this book. I love how it is written like it is Juliette's journal she keeps throughout this book. I am remembering why I loved this series so much when I first read it.
It did move a bit too quickly for me toward the end, but I understand the necessity to do it that way. Because in war, it is fast paced and difficult to drink in the descriptions of the world around you. It's hard to focus on a singular thing, which is how the last section of this book was written. It is just freaking brilliant.
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