Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi

ARC, 342 pgs (Published in Hardcover)

Published Nov. 15th, 2011 by HarperCollins

Reading Level: Young Adult

Source: Publisher *for review*

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.

 The writing in this book absolutely blew me away.  It was so gorgeous it actually made me tear up in the beginning.  Tahereh had a way with stringing words together that was unlike anything I've ever read before.  The only thing I can think to compare it to is verse.  Verse novels don't really seem to follow any certain rules and punctuation, proper sentences and all that are not really necessary and somehow Taherah managed to write a regular {non verse} book with the same vivid way of writing.  I can't even explain it.  Honestly, it's just absolutely the most gorgeous writing style that I may have ever seen.  It's like strings of conscious thought instead of proper sentences and it works!  And don't worry, it's not all the time.  It's just with Juliette's scattered thoughts.  And as things become more clear to her or when she's not so afraid or so desperate, those moments sort of fade away.  

I think the writing style helped with my connection to Juliette.  I felt like I really felt her pain, her fear and anger and later her happiness and relief in those rare moments when she feels it.  I really really felt for her.  And I really loved her character, her determination and her love that she has in her but hasn't had the opportunity to really share.  She's been through so much and she's so very strong.  

I love Adam.  He's an amazing guy and one that completely won me over.  I don't want to talk about him too much, but he was a character that kept having these little twists thrown in so we weren't quite sure if he was really good or not.  Although, I was pretty sure I knew exactly what kind of person he was...

The evil dude, Warner- oh my, he's the perfect villain.  You hate him and you feel sorry for him and you feel like you almost want to like him.  He really makes you confused but yet he's just... evil.  I mean, you can't like an evil guy!  And I didn't.  I mean, he was bad.  Okay, so I was thoroughly good and mixed up and that's what I love in villains.  To me he was this spoiled kid who had everything handed to him on a silver platter and can have and do anything and everything he wants to.  And he does because he can.  I have some thoughts about him that I'll hold back for now, but I have to say that I'm curious how everyone else thinks of him.  

Now this is just the start of what I definitely believe is going to be an epic trilogy.  This started off at a brisk pace and it was incredibly fast to read.  It was actually quite perfect because I didn't feel like I would DIE if I set it down but when I was reading I found that my eyes were flying over the pages so fast that sometimes my brain couldn't keep up.  Or maybe it was my brain was going faster than my eyes... anyway, it led to me rereading little bits over again.  But it was so gorgeous sometimes I did it for that reason alone.  

This had the perfect ending.  Not a HUGE major cliffhanger, THANK GOD, but still just the beginning of something new and big that's going to happen in the next one {I'm sure}.  And while the whole super hero thing wasn't too big in this book it's definitely going to be more present in the future ones and I can't WAIT!  Talk about a fabulous way to do a dystopian.  LOVE it!

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Disclosure: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own and I was not paid or influenced in any way.