Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi Series: Shatter Me #1
Published by HarperCollins on November 15th, 2011
Genres: Dystopian, YA
Goodreads
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.
Why did it take me so long to pick up this book?! WHY???! I want to blame it on my fear of hype but that can’t be it. I mean, people I trust told me to read this one and I still hesitated! Luckily Shatter Me was picked via my “What Should I Read Next Poll” by you lovely folks and I can not thank you enough. This story… GUYS! This story was AH-MAZING! The plot, the writing, the characters! They all blinded to make a story that I devoured in one day, and I’m proud to say I can’t wait to get my hands on Unravel Me.
When I first opened Shatter Me and saw all the strikethroughs I was immediately turned off. All I could think was, who wants to read through all that messy stuff? But my thoughts quickly turned from annoyance to admiration. Mafi has taken something that should have made me want to kill it with fire and turned it into something so beautiful I actually sighed. And not that “I’m impatient hurry up sigh”, that “oh my gosh you’re so dreamy” sigh. She has such a gift with words that I often found myself rereading entire pages just so I could experience a certain part again. Each page was a new adventure into her writing style. A style that was beautiful and unique in every way possible. A style that I really can not get enough of and that I am still reminiscing about right this second.
But what would these pretty words be without dynamic characters to showcase them?! I was blown away by Mafi’s writing but her character blew me away. I loved watching Juliette grow and show her loyalty, humanity and compassion. Even when everything was against her this girl did everything in her power to show that just because some had chose to abandon their civility and humanity, she didn’t! She was an absolutely gem to met and I’m both nervous and eager to witness her continued growth and development in the books that follow. Adam is still a bit of a mystery to me, and for once that’s a good thing to say when finishing a book. It means that in the books to come I’ll get to see those walls crumble and be a witness to his growth. He may not be your typical swoon worthy book character but he had me all hot around the collar thanks to his loyalty, survival skill and genuine concern for Juliette. In a book where so many people show that they have happy emotions, it was refreshing to see that Adam was not one of them. Which leave Warner. I will keep my thoughts on him simple, since thinking about his psychotic obsession both disturbs and annoys me. When I was first introduced to Warner I wanted to do pretty much exactly this:
All this time people have been screaming Team Warner at me and I finally met him and he is a obsessive, psychotic, delusional, possessive douchebag! And please stop with the “in Unravel Me it’s all explained and you’ll see!” bullcrap. He is a jack ass. A mental jackass that has so many issues even Dr. Phil wouldn’t be able to help him! I really don’t see how you guys can ignore his behavior, let alone JUSTIFY it. Ugh! I’m getting upset. Let’s move on.
The last piece of the recipe for this awesome pie was the plot. So gripping! You would get one answer and the 3 more questions would pop up. I LOVED it! It kept me on my toes and made me questions everything. I especially appreciate how Mafi set the pace. Even though I wanted to devour the story whole I also wanted to savor it. I wanted it to end quickly but last forever, and if that doesn’t make sense to you I suggest you pick up Shatter Me to find out!
