Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
First published: November 15th, 2011
Source: Bought
Pages: 338
Goodreads Summary:
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 Rating: 4.5 / 5
First thoughts:Thanks to uncountable positive reviews for this novel, I had high expectations when starting it that could have been disappointed easily. But Tahereh Mafi delivered a wonderful dystopian story with a paranormal twist that will leave you wanting more.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait for the next installment of the series.More detailed:Shatter Me is set in a very intriguing dytsopian world. Juliette can still remember a life that has been similar to our own. But their world changed fast, no longer able to provide enough food and other necessities. In return, The Reestablishment, a movement with questionable motives, took over, saying that they're the only ones who are able to help everyone survive.
Juliette, whose touch can cause a pain for other people which can also lead to their death, had been locked away by The Reestablishment to prevent her from inflicting pain on anyone. But with a new cellmate her life starts to change rapidly and she finds herself in a situation she had never expected.
The people she meets are very intriguing. Of course I've developed a crush on Adam quite fast - he's an amazing character, almost a little bit too perfect. And while I usually have a thing for the bad guy, I have admit that I'm not so sure how I feel about Warner. He takes being the bad guy to a whole new level and I don't think I'm too comfortable with that; even though he's hot.
My favorite thing about this novel definitely is the writing. Thanks to other reviews I already expected it to be beautiful, but it was completely mind-blowing instead. Just Tahereh's very unique style of writing would be reason enough to put her onto my list of favorite authors.
So why didn't I rate this 5/5? I can't tell you why exactly, just that all of these reviews made me expect something more. While reading it, it felt as though there is some little detail missing which would make me want to put it onto a list with my other 5-star books like
Anna and the French Kiss,
Hourglass or
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer.
All in all,
Shatter Me lives up to the hype and presents us an intriguing world with characters I want to find out more about. If you haven't got a copy of this novel yet, you should definitely do so; it's a 2011-must-read. I'm sure that, like me, you will not regret it but fall in love with a new series.
Have you read Shatter Me? What did you think about it?
Do you plan to read it?
Carina
