Book Talk | Shatter Me

 
Title: Shatter Me

Author: Tahereh Mafi
Page Count: 338
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Goodreads Rating: 4.02
My Rating: 4
Book Cover Rating: 4.5
Would recommend to: Fans of dystopian societies and love triangles.
Bad Book Review: Why do I always fall for the bad guy?


This book follows Juliette, a not so ordinary teenage girl. Juliette has been feared by everybody her entire life and is now locked up for a murder she did not mean to commit. This all because Juliette has a very special power: She can hurt and even kill people by simply touching them.

I loved many things about this story. First of all the writing style. Tahereh Mafi is an incredible writer and some parts of this book were almost poetic. When Juliette thinks something she doesn't really want to think the words are crossed out and then replaced by other words that she is telling herself. I thought that was really unique and refreshing. Juliette also thinks some words several times, which I know some people don't like, but I really did. It really made you think that Juliette is kind of crazy (especially in the beginning of the book).

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.” 

<spoilers in this part>

The story line in this book is also great. We start off with Juliette in something like a mental house. She hasn't touched anyone for 264 days and then all of the sudden a boy is put in her room. She has no idea what to do with this situation but slowly starts communicating with the boy she has known for many years. After that she is taken out of this place and brought to the Reestablishment, where she first meets Warner, a guy who has big plans for her. She doesn't want to be in this place and isn't planning of cooperating at all. After she starts bonding with Adam and finds out that he can touch her a hot relationship between these two starts and they make plans to break out of the Reestablishment together. 

When their plan works and they manage to break out, after a failed attempt of Warner to stop her where they find out that he can also touch her, they run for their lives and hide in Adam's old house where Juliette meets his little brother James. After a few days a guy from the Reestablishment who Adam knows shows up and tells them he knows a save place. They try to get to this place but get found by Warner and his army who have been searching for Juliette everywhere. Adam gets dragged to a slaughter house and Warner gets Juliette alone in a classroom where a very hot make-out scene between these two breaks out, only so Juliette can grab Warners gun. She achieves, shoots Warner and eventually finds Adam.

When they finally get to the 'save place' Kenji told them about, Juliette is told that there are many more people with special powers just like her at this place. She decides to stay, train and prepare for the battle to come.

<end of spoilers>

I also really liked the characters. Juliette has a very powerful gift that she doesn't want to have at all. Many years of being around people that feared and hated her have broke her and she is struggling with communicating with the people around her. Another massive character in this book was Adam, a guy who Juliette has knows for quite some years but never spoke to. He was the only person who stood up for her, which made me like him. The last important character in this book is Warner, the leader of a section in the Reestablishment. He has been kind of obsessed with Juliette and besides that he's also a horrible person. I don't know why but I really like Warner. 

“You can't touch me," I whisper. I'm lying, is what I don't tell him. He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him. Please touch me, is what I want to tell him.”

I don't really know what to think of the romance between Juliette and Adam, mostly because I want her to be with Warner...It didn't surprise me that both Adam and Warner were able to touch Juliette, which was a shame. Even though I did like all the hot make-out scene's between Adam and Juliette in this book, I was hoping that she would end up with Warner. 

Overall this was a really unique and special book, with a very interesting story line and I definitely recommend this if you're into fantasy or dystopian books. 

~ Amber