Shatter Me (Shatter Me/The Juliette Chronicles #1)

Finished on 22nd May, 2015

Author: Tahereh Mafi

5 Stars

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I have a curse.
I have a gift.

I’m a monster.
I’m more than human.

My touch is lethal.
My touch is power.

I am their weapon.
I will fight back.

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 first time – and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a riveting dystopian world, a thrilling superhero story, and an unforgettable heroine.

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Shatter Me is a beautifully written novel set in a dystopian society that hits alarmingly close to home, yet also touches on the paranormal. It certainly lives up to the hype.

The writing in Shatter Me is extremely unique. Some may (and have) found it hard to get into, but I absolutely loved it. The novel is written almost as a stream of consciousness – complete with crossed out words and phrases. It’s rather hard to describe, but I found that through it I really connected to Juliette – perhaps even more so than I would have if it was written traditionally.

On that note, I really liked Juliette as a character. Despite being isolated, discriminated against and hurt by the world since she was small, she is so innocent, so pure, so good. I loved seeing her experience love for the first time and look forward to seeing her continual growth and character development.

Now, the big question: Adam or Warner?

I really liked Warner, but at this point in time I don’t like the idea of Juliette and him in a relationship – while it may be interesting, it would not fit into Juliette’s character or moral values (at this point in time). However, I have been told that he gets a lot better as the series progresses and he does have a lot of potential, so I’ll see how it goes – I really want to find out why people ship them together so much.

I wasn’t expecting to love Adam, but I did. Warner must turn out to absolutely brilliant if so many people ship them over these two. Adam is fantastic, loving, compassionate, protective, and exactly what Juliette needs while still being a great person in his own right. I am really interested to discover the story behind the white bird (and if Warner dreams about it too).

The world building is so well done that it isn’t hard to believe that the destruction of their world could easily happen to us. In short: the ozone layer is decimated and because of that the environment is all but screwed, the animals have all been killed off or have been genetically mutated and the human population is starving under the rule The Reestablishment – a military organisation that took advantage of people’s desperation and lured the world into complete submission through empty promises. Now The Reestablishment are a dictatorship bent on destroying books, culture, language and anything that makes the human populace unique.

A brilliant read, I highly recommend Shatter Me to people looking for a unique, beautifully written dystopian with a touch of paranormal – or just someone looking for a good read. Shatter Me is a story of a girl who has been abused, tossed out and abandoned by the world, yet is still able to find light and hope and goodness. It is a journey of self discovery and fighting back. I look forward to continuing on with this series.