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Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
by Tahereh Mafi |
Summary from Goodreads:
"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."
Rating:
I didn’t like Shatter Me outright at first. It has an amazing cover [which I still have no idea how it correlates with the story] and an interesting premise [that really catches the attention of any reader who loves dystopian novels] but the first chapters didn’t seem sensible. It only took me a few moments to realize how badly blinded I was of what I was missing.
As I dove through the chapters, I saw a world that has gone badly [as any dystopian story goes] and a heroine who’s struggling to find her place, along with a strong set of characters that readers would either love to love or love to hate.
Juliette has been locked up for a murder she didn’t realize she has committed because of her gift. I was so fixated on getting things to pass on to a more interesting level that I was so insensitive of the fact that Juliette was on the edge of insanity. Poor girl. When I grasped this, every time I read her thoughts just makes me want to hug her and lull her to sleep; a broken girl, so vulnerable and lonely.
And then along came Adam… Ooooh! Adam, Adam, Adam. If Santa asks, I’d like an Adam Kent wrapped up in a box as my Christmas present. LOL. Anyway, I really like how deep Juliette and Adam’s relationship is; a little to fast and the typical “love at first sight” kind of romance, but I was drawn to how much emotion they poured out towards each other. I kind of have mixed feelings over their scenes though. I may’ve rolled my eyes in some dramatic, heart-pouring situations; went giddy over their make-out sessions, and laughed at some as well but I was glad to have them together. I feel like there is not Juliette without Adam and there is no Adam without his Juliette. They were perfect together.
I somehow pity Warner. Being a villain of course I hate him as well, but I feel like there’s a lot of things unsaid about him and I’d like to know more.
Mafi’s writing may be a little rough for me but I can’t deny that she has potential. I’m sure with this debut novel, her skills will continue to develop and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her work.
I wasn’t completely sold about the ending. It kind of feels a little too “X-Men” not that there’s anything wrong with that; it just takes much of the freshness of the tale out of it. But I’d still like to see how the whole story would revolve into.
I do feel like this book has given me a very exciting adventure. With blazing guns and nerve-wrecking escapes, heart-pounding chases and sweet romance, likeable characters and dastardly villains, not to mention a heroine with a supernatural gift, what’s not to like about Shatter Me?
