{Review} Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Published Date: Nov 15, 2011
Publisher:  HarperCollins
My Rating:


 

Synopsis: 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. 

There are some books that just linger with you when you read them. For me, Shatter Me was one of those books.

Tahereh's words are like magic. They are poetry and lyrics; wind weaving through the trees, ocean waves smoothing sand. She strings together phrases and sentences that make me sit back and gasp. And think. It's lovely and brilliant what she did with this book. I think I have a pretty decent imagination when it comes to visualizing what I'm reading, but wow, Tahereh just blew me away with his descriptions. I felt like I was right in the middle of the action.

Within the first line of chapter 1 I was curious about this world I was being thrown into. Juliette has such a strong, powerful voice that carries the reader straight into her heart and mind.  Accuse of murder, she has been thrown into a cell to count the days one by one. Without having been talked to or touched in over two hundred days one would think she would have lost her mind. But she's strong and alert; a fighter.

When Juliette is told she'll be getting a cellmate her mind goes in all different directions. I could feel her panic at the thought of having someone that close. Because, for her to touch someone physically, it could  destroy her, make her more of the murder she sees herself as. Juliette's touch, is deadly, but no one knows why.

I don't want to spoil the entire book, because had I known what happens, what the cellmate was going to be like, I would have gone into the book with different eyes. I will say that I was definitely surprised when her roomie entered the room and something sort of niggled at my mind. As it did Juliette's, because she isn't willing to open up and talk to this new person. Not at all. She does an excellent job of deflecting and protecting herself as she searches her mind for clues about this person.

As things are revealed, as you go deeper into this world that has been so craftily created by Tahereh, you will gasp in anger, feel your heart expand and desperately need more. When I read Shatter Me I didn't realize it wasn't just a stand alone book. To my surprise and great joy, I realized it was only the beginning of great things to come

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, which I did, you'll probably love Shatter Me as well.


These are only my personal observations and thoughts regarding this book. Any and all books blogged about here are paid for with my personal money unless otherwise specified within the review. If you have questions please feel free to contact me.