June 8, 2011

Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi






 Young Adult
Pages: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Day: November 15, 2011


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.

I was completely blown away by the writing. When you've read as much as we do, wonderful writing comes along quite often. But this was more than that. This was poignant, thundering, straight-to-your-soul writing. The kind that shakes you up for good.

Filled with disturbing images and even more so with intoxicating sexiness, this debut will have you drooling over its prose. The amount of delicious and gorgeous metaphors the author used had me obsessed with re-reading everything. I kept taking notes and writing down quotes when I have never done that before. Seriously, it was like a perfect blend of Courtney Summers and Lauren Oliver. Courtney's stabbing way of punching you in the gut with her words and Lauren's dazzling dreamy prose that renders you speechless... all mixed into one! Absolutely brilliant.

The plot was kind of bizarre though, and kind of unpredictable in a weird way. When I finished it, I felt I had read two different books, one in the first half of it and one in the second half. It starts off quite mysterious and dystopian-like, and things get a bit more paranormal-like as it goes. I hope this makes sense to someone. I'm sure the second book will be full of surprises, because the ending felt more like a beginning.

As a dystopia-lover, I felt the world building and the chapter endings could have been a lot more shocking. In fact, there's not much world building, they just mention a list of things that have gone awry. We don't really experience much of the outside world, what with Juliette being a menace and being trapped for most of the book and all. But overall, it's a very addicting, unputdownable start to a series and a wonderful debut. I'll be eagerly awaiting book 2!


Some favorite lines:

"Hope is a pocket of possibility"*

"I want to stamp him into my skin and keep him forever"*

"The tips of my fingers and toes are tingling to life and I have to bite back the shiver aching to rock my frame."*

(*These are taken from an uncorrected advance copy and might be different in final book.)



7 comments:

  1. I totally agree with you about the 2 book thing. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel though!!

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  2. Great review! This one looks so good and I've heard nothing but good things about it. This one is definitely on my wish list :)

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  3. I love Lauren Oliver’s style of writing. So when you said Tahereh’s is even better, you just made me die because I want it now.

    Sweet review!

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  4. I'm DYING to read this book! It sounds really awesome- and I've been reading a lot about how Tahereh Mafi's writing is so good. Great review :)

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  5. I have this on pre-order. I can't wait to read it.

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  6. Oh...I want to read this so, so bad! It sounds like I would LOVE it, too! Great review!

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  7. HOLY CRAP. If this blew your mind then I'm already sold. Ahhh, even the description sounds good. The cover I thought was a little blah. Good thing I read your review. This is next on my to-buy list :D

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