Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)
by Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Dystopia/Fantasy
Reading Grade: Young
Adult
Publication Date:
November 15, 2011
Source: purchased
hardcover
Age Rating: 15+
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.
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.
My
Review
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to write about this one. There were many good things about it in that the writing was very impressive and innovative. I like that I could read it quickly because it's composed of short sentences, which gives the effect of frantic, quick movement. The strike-throughs didn't bother me at all because they're just asides (something I do all the time when I write by using parentheses, like right now). But, this doesn't mean I loved this book. I wanted to very much so, even expected to, but I didn't.
I'm having a hard time figuring out what I want to write about this one. There were many good things about it in that the writing was very impressive and innovative. I like that I could read it quickly because it's composed of short sentences, which gives the effect of frantic, quick movement. The strike-throughs didn't bother me at all because they're just asides (something I do all the time when I write by using parentheses, like right now). But, this doesn't mean I loved this book. I wanted to very much so, even expected to, but I didn't.
For so much of it, I thought I was reading a thinly veiled romance novel disguised as a dystopian fantasy. Thankfully, it redeemed itself by actually being about a rebellion against the dystopian government that makes up the backdrop of the story. I should have felt so relieved at that point, but I didn't because it suddenly became a crack at retelling the X-Men comic books series by Marvel. That's okay if the intended readership is mostly unfamiliar with that comic book, but I doubt those who are familiar will be terribly impressed.
I think if the characters with special abilities, including Juliette, had abilities I'd rarely ever seen used before, or never had seen before (and, I've seen almost everything), then I would have been happier, but everyone had an X-Men mutant ability that had been thought up several decades ago already. So, I can't really feel impressed about that.
And, as for the
romance, it felt rushed. I didn't get a chance to develop interest in
the characters before romance was shoved down my throat. Adam was a
nice character, but he was just too into Juliette in an unrealistic
way. Same for Warner. Maybe Warner is weirdly obsessed because he's
crazy, and that's believable, but Adam was too conveniently the
perfect boyfriend without a flaw. Conversely, Warner was very flawed,
and was totally neat-o at first, but when he lost all control
of himself, I just lost interest. I love great villain characters,
but that boy needs to enroll in Villain Training School to learn to
get a grip. Great villains don't break character, nor do they ever
let their guards down so easily.
Ultimately, this book
was not the right one for me, even though it is immaculately written.
But, great writing doesn't cut it when you don't have a particularly
original premise, nor a particularly unusual story to tell. Not to
mention, you simply run out of steam at the end, winding down the
story in a boring, uninteresting way that doesn't make me want to
read any sequel novels. It certainly has an audience who does and
will continue to love and cherish it, but, unfortunately, I deviate
too far outside of those boundaries.
My score: 3.5 stars
out of 5. (I liked it, but not overly-so.)
