Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi | Book Review

Title & Author: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me #1

Genre: YA, dystopian, romance

Page Count: 338

Publication Year: 2011

Publisher: Harper Collins

Format: First, American Hardcover

Source: Owned

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Summary:

I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I’m more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

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.

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This series did get a cover change, and the new covers are beautiful ♥ I’ll insert it at the end.

Anyways, I really loved this book overall. When I first started reading it, it was a 4 stars for me, mostly because of Juliette. I didn’t like how she spoke in numbers, and all her metaphors, and long rambles; it was so much that at some points I could actually believe she was crazy. I loved when Adam came though, because she finally had something else to talk about and someone else to talk to, and the dialogue became interesting. I really wish we’d read from Warner’s PoV in this book, I know it really wouldn’t have worked out for the story she wanted to tell, but I just finished the novella “Destroy Me” set in Warner’s point of view, and I loved it. Besides that, I enjoyed Tahereh’s unique writing style with the cross outs. There’s this awesome twist at the end, which I did not expect at all, and it was epic. Those last few chapters were unexpected and amazing. They’re the reason why I gave the book 5 stars on Goodreads. It was just such a nice way to wrap up the book, it got me really excited for the next book. There is a very big romance in this book, which I really did enjoy mostly. A couple of times I felt like they were just a little bit too obsessed with each other, and acted stupidly but we’ll get more into that in the spoiler section of this review. The love story, it wasn’t the most build up one I’ve ever read, but I didn’t really feel like it was instant, which was great. There’s also a villain in this book, not going to mention his name because some people could consider that as a mild spoiler, but we’ll definitely talk about him in the spoiler section. My favorite character was definitely Kenji, I loved him since he showed up.  Anyways, like I said, I really enjoyed this book. I’m not going to give it a 5 star rating on here, because I feel like throughout most of the story it was a 4.5, and the only reason I gave it the 5 on Goodreads is because it’s a 4.5 that’s definitely closer to a 5 then a 4. I would recommend you read this if you like dystopians and romance, if you loved books like Legend by Marie Lu, Divergent by Veronica Roth, that sort of stuff, even The Hunger Games, then you’ll most likely really enjoy this book.

Rating: 

Spoilers! ⇓ 

Okay. Let’s discuss Warner. I honestly reading this did not understand why everyone loved him so much. He was just horrible and psychotic. I feel like if I hadn’t known that so many people loved him, I would’ve hated the guy. With him it’s like I would start to sympathize with him, and feel sorry for him,like when Juliette mentioned his mom, I could tell that that was a sensitive subject, and it showed some kind of humanity in him, but then he would go and do something horrible to make me hate him again; and the whole process would start all over again. Then we have page 264 and that whole scene, again if I didn’t know that people liked him, I would’ve been so scared that he would like rape her or something, like he was literally so creepy, and psychotic and insane in that scene, I just, I can’t. When he said “But I Love You” I died, just bye lol . But he was very sassy in the book, and I could really appreciate that (: Like I said earlier I just finished Destroy Me and it completely changed my view of him and I hope Unravel Me continues that. If you’ve read this book or even the whole series already, I would highly recommend you read Destroy Me, it’s very short and very helpful in understanding Warner, and I reading from his pov is beyond fantastic. ( Review of that coming up soon ).

Moving on, to Adam and Juliette. I really loved their relationship, it was very cute, I loved how he saved her notebook, got beat up for her. They had a lot of cute moments in this book. Like I said earlier, I felt like they were a bit obsessed, like their relationship was a lot more physical then anything else, which I mean I can understand because Juliette hasn’t been able to touch anyone, and this feels like a miracle, but still…. also I felt like it was that obsession that almost got them caught way too many times, I found them to be very irresponsible a lot of time.  When Warner walked in before the whole escape thing happened, then when they decided to have (another) epic make out session while his 10 year old brother was right next door, like are you kidding me? He almost caught them, the kid already has enough on his plate, do you really want to traumatize him even more? …

Then Kenji came in, and I was a bit annoyed at Adam. He was just so uptight, like Kenji was just making jokes, Jesus, just calm down. Anyways, oh Kenji, I really love Kenji. He was funny and sarcastic, and sassy and those are all characteristics that I love, so it was very easy for me to care for him, and the ending omg! I did not see that coming, okay well I was spoiled on him being able to be invisible literally like 10 minutes before I got to that part… but before that, I didn’t see it coming.

Then they got to Omega Point, and I didn’t realize that it was the rebel headquarters, I was just confused. I thought for a second that they’d want to use Juliette as another one of their weapons, but I realized that was not the case. I think it’s so cool that there is a bunch of other people like her. Did Omega Point remind anyone else of District 13, or was that just me? You know with it being underground and stuff. Then there was the powers which really reminded me of Fantastic Four, we had the doctor guy who had the stretching power, Kenji with the invisibility, Juliette could pass as Ben with all her super strength, and all we were missing was the fire power. I’m not trying to say that I think she copied anything, just that it reminded me of them.

Yea so I think that’s it. I really enjoyed the book. I’m wrapping this up so that I can go read Unravel Me (: Have you read this book? the series? What are you’re thoughts? Please don’t spoil anything else that happens after Shatter Me. I’ve just gotten spoiled on something big regarding Adam and Warner that apparently happens in Unravel Me, and I’m quite upset about it, because it wouldn’t have been something I’d seen coming, but now that I think about it, it actually makes sense. Anyways no spoilers please! (: xx

 Here are the new and improved covers:

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