Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: November 15, 2011
ARC Provided by Once Upon a Twilight Blog Tours
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. –Goodreads
This is one of those books that I don’t know how to adequately express how amazing this book is and how much I loved it. Because OMG, y’all, this book is all kinds of amazingness. There is so much to this book.
The writing is beautiful, the characters amazing, and the romance hot, hot, hot. I was lucky enough to get this from OUaT blog tour and I was doing a happy dance all over my house when it came.
And believe me — if I didn’t have to send it out I would totally be reading it again — even with all the other books I have lining my shelves. And passing it around to all my friends and being all annoying and making them read it NOW. Not later but now.
At the beginning of the book, we are introduced to Juliette. Juliette – who is thought to be a monster by society. Juliette —who has been locked up for 264 days with no type of human contact whatsoever. Juliette — who is trying not to go insane.
As Juliette sits in her cell the world outside is disintegrating. There are food shortages, the environment has gone to crap, people are forced to live in compounds, and the Reestablishment has an iron fist hold on all of it. And then — Juliette gets a cellmate and her world is changed forever.
When Adam walks into the cell Juliette’s world is thrown into such a chaotic mess and she has to decide if she will continue to be a victim or become a fighter.
One of the things that drew me into Shatter Me book right away was the writing. It really was amazing. Mafi’s writing style is different and fresh and poetic and pulls you in and doesn’t let go.
There are some amazing passages in this book. The kind you want to read again and again. And she also uses a strikeout style of writing that is done brilliantly.
I love Juliette. Mafi makes her character come to life and the reader feels what she is feeling. She is so close to being broken but she doesn’t crack.
She is tough and after everything that has happened to her, she still cares about people. It takes a lot to come out of solitary confinement and still be able to stand up for yourself and this girl does it and rocks at it.
And then we have Adam – totally swoon-worthy male lead who will steal your heart. I think he has replaced my love of Jace – and that’s saying something. I totally fell for Adam in this book. He was the kind of lead male I like to see — tough and real and just… I dunno.. amazing. I loved him and everything that he brings to the story is just swoon-worthy.
The other male lead is the bad guy — Warren. There is also something about Warren that draws the reader in. In some scenes, you feel sorry for him and you want to know what made him as cruel and heartless as he is.
I think there is so much more to his character and I can’t wait to see what it is and how it develops. And then there is also Kenji, Adam’s army friend, who brings some humor into the story. Even though he only shows up the last part of the book I really loved his character and I know we will be seeing so much more of him.
There is so much to this story — it is sexy and full of action and beautiful writing and unique and just all kinds of amazingness rolled into one book. The dystopian world that Mafi creates is so haunted but the writing makes it beautiful.
Everything about this book is beautiful. Books like Shatter Me are why I love to read. I can not wait for the second book – and this one isn’t even out yet!
I’m putting it out there — as of right now this is my favorite book this year. And I’ve read some amazing books but this blew me away and left me wanting so much more than any book this year has done so far. If there is one book that you buy this year – this should be it.