Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi

  Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: HarperCollins

Genre: YA, Dystopia, Sci-Fi
Pages: 352
Rating: 5 Stars

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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I saw many mixed reviews on this book and after about a month of debating on whether or not to read it I decided I would finally give it a try. This book was unlike anything I have ever read. It was absolutely amazing. 

I am going to start off with the writing style. I can confidently say I have never in my life read a book that that is written like Shatter Me. It is so interesting and really makes it stand out above other YA novels. The way that some of the main character Juliette's thoughts were crossed out was so different and creative. Words would be crossed out when a) Juliette was really thinking a certain thing but I guess she just didn't want to admit it to herself so she then immediately says something contradicting the words she just crossed out? and b) what Juliette wants to say but never actually does. Confusing I know but it is very hard to explain. Just read it for yourself and you will know what I mean.

As for the characters, I could go on forever about how much I love these characters. Juliette is such a great main character. She is so vulnerable at times but yet so strong. Sometimes her actions may seem a bit...extreme...but, what you really must realize as a reader is that she is 17 years old and has never touched a human in almost a year and even before that she shied away from any physical contact because she knew what she could do. That is why a simple touch is like a fire exploding on Juliette's skin just because she craves the touch of a human but forces herself to act like she hates contact just so she doesn't hurt anyone else. That is one of the things I loved about Juliette. She really truly despised hurting people. She would almost rather die herself than ever watch the life leave someone's eyes because of her touch. She is the exact opposite of what most people want from her and no amount of convincing ever changes her mind. I have read so many books lately where the heroine just goes around killing bad guys without so much as a second glance. It was refreshing to finally read a book that the main character wasn't bent on violence.

Don't even get me started on Adam. I just wrote this whole paragraph on Adam but realized I indirectly would have spoiled a huge part of the book. So I am just gonna say this, Adam is your dream character. He has his mind set on one goal and he will go through anything for that one thing. Adam's devotion is unwavering and he has a great gift of being able to see the goodness in even the most damaged and tortured people.

Now onto Warner, I hate him with a passion but I think he makes a great villain in the book. I almost feel bad for him because he seems so lonely that he has to obsess over a girl that truly hates him for what he is doing to her. I don't know what made him so sadistic but it must have been very bad for him to turn out so terribly. But anyways, all of these characters are incredible and only contributed to making this story so amazing.

The plot of this story is at times both heartbreaking and action-packed. This story is full of so many twists and turns I could barely keep up. Throughout all of it I would know when something bad was going to happen but I just couldn't admit it to myself. All my heart wanted was for everything to just stop and everyone to be okay but being such a book-lover, I know I would have hated it if it didn't keep going and the characters didn't have to face the obstacles in their paths. 

There is one quote that stood out before I read this book that really made me finally get up and get this book.

  "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"

I read this and it immediately made me want to dive into Shatter Me. I am a huge fan of The Hunger Games but the thing that surprised me most was the comparison with X-Men. I love the X-Men movies and I had never seen a recent YA book that could even begin to be in the same category of X-Men so I thought I would give it a try. I spent this entire book searching for some sort of thing like X-Men and it didn't become clear to me until the huge plot-twist at the very end. I won't spoil anything but if you are a fan of X-Men, you will seriously love this book.