Shatter Me by Tahera Mafi

Hey Guys! Today I will be doing a review over Shatter Me by Tahera Mafi. This book is by no means anything new, in fact, the last book in the trilogy, Ignite Me comes out very soon, but of course I jumped on the band wagon late and now here we are. I just want to share a few thoughts about it.

 

What's this book about? 

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"

Initial thoughts: Okay, I'll will start by saying that this book is filled with metaphors. At first, it was overwhelming and I was not sure if I was going to enjoy it but after reading a few chapters, I began to get used to it and kind of started to enjoy it. I really liked that she was writing this book in like a stream of consciousness style, and she would cross out what she really felt and would leave what she thought that she should be feeling. Make sense? 

Characters:

Juliette: Juliette's character is one of those types of characters that you either really enjoy or you don't. She was weak throughout the entire novel up until the last few chapters. It was as if you just couldn't get through to her. She was entirely too trusting as well as WAY too forgiving. She was lied to quite often in this book and although she expresses being hurt, she immediately falls back into her self loathing and too trusting personality. For all that has been done to her, I think that she should have pretty much hated everyone. 

Adam: I felt that Adam was kind of a sissy boy whom was hiding a lot of secrets. He comes into the book as a cellmate to Juliette and almost right off the bat is lying to her. I think that he fell in love a little too quickly, despite having known Juliette for so long, he almost holds no bars and just bam, loves her. There is so much sexual tension between Juliette and Adam, and I found myself thinking, "Damn, just do it already."

Warner: I loved Warner's character and I'm not sure why. He is completely obsessed with power and even more obsessed with Juliette and the book never really explains why. I really hope that his story line progresses more in the following novels. (Let me just mention that the one scene with Juliette and him and he has captured her? Sexy.)

Minor Characters: There were more minor characters such as Kenji, a supposed soldier and "friend" to Adam. As well as, James, Adam's little brother. Both are good fill in characters so that we don't just read strictly about, Juliette, Adam, and Warner

Final Thoughts: I did quite enjoy this book. Is it an absolute literary work of fiction? No. It is just something fun to read. Definitely a guilty pleasure read. The writing grows on you and becomes beautiful. Although, I found Juliette's character to be overly trusting and too forgiving, I can see that she was mentally unstable. I wonder though, that for someone being in solitary confinement for so long how they could possibly open up so quickly too someone else, even having "known" them. I can not imagine what it would be like to not be able to touch someone and I can't being to fathom the loneliness in that. One final pet peeve was the fact that she comes out of the asylum a little dirty but apparently beautiful. There is no mention of the fact that she has barely eaten in a year and has seen very little sunlight. You would think that someone in that predicament would come out very skinny and very pale. This, however, is not the case. Everyone immediately starts going on about her beauty and her body. I find this to be unbelievable, but I mean, who is really reading a story for that anyways? 

I do recommend this book for its guilty pleasure qualities and rated it 3.5 stars on my Goodreads.

As always, a quote:

"It never leaves. It's always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it's a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. 

Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections."

Rachel