Shatter Me

Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me #1

Summary:

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.

Plot:

This is a pretty typical dystopian novel as far as the story goes. It’s the characters that really make it original. I found Juliette’s inner monologue interesting, especially the way it developed and changed as the story progressed. I think it is an interesting way to tell a story. However, at times it didn’t really make sense. I think there were some things that could’ve been better, some of the parts were a little slow, with nothing really happening except Juliette thinking.

Characters:

The main character, Juliette starts of a little weak, but soon show her strength when she realises that the ‘villian’ intends to use her as a weapon. Because of the perspective from which the story is told we don’t really get to see the other characters’ motives and personalities clearly, but it works pretty well in this case.

Who should read this:

13+, mainly for violence and frightening scenes, but also some language and sexual content (a girl who hasn’t been able to touch anyone for almost a year suddenly finds someone she can touch...). If you enjoy dystopian, YA fiction you might like this one.

My rating:

While I did enjoy reading this book it had many things that I would’ve liked to be different. However I think the next installment will have a lot more happening and so I will be reading it. 3/5

Quote:

“All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart.”