The Book Addicted Girl: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me, Book One

Publisher: HarperCollins

Format: Paperback

Published: 2^nd October 2012

Number of Pages: 338

Book: Bought

Genre: Dystopia, Paranormal, Post-Apocalyptic, Thriller Suspense, Science-Fiction, Romance, Action-Adventure, YA

Recommended Age: 13+

Contains: Violence, Death, Swearing

No Alcohol, Drug References

Author's Blog: Tahereh Mafi

~~I HAVE A CURSE.~~

I HAVE A GIFT.

~~I’M A MONSTER.~~

I’M MORE THAN HUMAN.

~~MY TOUCH IS LETHAL.~~

MY TOUCH IS POWER.

~~I AM THEIR WEAPON.~~

I WILL FIGHT BACK.

No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time – and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a riveting dystopian world, a thrilling superhero story, and an unforgettable heroine.

Review:

'"You can't touch me..."

'Things happen when people touch me. Strange things. Bad things.

'Dead things.'

Juliette has been locked up for two-hundred-and-sixty-four days. 264 days of isolation – of nothingness. Of loneliness. 264 days without contact with another human being.

All because of this ~~curse~~ gift. This power she has no control over. This power that made her parents treat her like a monster and got her locked up here. Wherever here is. All alone.

And then Adam is put in her cell. Adam, the boy she knows but who does not know her. Adam, the boy who betrays her. Adam, the only boy who's made her feel hope.

But there is no hope in this world. Not now Warner, the soldier, has decided to use her and her power to win a war. Not now he's gotten it into his head that she could be able to put together the pieces and win it for them.

But after she gets this taste of freedom, after being locked away and falling for seventeen years, she cannot get enough. For the first time, Juliette wants to fight. She wants to be free – truly free. She wants to have the choice to choose and she wants the chance to be with the only boy she's ever loved.

She wants to fight back against this wreck of a world and she wants to win.

She doesn't want to be in a thousand pieces anymore, clinging to the edge of the world and waiting for someone to help her back up...

I bought Shatter Me and got super excited about it. But before I could read it, I got caught up in Obsidian... Sigh... But the moment I'd finished that, I picked this one back up. I started reading and for the second time in as many books, I was completely entranced. My God, this writing style. I might just be in love. And Juliette... man, break my heart! I think I'm on a bit of a roll when it comes to finding new faves this week. I mean, boy, two new books I absolutely heart from one Amazon shopping basket? Score! And there's still like four more books for me to sink my teeth into! I can't wait! But onto the review...

Juliette – oh God! She'd had such a horrid life and she was just so, so broken. And yet at the same time, she was as strong as anyone could be. And she was just the best person ever. She was so caring and loving and desperate to be accepted, loved. She just broke broke broke my heart into pieces over and over and over again because I just loved her so much.

And Adam was the hottest, kindest, loveliest and most amazing thing ever. I fell in love with him like instantly. He's so... perfect. I just fell instantly and hard hard hard because, my God, could he be any more amazing? He was just… there are no words. I loved him – I loved loved loved him!

As for Warner, he was, to quote Juliette, totally "possessive". He was also cruel, manipulative, and cold. And yet, there was this other side of him – this really vulnerable, damaged side that we didn't get to see all that much. That extra chapter – a snippet from Destroy Me, written from Warner's POV – let me see more into the mind of Warner and... I think that I might be able to like him if he was all that side. He was vulnerable and sweet and real... I want to see more of this Warner – don't know if I will, but I can't wait to see more of him anyway.

If you hadn’t gathered, Mafi’s characters were just incredible. So, so incredible. They were all just so, so real to me – insanely real and jump-off-the-page. I WAS Juliette, I LOVED Adam, I ~~HATED~~~~/pitied/~~FELT Warner. And all the other characters – don't get me started on little James and Kenji. Or on Juliette's parents and everyone else in her life – I never met them but I LOATHED them all. I mean, HOW HOW HOW could they DO that to a little girl who was even more afraid – much much much more afraid – and better than they were?! God, I hate ignorant people – especially the cruel and ignorant...

You see? You see how strongly I felt about them all?! That's what Mafi made me do – love or hate with a crazy strong passion. Ohh, I love it.

This writing style. I mentioned it earlier, but I simply have to gush about it more. It is, quite frankly, captivating. It's so raw and beautiful and lyrical and shocking and incredible. I absolutely loved loved loved it! It just sucked me right in and let me really, truly be Juliette. I felt every single thing she did, saw everything, was everything. It was stunning – one of a kind writing. Breath-taking. Amazing. Stunning. Ironically, I don't even have the words. And you know a book's good when you're hooked from page one. And Shatter Me just got more exciting and addictive and action-packed and suspenseful the further through I got. The plot like – it was just incredible. I loved learning about the world, the war, the romance, the mystery – both of what Warner wanted and what Juliette and Adam's past was like. I just loved all of it and I couldn't stop reading til I'd gobbled the book up in one go.

The world – man, I love it. It was just, well, stunning! It's very much a devastated place – plants and animals are dying, birds no longer fly, everywhere is poisoned. An environmentalist's nightmare, so full of famine and violence and loneliness. A dystopian nightmare. But there is this whole other side of the world. There's hope and life and human emotions and girls with kickass ~~curses~~ gifts. Ohh. I just can't wait for more of this world!

Some books... Some books you just know are magic. From the very first page, the book is unique and amazing and stunningly refreshingly irresistibly different and new and just, well, amazing! I can barely find the words to tell you how much I absolutely adored Shatter Me. How absolutely stark raving DESPERATE I am for the next in the series. I know I'm insanely behind in my discovery of Shatter Me, but it is now one of my favourite books of 2013. It is just so amazing it's beyond description. So please. If you haven't read this yet, please please please do. I want everyone to experience the pure, for lack of a better word, ecstasy that is Shatter Me. So pick it up. Please. For me? You so won't regret it.

Star Rating:
5 Out of 5