Shatter MeAuthor: Tahereh MafiPublisher: Harper Collins, 2011
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.
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.
My Review:
8 hours reading, 1 amazing novel, 100 moments or more that shattered me.The prose of this novel has only one word, and that is powerful. When you have lines like this:
I hate the lackadaisical ennui of a sun too preoccupied with itself to notice the infinite hours we spend in its presence.
You end up simply not caring that you don’t know what lackadaisical or ennui means, only that it sounds meaningful because it conveys some deep emotion that had no specific word before. At least that’s how I felt while reading this. It’s all written as if Juliette is the one who is writing it all, so there will be crossed out sentences and words, things she thinks but doesn’t want to acknowledge. Like chapter four…
I’m not insane. I’m not insane. I’m not insane. I’m not insane.
There are also a lot of repeated words, like when one needs to believe something and only by repeating it you can convince yourself. It’s beautiful. It conveyed so much of her emotions that way.
Aside from how broken Juliette is feeling inside, she is still very feisty and very badass. She is not to be pushed around, manipulated, of bought off with luxuries. In other words Warner, ze evil one, never has a chance in hell. I think my favorite standoff scene between them is this:
Aside from how broken Juliette is feeling inside, she is still very feisty and very badass. She is not to be pushed around, manipulated, of bought off with luxuries. In other words Warner, ze evil one, never has a chance in hell. I think my favorite standoff scene between them is this:
He licks his bottom lip into a smile. “Don’t confuse stupidity for bravery, love. I know you haven’t eaten anything in days.”Something in my patience snaps. “I’d really rather die than eat your food and listen to you call me love,” I tell him.Adam drops his fork.Warner spares him a swift glance and when he looks my way again his eyes have hardened. He holds my gaze for a few infinitely long seconds before he pulls a gun out of his jacket. He fires.
Warner is such a psycho, seriously delusional. But Juliette will have to hold her temper, because Warner won’t take it out on her. Nope. He will take it out on Adam. And Juliette can’t have that.
Adam is just...perfect. He comes in and shatters Juliette’s life. From the moment she gazes into his deep blue eyes, she is lost because she somehow recognizes them. It becomes so delightfully painful to see how she struggles with Adam. Wanting him, wanting his touch, knowing she should want it, knowing she can’t. As their past is revealed it’s so tragic and so heart wrenching that it managed what books almost never can. It made me cry! But tears of happiness since it’s against all odd they’ve found each other.
I could read this book over and over again just to swim among Juliette’s words and thoughts. Soul shattering romance, fast paced action, and mysteries to uncover, Shatter Me is without doubt one of my top 3 favorite books this year. A MUST buy. A required addition to your YA collection. A GO BUY NOW novel.
Favorite Quotes:
They locked me up with a boy. A boy.
Dear God.
They’re trying to kill me.
They’ve done it on purpose.
To torture me, to torment me, to keep me from sleeping through the night ever again.
~
The natural elements were at war with one another because we abused the ecosystem. Abused our atmosphere. Abused our animals. Abused our fellow man.
~
He pulls my swaddled figure close to his chest and I shatter. Two three four fifty thousand pieces of feeling stab me in the heart, melt into drops of warm honey that soothe the scars in my soul.
~
“You sure you’re not crazy?”
“No.” I cock my head. “I’m not sure.”
Kenji grins. Looks me up and down. “Well damn. But you make crazy sound so good.”
