Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi

Hey all! 

I just finished Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi! 

Goodreads Blurb: 
"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.”

When I started this book, I honestly tried to have no expectation aside from the fact that this book (well, series) is quite hyped. I read most of it yesterday so was able to get the whole story in one go, which I appreciated! Haven’t done that in a while! ^^

So this book is about Juliette. We start off with her in a kind of detention center, alone and almost starting to go crazy. One day, the guards put someone she knows inside the cell with her - someone she’s known since third grade - Adam Kent. She doesn’t recognize him at first, but after a while, she does, and can’t believe that he would be there too. I don’t want to spoil too much, but as the story unfolds, they are able to leave the detention center to be under a different kind of supervision, then to being on the run. 

I actually really enjoyed the story! I thought it was an interesting dystopian setting, that I can’t wait to read more about! This did feel like an establishing novel, in the sense that there was a lot of explaining and pointing out things about the different characters, places, and Reestablishment properties. I can’t wait to see how this develops in the next books! 

Juliette was a cool character! I loved how even though she has this lethal touch, she always seems to try to do what is best for someone else - she would bend over backwards if she could help someone (with good intentions) feel better. She’s also surprisingly brave and impulsive. 

Adam sees Juliette unlike anyone else in the book - he sees that although her touch tortures most people, that’s not what defines her - instead, he sees that goodness. This is pointed out several times in the story. 

This book had a nice, quick pace that kept me going, and practically each chapter ended with a cliffhanger. I don’t know about you, but I actually like it when chapters are quite short, like they were in this book - not only does it make ‘one more chapter’ all the more possible, but it also creates a drive to keep going with a book. Sometimes I’ll read a book where chapters are 30+ pages long, and that takes me forever to finish it... This was a nice and quick read. 

I can’t wait to see more about the dystopia Tahereh has created for us! I’ve been on a HUGE dystopian slump, but this might just bring it back for me :) 

I’m giving this book a nice 4.5/5 feathers! 

Have you read Shatter Me? what did you think of it? How’s the rest of the series? Let me know! :)