Book Review of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

"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.”

At first I was excited  to be reading this book because the writing style was attempting something different and unique.  But, it became a tapestry of broken images   study in futility with it’s strikethroughs, repetition of words and sentences, an over abundance of metaphors and similes.  I wanted to like this book because of the poetic prose, but when the metaphors, some of which had no correlation to the story, popped up on every page, with every feeling or sense felt it became too much of a good thing.  The author does have a flair for poetic imagery, but it took over the story.  And for me, characters and the story rule.

While reading the book, my questions weren’t about what was going to happen next, but when was the story going to begin.  It is written in the POV of the heroine, Juliette with a very tight first person, so much so that it had a claustrophobic feeling to it with no breathing space. 

Also, I found the story and the characters to be predictable which could have used the writers imaginative writing style to lend it some uniqueness.  I did think I was reading something I had read or seen before with characters that are similar to the X-Men. 

So, did I hate it?  No, but I didn’t like it either.  It’s more along the lines of disappointment that the writer didn’t temper the style of writing to allow the story to emerge.  Although frustrated with this book, I think the writer shows promise.  I will look for future books from this writer but will not read the rest of this series.

Worldbuilding:

There is a bare minimum of worldbuilding.  Because most of the descriptions are tied to metaphors, which are abstract in nature, I had to imagine for myself what the settings looked like.  I think it’s good to allow the reader to create to some extent the surroundings, but if done too much it all becomes a dream and nothing is concrete.  Also, the whys and the hows of the way things work in this society is missing. 

Characters:

Overall Juliette Ferrars, whose head we are in through out the story shows spunk and holds on to her humanity in a world that has none. I think, if a reader loves to be in the head of the main character and is only interested in being in the stream of consciousness of a character’s thoughts and feelings, then this is the character and book for them. 

Adam Kent the love interest, is too perfect to be real.  Enough said.

Note: The romance storyline didn’t have any hiccups along the way.  It was a pretty smooth ride for these young lovers which rang untrue to me.  Even, Cinderella lost the prince after the ball.

Pros and Cons:

I think I’ve covered those issues already.

Overall:

As I said earlier, I was disappointed in the follow through of this story.  I wouldn’t recommend this book unless a reader was looking for something different in writing style.  

Till next time,

Elizabeth