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.
This was my "mystery book" that Brandy picked for me, so going in I
didn't know the title, cover, plot line, nothing. I figured it out
about halfway through, not so much because I recognized the story from
one I'd heard about but because I saw a cover on Amazon while browsing
that had the same cut-in-half letters as my chapter headings. Still, I
didn't read any descriptions because I didn't want to know. It's really
fun reading that way, and I think gives a bit different experience
because you don't have any preconceived notions starting off.
So what did I think?
The
book starts out keeping readers about as clueless as I was anyway, so it
fit the mystery book theme very well. Juliette (though we don't know
her name yet) is in a mental institution that's clearly more of a
prison. She narrates in a very disjointed way that involves counting
everything (breaths, days, heartbeats, fingers) with Arabic numerals
rather than written out words, and there are many strikeouts showing
what she thinks as opposed to says. It has a journal-like stream of
consciousness feel to it, but isn't an actual journal (though at times
the journal is mentioned and you're given the impression that it's
supposed to be) because she'll often be describing something such as
feeling her way down a pitch black hallway in the present tense when she
couldn't actually be writing. This odd narration style combined with my
cluelessness about the plot and Juliette's insistence that she's not
crazy, gave the distinct impression that she might be. I thought for a
very long time that we might be dealing with an extremely unreliable
narrator ...
The writing itself is different from the run of the
mill because of the numerals, the strikeouts, and the very dramatically
descriptive language. Overall I liked it. The strikeouts become more
sparse and the narration more stable as Juliette herself became more
emotionally stable, and that was a neat effect. Often I enjoyed the very
descriptive passages, especially in light of the bleak, dystopian
setting (yup, it's another dystopia ...). It was an interesting
dichotomy. Passages like "a chocolate river lapping the pale shore of my
skin" and "my heart it parasailing in the springtime" give you really
strong visual images. On the other hand, it definitely became too much
at times. Though it seemed very much like Mafi used that sort of
language to excess intentionally as opposed to it being a simple lack of
editing or restraint, it still made reading certain passages a bit
tedious or unbelievable. For example: "I never would have thought his
dark hair would've been so soft. Like melted chocolate." and "The weight
of the notebook in my pocket feels like I'm balancing a bowling ball on
my knee." I don't even know what chocolate hair would feel like short
of slimy and icky, and the bowling ball on the knee thing just sounded
silly (I snapped a pic to remember it for my review later). So while I think
Mafi is a writer to watch and who has talent and isn't afraid to stray
from the easy and ordinary, the writing took me out of the story at
times.
As far as the story itself goes, it was fairly
compelling. Despite being yet another YA dystopian setting, I didn't
find it too predictable. I wondered what would happen next. Juliette was
somewhat hard to get to know because she seemed so trapped in her own
mind (and us with her and her strikeout thoughts) for a long time, but I
ended up caring about her and rooting for her. Because of the present
tense first person POV, and the fact that Juliette herself has been
locked up for years and doesn't know the current world well, we don't
get much world building until the very end of this book. It's an
original way to develop the story, and I liked that, but I missed it
too. It's just a personal preference, but I LOVE lots of world building
and exploring of what went wrong with society in my dystopias. About the
time I really got drawn into the world, the book ended. Well played,
Ms. Mafi. Now I *have* to pick up book two ...
The last point I wanted to address was the romance
(because you know there is one ...). I wasn't sure at first how
believable I found Juliette's and Adam's complete and utter ...
obsession with each other. Especially given their backgrounds which
seemed to lead to general distrust of others and loner tendencies. But
as we found out more about them and their history as children (despite
never actually speaking to each other), it begins to make more sense. In
the end, I bought in. I will say, though, that there's some pretty
steamy stuff in this book for YA. At least if you're giving it to actual
teens. Nothing "happens," but some very hot and heavy almost occurs a
couple of times and promises for the future are made. To illustrate: I
lean into his ear, lower my voice. Whisper the words so only he can hear
me. "You're going to get better," I promise him. "And when you do, I'm
going to show you exactly what choice I've made. I'm going to memorize
every inch of your body with my lips." I'm not sure if that would have
freaked me out as a 15 or 16 year old or made my head explode (OK it
would have definitely freaked me out because I was nerdy and sheltered
...). So I'd hesitate to give this to some of the younger teens who are
loving this genre. I don't generally believe books *make* people, young
or old, engage in inadvisable behavior, but that much blatant passion
seems likely to fire up some ... curiosity to say the least.
So, I guess despite some flaws, I'm giving 4 stars
for creativity, a decent amount of originality, and the fact that I do
want to read book two despite being nearly dystopia-ed out. Overall, I'd
recommend the book.
In other news, I kind of hate the cover on this one.
Yeah, she's forced into ridiculous dresses for a bit in the book, but
really? It represents nothing but a pretty girl in a dress ... Blech.
Have you read it? What'd you think?
Malissa
