Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: A Review by Malissa

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.

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