Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

      
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi was interesting. I have never read a book anything like it and it was a new concept, so it deserves some credit for that. First, the setting:

     Shatter Me takes place in a post-apocalytic world run by the Reestablishment. They want to make the world a better place. Or at least that's what they tell the people. What the people don't know is that this new government is corrupt. The environment is also corrupt. The weather is volatile, the animals are dying, the plants withering away to nothing. People are starving to death and the government is regulating their every move. But what happens when the people who are supposed to be your shining beacon of light are actually dark pits of corruption and evil?

     

Now, a summary of the story:

     Juliette has been locked up for 264 days. She was thrown into an insane asylum after she killed someone. But she didn't do it on purpose. If she touched anyone with her bare skin, she would suck the life out of the person she was touching and he would die if she kept contact for too long. Then, one day, she gets a cellmate. Adam. He used to go her school and was the closest thing that she ever had to a friend. He was the only one that stood up for her and it seems that he does not remember her at all. He doesn't even seem crazy, so she wonders why he's there. Two weeks later, she is forcefully taken out of confinement and brought to a government building owned by The Reestablishment. Warner wants to use her as a weapon to torture the rebels, but Juliette never wanted to hurt anyone. Not on purpose. Then she finds out that Adam is actually part of the Reestablishment army, the soldier that has been assigned to watch her every move. As luck would have it, he is also one of the few that can actually touch Juliette. What kind of trouble will this crazy couple get into, eh?

Random stuff about the book:

        I have never read a book quite like this one before. I have never read a book with strikethroughs through some of the words and I thought the effect of this was really different. It showed how Juliette was suppressing some of her thoughts and I thought it provided background information in an interesting way. However, they did become a bit annoying at times, but that was something that I was willing to overlook. 

      The idea for Shatter Me was also quite intriguing. The fact that Juliette could kill someone with her touch alone, as well as do some other impossible acts, such as breaking through concrete walls, was different, but in some ways the same. It has the same theme of not being able to control one's self, as the vampire books and such do, but it was presented in a cool way.

      There was also the matter of insta-love in this book. Adam and Juliette love each other very quickly, but at the same time they had gone to school together for a long time, so it wasn't exactly insta-love. I just think that their love would not be as intense as it was, at least at first.

      Something that I loved about this book was the heroine, Juliette. She never let anyone step all over her and she always stood up to those who tried to oppress her, such as Warner. She was also funny while she was at it, so she was basically awesome. She was also given horrible circumstances in her life, but she still tried to make the best of it and was still nice to others even though they tortured her. She didn't want revenge on those who made her an outsider or who rejected her. She also didn't whine about every little thing in her life because her entire life was crap, but she tried to make the best of it. Juliette is like an anti-MarySue because no one likes her unless they actually get a chance to know her, which is kind of refreshing in a YA book.
      One of the most outstanding parts of this book was its figurative language. At some points, it became a tad excessive, but the similes, metaphors, alliteration, everything was so good. One of my favorite uses, and I'm not sure why, was when it said, "1432 seconds walked into the room before he did." (P.S. I made up that number. I didn't feel like finding that page, but I know the rest of it is right.) It is writing like that that I loved about this book and it was perhaps my favorite thing about the book.

       Overall, this story was a really good one. Perhaps not as earth-shattering as some, but it is easy to be absorbed by the story line and, by the end, you will want to keep reading the series. I certainly do.

This book was one that I could hardly put down. 4 Smileys!