Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me, Shatter Me, Shatter Me. It severely lived up to the mega hype.

Shatter Me, is about a seventeen year old girl named Juliette, who has a deadly touch. Her condition cost her everything. She never had friends at school. She never got to experience love from anyone. Her family gave her up to live in an asylum. Now, she sits alone in her cell with her notebook and her broken pen, just waiting for a bird to fly past her window. Alone, until a boy, who seems strangely familiar to her, shows up in her cell as her new cellmate.

Juliette dreams of flying birds but there are none outside in the real world. The real world is a disaster. The Reestablishment is supposed to be helping heal the earth but they are only harshly ruling and harming it further. The Reestablishment has plans for Juliette. They know of her condition and what terrible things she has done in the past. They know that she is powerful and plan to use her as a weapon but Juliette has plans of her own.

Okay. So, this book had SO, SO, SO MUCH hype surrounding it. I was really excited to read this book. I had really high hopes and expectations for it. I went in expecting a killer story and to have fun reading it. I had heard that Tahereh’s writing style was a thing of beauty and something we don’t see often. I was really intrigued by the hearsay and I was NOT let down. This book was dystopian, yes, BUT it was very picturesque. The extensive use of adjectives was not as annoying as it can sometimes be in YA. I loved the poetry to the book. The use of repeated words was something I liked. And the crossed out words of what was left unsaid was interesting. Juliette’s mind is a beautiful calamity. I feel like I learned so much about the art of writing from Tahereh’s style of writing that I can apply to my own work. I will certainly be buying books 2 and 3 sometime!

Recommended age:

14+

On to the ratings!

Stars..

0 = None 10 = Tons

THE FEELS:

Ah the feels..there were some emotion provoking moments but none that made me want to cry. I found myself seriously “shipping” Kerrars? I think that’s the proper “Ship Name” for them. Also there may have been a momentary lapse of judgement on my part. I almost, kinda, unintentionally liked Warner with Juliette. Just for like a page though. Also loved Kenji and James.

6/10

Violence:

There were some scenes where Juliette touches people and it is a little violent, but not bad. Also some fighting and shooting. But hey, nothing is as bad as the Rue, Tris, and Newt scenes. You THG, Divergent, and TMR fans get me.

4.5/10

Sexual content:

There are a few steamy make-out sessions but nothing really beyond that. The sexual tension between Juliette and a couple of the guys is really thick and totally fun though.

5.5/10

Crude language:

There is one or more of almost every “cruse word” including, “hell” “shit” and even a few religious profanities that seemed highly unnecessary and just random.

8/10

Other elements/comments:

Themes of captivity, power lust and some self-loathing.

Overall:

Overall I really enjoyed the story. Some things like the bad language may prove to be too much for some individuals under say, 14, but when comparing this book to other YA books it was just really interesting and got really X-Men-ish towards the end which I liked a lot and totally didn't expect.

8.5/10

Xoxo

- Sarah