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.
In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel
2 Dull Kisses
This last little while has been pleasent. every book i have bought for the past 2-3 months has recieved nothing below 4 stars. Its a small miracle, I know, to be able to enjoy all my novels. That streak ended today Im afraid. Shatter me is what happens when authors try too hard to become bestsellers. upon reading Shatter me, i discovered that there is such a thing as being too poetic . Mafi tries too hard to be deep and insightful, and fails on a large scale. Her sense of poetry is kind of scary, actually- Not monsters under your bed scary, but a this-is-what-authors-have-come-too scary. I mean i should know. I LOVE poetry . im all about poetic sentances & proper uses of metophers, imagery, similies, repititation etc. However, There is a
“I always wonder about raindrops.
I wonder about how they're always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors.
I am a raindrop.
Lets not forget these.....
“I am nothing but novocaine. I am numb, a world of nothing, all feeling and emotion gone forever."
"I'm up.
Spinning.
Scanning.
Scared.
They found us is the only thing I can think of. My stomach is a flimsy crepe, my heart a raging woodpecker, my blood a river of anxiety."
"My heart fails for a moment.
There are 400 cotton balls caught in my windpipe."
"His body presses closer and I realize I'm paying attention to nothing but the dandelions blowing wishes in my lungs."
“My life is four walls of missed opportunities poured in concrete molds.”
“I'm wearing dead cotton on my limbs and a blush of roses on my face.”
“You're my bird" i tell him. "You're my bird && you're going to help me fly away.”
and so on. There are tons more, but I plan on covering more useless items in the novel so I cute it short. Those sentances are NOT . O. K. They are no poetic & they dont help me imagine juliettes world.
& it's not onlt certain points in the novel that are like this.. Mafi writes like this throughout the whole book! just.. oh god. The whole novel is basically a really bad poem with 23489382493284 too many
Now the second issue... execution of plot.
I have never seen anything so stupid. It pains me, because Shatter me could have been a good novel. The idea of Juliette having a lethal touch is interesting. however, the novel lacked... alot.
First off, Juliette is shy because she thinks she's a monster that should die etc. she's been aching to touch someone for years. She gets a new cell mate in the Assylem who steals her bed and leaves her on the floor to assert is power on his phsyco cell mate. Apperently he thought he was put there so he would be torchered by his supposed to be crazy cell mate, so he decides to assert his power. until he realizes shes not crazy & gives her back her bed & becomes nice. Then later on in the novel.... 200 pages later, he tells her that he has always known who she is. that she was the girl from his childhood that he was in love with and he has been searching for her for years & he still loves her. THEN WHY WOULD YOU MAKE HER SLEEP ON THE FLOOR ? I'm mind blown. his acting in front of warner is given, obviously he wouldnt want him to know that he's in love with Juliette , the girl Warner has been researching for years. but in the cell, it's just them. I FAIL to understand his need to create that lie & make her sleep on the floor. THEN, throughout there time together in the cell Juliette keeps saying that she knows his eyes, she thinks she knows who he is etc etc etc. she isnt to sure at first though. then once they escape, they both admit their undying love for eachother... HUH? Im pretty sure if i was in love with someone, i'd know if it was them chilling in a cell with me. no matter if its 3 years later.
“He whispers, "You have no idea how much I've thought about you. How many times I've dreamt"-he takes a tight breath- "how many times I've dreamt about being this close to you." He moves to run a hand through his hair before he changes his mind. Looks down. Looks up. "God, Juliette, I'd follow you anywhere. You're the only good thing left in this world.”
Okay so last time i checked, if i havent talked to someone, EVER, but they stood up for me in 3-4th grade, YET WE NEVER TALKED, and then i was absent for a couple years, & then got reuinited , i wouldnt be to ecstatic to follow them off a cliff. Im sorry, but just dont see how they are so quick to fall in love with eachother . like if they had some kind of relationship earlier on... not in elementry (they didn't even talk).. if they were actually together, standing against the world, in love WHATEVER, and then got seperated- then sure, i can see how they can say i love you to eachother after 5 days, and how they would die and follow eachother off a cliff, and how they have been searching for eachother, blah blah blah. but other than that, no. Mafi tried waywaywyawyywayyyy to hard to get hardcore romance in.
Also, if your worried about escaping through a window before an army captures you, i dont think it's the proper time to argue with the guy you just tied up about who loves you more. stupidest thing ever. adam is so worried about telling her he loves her, while warner begs her not to leave him and shes just standing there INSTEAD OF ESCAPING. THEN, kenji and adam have a war about who likes juliette. it gets taken way to far even though its supposed to be a joke. then adams dying and all him & kenji can talk about is if juliette is adam's official girlfriend... then she decides to tell him she's gonna memorize his body with her lips. well sorry hunny, if he's dead thats not gonna work out. ugh. so. stupid. all the emotions are blown up 1000000000x , everyone over exaggerates. Adam will be freaking out saying oh god- juliette in complete hysteria every 2 seconds for no reason, or for something small & pointless.
oh and lets not forget that when she gets at omega point, when shes naked under covers and is asking about where james & adam are and how kenji lied to her to get her there etc- she decides to argue with winston about nicknames. really? are you effing kidding me? you have about 5000 things to be worried about, and thats what occupies your mind? "you got mad when i called you blondie and not winston. why doesnt he have the right to be mad that youre calling him moto instead of kenji?"
shes acting like shes his counseller instead of a girl who just got dragged into this place, surrounded by people she doesnt know, that are telling her she was brought here and lied to un purpose , while the 2 people that came with her are no where to be seen and she might have been tricked... yet thats all that is on her mind.
seriously there is probebly atleast 20 more things that have pissed me off about this novel, but i will continue no further or else on one will read this. i think ihave made my opinion quite clear.
SO, in conclusion... Mafi needs to take up some serious creative writting classes. Oh- they also MUST be accompanied by hardcore metaphor & imagery research.
*sigh*, i hope the bookstore doesn't mind giving me a refund.
Happy reading my lovelies !
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