Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
What: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi
Who: Harper
When: November 15th 2011
How: Borrowed from library.
I have a curse.
I have a gift.
I’m a monster.
I’m more than human.
My touch is lethal.
My touch is power.
I am their weapon.
I will fight back.No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.
I had heard so many things about this book, and about the series as a whole. SO MANY THINGS. I heard about Chapter 62, I had seen pitches for Warner, and pitches for Adam. I had seen posts about how kickass Juliette was. I had seen and heard about how utterly brilliant and amazing this book was.
And, for the most part, it did not disappoint.
Mafi’s writing style is like none I have ever read before. The excessive metaphors and the repetition and the internal monologue of our protagonist are all elements that suck you right into this novel. I loved seeing what metaphor that Mafi would come up with next; what Juliette’s next thought would be. The writing style of this novel is simply superb, and I can see why many fans are in awe of it. I certainly am.
As for the characters, I liked them enough. Perhaps Juliette becomes a more kickass heroine in the second novel, because in Shatter Me, she just kind of fell flat as a character for me, when reading it. I loved her thoughts and her feelings, but I didn’t see anything that screamed ‘awesomesauce’ in my face, as I had been led to believe would happen. Nevertheless, I still liked her as a character, and I am really excited to see where the series takes her.
There is a love triangle in Shatter Me, but Mafi handles it with such finesse, you end up finding you don’t even mind. Or at least I didn’t. I did not pick a ‘team’ whilst reading this novel, for I feel that both boys have their strengths and weaknesses, and I feel as if I should know them both a little more before deciding. However, I did find myself swooning a lot more in the Warner scenes, simply because he is so off-limits and dominating. I think that’s some cause for counselling, yeah?
I think the world building in this novel was quite fantastic, as was the development of the story and relationships. Whilst I felt that Adam and Juliette’s romance moved a little too quickly for my liking, I had to remind myself that they hadn’t met for the first time in the book; they had known each other before. That made the overall insufficiency lessen somewhat.
There wasn’t a lot of information given regarding what actually caused Juliette’s power/s, and that kind of frustrated me. Was she the result of some kind of nuclear poisoning, or unethical testing? Hopefully more of this kind of information will be provided in the sequel.
Shatter Me was definitely an addictive read, and I cannot wait to see how this story ends.
© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.
This book has been sitting on my kindle forever. I guess I should actually read it now. lol
It’s a pretty good read :D
I made a Tweet about this book, describing how the writing made me want to cry it was so beautiful, despite the lack of punctuation and stuff. It reads like poetry, however, and I find that I really enjoy that.
I haven’t made it far into the book yet, but I already know that as a person, I don’t like Warner. I’m very much decided and on Team Adam at the moment. Perhaps that might change in the future, but for now, I’m sticking to my guns.
I totally understand what you’re saying about Juliette’s powers, but I think that’s the fun of it when it comes to books like this. Questions will be answered, if the author is paying attention to them. If not, then we’re SOL and might become angry that they weren’t (or at least annoyed).
Oh, I’m curious: How did you read the crossed out bits? I read them as a whispering.
I didn’t mind about the punctuation and grammar etc because it added that artistic flare to the novel.
Oooo. Yeah, Adam is a knight in shining armour, so I can see why you would be Team Adam :D
I have finished the series, and unfortunately the questions I had about Juliette’s powers were not answered, which kind of annoyed me a bit.
I hadn’t really given any thought to how I read the crossed out sections, but reading them in a whisper is amazing! I kind of read them more as thoughts that she had but felt she shouldn’t have.
Juliette really doesn’t become badass until the third book. She’s kind of a mess in the first two haha
In terms on the love triangle- my god, you have to read Destroy Me. It’ll definitely convert you to being fully on Team Warner :P (I was on neither team in book one, but man, that novella)
She really is a bit of a hot mess, haha!
I have read Destroy Me and my review is going up on Monday! I can say that I was definitely decided after reading it ;D
I read this about a year ago (I think? Maybe the year before) and didn’t like it that much. But I’ve heard the next ones are good so I might try it again? I can’t deny that it’s one of the most unique styles of writing I’ve read (up there with Markus Zusak).
I am not as in love with it as everyone else. I liked it enough but it is far from a favourite!
Yes, I did love the unique writing style, which is one of the reasons I rated it so high :D
I honestly really struggled with this first one…but the second two I rated 4-stars each. ;) I actually love Mafi’s crossing-out-the-words thing and the really emotional rawness. I just didn’t get some of the metaphors. And I felt like I was reading fluff most of the time. Like seriously, I almost just had to read the 1st sentence in each paragraph and then the rest was dribble. *shrugs* I still have fond thoughts of this series and I’d totally buy it if I found it somewhere…particularly with the awesome eyeball covers. I’m not so wowed by Juliette in the fearsome tutu. XD
Oh gosh yes. Some of the metaphors made absolutely NO sense, haha, but I liked how artistic they were :D
It was very rambly at times but I found I didn’t mind too much. Juliette was such an interesting character to read about.
It’s not one of my favourites, but if there was a great deal on those eye covers, I’d probably buy it! I think reading it a second time would bring different things to light.
And yes this cover is AWFUL!
WELL! :D This is a good sign! :3 I personally didn’t enjoy Shatter Me, but if you love this one, you’ll most likely be falling over yourself when you reach Ignite Me ;) It’s AWESOME! :D And I agree! Most people don’t get Mafi’s writing style, but I simply adore it!! ^^ It takes some time to warm up to her genius though! :P WONDERFUL REVIEW DEAR CHIARA!! :D <33
I have read Ignite Me and THERE WAS SO MUCH FANGIRLING I CANNOT EVEN, EMILY. Haha XD
I love it, even if a lot of it is fluff. I myself am a fan of fluff ^.^
THANK YOU, EMILY, LOVELY <3
Oh how I loved the socks off of this series, to the point where I now have a girl crush on Tahereh Mafi. Yep, loved it THAT much. I’m thrilled you loved the endless metaphors as well. They really endeared me to the series. YAY! Finally someone I can talk with about the awesomeness that is Warner. I know, I know, you haven’t picked a team, but wait until the next book.
You’ll be drooling for him soon enough ;) Awesome review. I’m all fangirly now.
Girl crushes are fantastic! And Mafi is so cute, so I approve ;D
The metaphors were so beautiful! I loved them and their vividness.
Eeep! I have actually finished the series and I must say that you are right about Warner. Much drooling!
OHMYGOSH you’re going to LOVE Warner. If you like him now, you’re just going to fall head over heels for him. Chapter 62 is in Unravel Me, though. Also, Juliette becomes and awesome badass by the second and third book. Read Destroy Me too :)
I have actually finished this series, haha :D And ASDFGHJKL WARNER WARNER WARNER. Haha ;D I love him <3
I think Juliette finally became badass in Ignite Me, but that it was a little rushed D:
Great review! I wrote my own recently and had similar thoughts, I loved the writing style but for me the romance was just too quick and I feel like Juliette really needs developing before I can really love her as an MC, plus the dystopian world needs more depth but I’ve heard that everything really picks up in Unravel Me with both the characters and the world so I can’t wait to pick it up!
Thank you! :)
Yes, a lot of things were underdeveloped, but I think there is enough time in the rest of the series for that!
Okay, so Juliette really isn’t awesome sauce until book three, so HOLD ON until you get to Ignite Me! But book two has Kenji, and he makes up for the angst in Unravel Me :D
I have read the entire series already, haha XD This is an old review that I’d had scheduled for AGES.
I liked Unravel Me but yes the angst was a tad overbearing. But I do so love Kenji ^.^
And yeah she got badass in Ignite Me but it was SO QUICK. We needed some more development from crying girl to world dominator D:
I’m so very curious about her writing-style. It’s one of THE thing everyone talks about in their review.
I think everyone mentions it because it is so very unique! I have never come across a style that is so full of flowery prose and metaphors!
The writing in this novel is really what drew me in and locked me into really liking this book. It felt like a victory because I always want to use fragments and I wanted to point out to my editor all the ways she broke the rules and got an editor to let her get away with it :) but as you mentioned it was also the metaphors she did so very well that make this so unique and engaging.
The plot was kind of barely there but the characters were really good and the writing just made this such a great read :)
Mafi’s writing is pretty incredible in that it is so unique and new. Like you said, she broke all the rules, but in all the right ways!
Yes, there were a few problems with world building and plot, but like you said I think the characters were the main focus of the novel.