Series: Shatter Me #1
Date Published: October 2nd 2011
Publisher: HarperCollin
Amazon Book Depository
Goodreads Summary
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 book
surprised me a lot. Shatter Me is a beautifully written novel about a dying
dystopian society where humans didn’t take a good enough care of our world.
The story
follows a young Juliette that has a curse gift where she can kill
someone just by touching them. I have never heard of anything close to this
idea and I think it’s absolutely amazing! A lot of books nowadays have a lot of
contact in them; especially romance books where the first little feather like
touch is important to any of the characters relationships. This gift that
Juliette has rules it out almost; as the girl has never touched anybody without
hurting them. She has never hugged her own mother or father, she never had a
bestfriend that would hold her when she was upset and she never had a boyfriend
because she would kill him. It’s so sad and beautiful at the same time. I mean imagine
if that were you. I can’t even begin to imagine what would be like to never
feel someone else’s skin.
“I spent my life folded between the
pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
:’)
Juliette touched someone 264 days
before the Reestablishment locked her up for murder. She hasn’t touched anyone,
spoken to anyone in 264 days until a boy is thrown into her cell- a boy named
Adam whom she has a history with already. After a few weeks Juliette is then
taken to a facility where a highly disturbing guy named Warner wants to use her
and her gift as a weapon and is strangely obsessed with her.
While I was reading this I was
confused as to why these random events would lead to her meeting Warner, but as
the book progresses you can see exactly what is happening and why.
I loved this book, the story was
great, the dystopian world was great although somewhat confusing, and the
writing was great- but it was annoying at times.
The reason for it being annoying.
1) The repetition. At first I loved the emphasis
of the white bird which meant freedom for Juliette. I loved the fact that it
was repeated three times. But the random words halfway through the sentences
sentences sentences. It was annoying annoying annoying. There was no use for
it. Halfway through the book I thought that my book was faulty and that the
words weren’t meant to be there!
2) The strikethroughs I loved at the
beginning. It was a way of Juliette to get her thoughts out and it would be crossed
out like this. What Mafi did was
rather clever. But again it got rather boring and annoying at times. I loved
hearing what Juliette thought but there were long sentences that were crossed
out and it’s annoying to read.
Those are the only things that annoyed me the most about this book.
There were certain metaphors that made absolutely no sense to me and I have a feeling
Mafi only included them to sound sophisticated and poetic. But I’m going to let
this slide.
“Killing time isn't as difficult as
it sounds.
I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.”
I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.”
I mentioned already that the world that Mafi created was confusing but
that I loved it nevertheless. The reason why it was so confusing was because
MAFI FAILED TO EXPLAIN IT. I mostly guessed that all of their foods and resources
run out and that the atmosphere and the weather fucked up but honestly I have
no clue why; my educated guess would be that humans fucked up and let the world
get ruined by using up everything and not caring enough for our planet. But I
wish that Mafi explained this. It was almost not thought out.
Juliette’s power is great. She can touch someone and kill them. But
again there was no explanation why she had the said power and why the hell she
enjoyed using it. Warner the sick little puppy made her touch one of his soldiers
as a way for her to show that she was powerful so they wouldn’t underestimate her.
But when she touched the soldier she got a weird kick out of it. She liked it.
Is this some weird sexual thing? Cause it sure seemed like it.
“Why are you touching me?
Because I can.”
Because I can.”
There is an exception to Juliette’s
gift, and that’s Adam. He can touch her and not die or scream out in pain and
she doesn’t get a weird kick out of it. Well scratch the last bit because
in some scenes she does. I actually rolled my eyes at this bit. I’m glad the
two love birds can touch each other up but wouldn’t this be great if they couldn’t?!
If Adam still loved Juliette even though she could kill him!!!? Am I the only
person that thinks this would be a much better idea for their little romance?!!?!?!?!?!?1??!?!?!?1??!?!?!
I will have to agree with your idea that if the two of them couldn't touch, the book would have been much more exciting. Just imagine all of the added suspense and pain! Then again, in The Immortals the two main characters couldn't touch or the other would die and the way it was written was plainly dumb.
ReplyDeleteI actually really liked this excerpt you posted: “Killing time isn't as difficult as
it sounds. I can shoot a
hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the
palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick
tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds
just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one
seems to mind.” I think it is really deep and like how it is written and what it describes :)
Also, I too am looking for a co-blogger and would probably apply for the position here if it weren't for the fact that I just bought my self-hosting program. :'( How is your search going, though? Any luck? :)
Have you read this? It would have been so much better!
ReplyDeleteI had one lovely girl reply to me so hopefully it won't be long before I find the right co-blogger! :)
You can always apply if you have the time! Even if it's to contribute to the blog :-) or guest post from time to time!
No, I haven't yet. But I have bought all the books and they are waiting for me to finally find the time to.
ReplyDeleteIf I had the time, I wouldn't be looking for a co-blogger myself, hehehe ;) I wish you all the best in your search, though. I've come to the conclusion that there is nothing worse than shifting through people to find a good match and then having to consider facts like how they review, express themselves, how their grammar, punctuation and spelling is... it's all so hard! I never want to have to interview someone for a job!
You should read it! It's good :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! I don't mind the interview bit (I enjoyed it last time heh) but just telling a blogger or reviewer no is really hard!
When I started Tangled In Pages I had a lot of people actually willing to do this with me:/
I'm so glad you enjoyed this Paulina! I love love LOVE this series. Haha, see what I did there? :P the first book is definitely not for everyone, it has a different writing style but I absolutely loved Juliette's ability, I read this because she reminded me of Rouge from X-Men and she's my fave character from the series. Don't get me wrong, Juliette candefinitelyhold her own ;) I hope you enjoy the rest of the series, book 2 is my least fave but it was still good. Awesome review!
ReplyDelete