REVIEW: SHATTER ME BY TAHEREH MAFI

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. (Summary from Goodreads)

Before I picked up this book, I had heard a lot of wonderful things about its 'unique and lyrical' writing style. So, when I finally got around to reading Shatter Me I was feeling pretty optimistic that I was going to enjoy it. However, I was very, very wrong.

The writing style was definitely 'unique'. I'll give it that. I can see why there are so many people that are fond of the writing style, however for me personally, I thought at times the metaphors were ridiculous and just plain disturbing when you actually thought about them. Here are some of my personal favorites:

"My body is a blender and I'm made of mush"

"I melt until I'm a handful of hot butter dripping down his body"

One of the other things that bothered me about this book was that there were parts of the plot that seemed way too convenient for it to be believable.

Also, Shatter Me does have dystopian elements in it, however it is primarily a romance.

The romance between Juliette and Adam had me constantly cringing, and the fact that I have a feeling the villain of the novel, Warner, is actually going to become Juliette's other love interest in future books deeply concerns and disturbs me.

The ending, which actually picked up quite a bit, did leave me intrigued to check out the next book, Unravel Me. Ultimately though, I think my dislike of the writing style and the romance outweighs any interest I have to continue the series.


2 words to describe Shatter Me: cliched, unrealistic