Shatter Me

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
By Tahereh Mafi
Published November 15th, 2011 by Harper/HarperCollins
338 pages

5 stars - It was really great!


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.

Well I'm finally posting my review on this and it was great! I would have posted it sooner but I've been pretty busy with school just like I thought I would be. So sorry for not posting much.  I'd rather read but I have homework and tests, ughh.  Anyways back to my review.  So I had been wanting to read this book because just the summary sounded interesting and when I finally got to check it out from the library, I was excited.  Plus, and I know that you shouldn't do this, I really liked the cover.  And the story is just as good as the cover thankfully. 

Juliette is a 17 year old girl that has always been different and dangerous because just touching her skin can be fatal.  So Juliette has spent most of her life never being accepted or loved, not even by her parents.  And after a terrible accident Juliette is thrown into a cell where the conditions are bad and she's all alone, where she can't harm anyone.  Until the boy she once knew as a child is thrown in as well.  And when Juliette finds out that Adam is really a soldier for the Reestablishment who is sent to spy on her in her cell, she is upset.  And to make matters worse the leader's son wants to use her as a weapon of destruction and fear. Now Juliette will have to decide whether to use her power for good or evil.  Plus she's pretty sure she is falling for Adam but can she trust him?  Who can she trust?  And is her touch fatal to everyone or are there some people immune to it?  

Shatter Me was a great book and I loved how it was present day and not so far off into the future.  It was interesting to think that birds didn't fly and food was scarce.  But what I really loved was that I was able to feel for Juliette.  I just felt so sad for her because she had never known love, not even from her parents who sent her to a cell.  She was never accepted and yet she didn't hate the world.  I liked that.  Plus I loved Adam and how he admired Juliette and remembered her from their past.  The power that Juliette had was different from what is usually written and as you read on you see that she isn't the only one with something special about her.  I do have to say though that some parts might have been a little slow but overall it was a pretty great book and I can't wait to read the second one.  And I don't want to give too much away so If I didn't say much that is why. Oh and I also found the symbolism with the bird interesting.  But go ahead and check the book out and see for yourself.  Sorry again for not posting sooner. 

Vanessa