"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." - Goodreads
Title: Shatter Me (#1)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: November 15th, 2011
Format: Paperback (Advance Readers Copy)
Pages: 342
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal
Sub-Genre(s): Paranormal/Sci-Fi
Rating: ❤❤❤❤❤
Where to Buy: Amazon |
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So this story is A-MAZ-ING! Before I dive into that let me do a short quick recap of the story....
It starts off with a young woman named Juliette who has been locked in a room for almost a full year. She gets one small window, a four walls, and one of those walls is her door with air holes. It's gray and dreary. No animals outside, no birds flying in the sky, and the grass doesn't really have that color anymore. The Reestablishment treats her and everyone else like property in this world. It's a really sad life to live in. But then Juliette's life gets thrown upside down, she experience things she hasn't in all her life, and she finally learns the truth about herself and the Reestablishment's true motivation for the world.
This story captivated me. It was like a beautifully choreographed dance on a broadway stage, watching that final number that has fireworks going off in the background while everyone is in dazzling sparkling outfits. You couldn't look away and had to watch it till the last note was sung. I was exhausted last night, couldn't sleep and finished the last few chapters of the book. I don't regret it one bit!
I'm in awe of her connection with the character Adam. I can't tell you too much, but they both have a profound effect on one another from the moment they met. He makes her come alive and she softens him to a human form of existence inside again.
The magic of how evil the Reestablishment is truly makes me think of how reckless power can be in any hands with the wrong ideas. It felt like a communist regin in charge of the people. Their way or the highway type of thinking. They shoot down people if they don't fall in like to their way of thinking. Kind of sick, don't you think? Makes me glad to live in the world that I do live in. But it was so intense to be reading it and live in Juliette's shoes for the story. I loved every moment of it!
Then the best parts were the moments that felt like poetry. Some of the most amazing words, lines, paragraphs I've ever read in all my years of living! Here is a short sample from the book:
❝ I only know now that the scientists are wrong. The world is flat. I know because I was tossed right off the edge and I've been trying to hold on for seventeen years. I've been trying to climb back up for seventeen years but it's nearly impossible to beat gravity when no one is willing to give you a hand. ❞
Mafi wrote Juliette in such a way, it made me wish I could write as beautifully as she does. Even if it's for a moment, because it was so woven perfectly with the story, the tone, mood, even the setting; the words she used made me
feel alive more with each chapter. I'm so thankful for writers like her. They reinvigorate the sense of reading a book and make you ache for the next installment of the series.
Oh this book... I would recommend it to everyone, more so women because of the romance aspect dripping in through out the book. But it's beautifully done the romance, so no complaints there hehe.
Anyway, the book just literally came out yesterday, so if you've gotten a copy, you won't be sorry. If you have yet to receive on in the mail don't worry, it's worth the wait. And if you haven't bought one yet? Well depending on if your pockets are tight right now, but in the long run it's a great investment.
This is one of those books, if I could, I would throw down 10 hearts for the love of this book! © 2011
