Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Photo credit: Moi :)

If I could give Shatter Me six stars on a five-point scale, I would give it ten.

Long before the book came out, I heard a lot of online hype about Tahereh Mafi and her upcoming debut. I was curious, so I followed her on Twitter and started reading her blog—and I could immediately see why her fan base was growing so quickly.

Online, Mafi is funny, encouraging, genuine and sometimes even inspiring, so naturally I clicked on over to see what her book was about.

The Goodreads summary goes as follows:

“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.”

I was hooked, and I waited patiently for my pre-ordered copy to come in the mail.

It arrived. I read it. I loved it.

Shatter Me is the best combination of elements—it’s exciting, the plot is interesting, the characters are diverse, the setting is a perfect touch of dystopia and most strikingly—the prose is absolutely beautiful. 

Mafi’s writing style is unlike anything I’ve ever read before and I’ve fallen in love with it. Truthfully, even if you don’t like dystopia or paranormal YA books, I’d recommend you read Shatter Me anyway if only for a brilliant example of a pitch-perfect voice.

It’s easy to see why Shatter Me was optioned for a movie so quickly—it’s a very exciting read with some truly memorable characters. (Remember that post I wrote about minor characters? Shatter Me gave me a new favorite secondary character to add to my short list—that’s how good it is.)

My only criticism with Shatter Me is a minor one—without spoiling anything, I thought some of the romance was a little over-the-top, however I understood the reasoning behind it, so really I didn’t mind it that much (or at all, to be honest).

In conclusion if you like YA—read Shatter Me.

If you like dystopia—read Shatter Me.

If you like exciting books—read Shatter Me.

Hell, if you don’t like any of those things but you like well-written books—for crying out loud, read Shatter Me.

I absolutely loved this book—it easily jumped into my list of favorites—and I am eagerly awaiting the unnamed sequel.

I’m going to be reading Matched by Allie Condie next—what are you reading?