Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

The Synopsis:
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.



My Thoughts:
Here is another example of a book I decided to put on the back burner just because it was dystopian.  Well, thanks to my buddy ol' pal, Monica, over at Cover Analysis, she sent her copy of this book to read because she loved it so much.  Also, she said it was like X-Men and I may or might not have went a little crazy at the thought of that.  (If you don't know, I'm pretty much in love with X-Men.  Actually, if it has anything to do with superheroes, I'm all over that stuff.)

Juliette is a damaged girl.  She's been cooped up in this psych ward/jailhouse for just about a year and she hasn't seen or touched anyone in a while.  List time she did touch someone, that person died, and she's almost content to live a life where she won't have to hurt anyone ever again.  She's never had somebody love her, and somewhere deep, deep, deep inside of her, she craves it.  But she can't have that love when she's a monster.

Lemme just say right off the bat here that Mafi's writing was spectacular.  I soaked up each and every single word, basking in the wonderful glow of all the similes and metaphors and whatnot.  The only author that rivals her technique would be Lauren Oliver, I think.  I've never read something so deep before.  If there was a reading geek heaven, Mafi's writing would be it.  The only think that irked me would be how she didn't write out the numbers.  For example, instead of one, it was 1.  It wasn't that big of a problem that I wanted to toss the book aside; it just rubbed me the wrong way a little.

There was plenty of action and adventure tied in with lies and mysteries that left me going 'Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes . . .'.  I tore through all the pages.  I wanted to know what would happen.  I wanted to devour it.  Adam, I thought was so badass, a lot of the time, rocking his tattoos and shooting off his gun occasionally.

Speaking of Adam, I'd like to talk a little about the romance and such of this book.  Alright, it was absolutely adorable, okay?  Just, met-your-heart adorable.  Adam was so sweet and he just swooped and made Juliette realize she isn't that monster she thought herself to be.  Sadly, I felt like it just happened too fast.  It was one of those inst-love situations that bugged me a little bit.  Instantly, they were devoted to one another and all mushy, touchy-feely.  Also, I was a little disappointed with Adam.  Here I thought that he was going to be some really hot guy, completely irresistible.  But, I, for some strange reason, wasn't attracted to him. 

Shatter Me is a book of self-discovery.  It's a book of the impossible love and a world built around an evil society.  I traveled along this journey that Juliette took, getting all depressed when she cried, my heart beating faster when she was in an adrenaline-filled situation.  It was beautiful.  I'm not sure what else I can say about the writing because there just aren't that many words to describe it's intricate beauty.  If you haven't picked up this book yet, I hope you do because it certainly has made one of my top favorites for 2012.