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.

I've seen a lot about this book (well series), and I have several students who have read it and really liked it, so I decided it was time I read it.  I loved the concept of the book - the fact that Juliette couldn't touch anyone.  It really appealed to me.  The carry-out of this concept was good.  It wasn't exactly what I thought, but it was good.  I liked Juliette a lot.  She was strong, but yet you could see how living like she has had worn her down and really messed with how she saw things.  I felt for her because she didn't really trust anything, and she really didn't trust herself.  This made her actions understandable - not trusting Adam right away and isolating herself.   It was fun watching her grow and become so confident as the story went along.  She changed a lot and that really made the story.

I do have to comment on the crossed off words in the book.  Juliette will think something, but then corrects her thoughts to something else.  In the book this is shown but crossing out the first thoughts and then having the new ones.  At first I thought this was a cool way to show this.  So much of the story is about what's happening in her thoughts and knowing that she continually fought with thinking good about herself.  Showing the thoughts like this really helped get that across.  BUT for me as it continued in the story I started to get a little annoyed by it.  Not enough to stop reading mind you, but it did annoy. Just thought I'd give you a heads up about it.

Finally - good book! From reading reviews I understand there is much more this this Warner guy, so I want to keep reading the series and find out about him!