Published by HarperCollins on April 17, 2018
Format: Paperback
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The gripping first installment in New York Times bestselling author Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series.One touch is all it takes. One touch, and Juliette Ferrars can leave a fully grown man gasping for air. One touch, and she can kill.No one knows why Juliette has such incredible power. It feels like a curse, a burden that one person alone could never bear. But The Reestablishment sees it as a gift, sees her as an opportunity. An opportunity for a deadly weapon.Juliette has never fought for herself before. But when she's reunited with the one person who ever cared about her, she finds a strength she never knew she had.
My thoughts-
I’m sad to admit that this book really disappointed me.
After reading the synopsis of this read, I got super excited! It seemed like it would be an action-packed story complete with the amazing dystopian setting. Instead, it was filled with confusing metaphors and left me with a lot of questions.
I will say that I actually tried reading this book a few years ago but ended up having to DNF it. It wasn’t because it was bad, but honestly just because I was reading other books at the same time and never really got around to finishing it.
Fast forward a few years when I saw multiple reviews raving about it, as well as multiple people describing it as their favorite series in the whole entire world. That convinced me to try again, and this time I was going to put my undivided attention towards it.
I’m going to start off by talking about what I really liked. Even though it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, every book has good elements, and this one had quite a few.
The dystopian setting was actually super interesting to me. As I mentioned before, I was really excited about the setting, and that did not disappoint. The details that the author uses to describe the environment were super fascinating and what can I say, I love a good dystopian book!
The author did a great job of describing how the reestablishment took over the world, and how in such a short time the whole world had changed. Birds no longer flew across the sky, and animals no longer roamed the grasses.
Overall I really enjoyed the setting and the concept. Juliette was a teenage girl with the power (or curse) to inflict pain with just her touch and had to choose between the part of her controlled by her power or her heart. This book just had so many great possibilities, and the idea alone is commendable! Honestly, the biggest problem I had was the writing style, and how the plot was carried.
Let’s start with the way this book was written. The author decided to go for a style of writing that would reflect Juliette’s confusion and uncertainty, but personally, I found that hard to read. I’m sure some people don’t have a problem with extended metaphors and strikeouts, but for me, it made it hard to enjoy.
The author would talk about how the character felt strengthened and corrupt weakened by such power, similar to the way I just typed it. I understand this was supposed to reflect Juliette’s doubtfulness about her own character, but it was annoying and hard to understand. Yet, the hardest part of the writing style was the extended metaphors.
Here’s an example: “I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick it’s final tock before I fall asleep.”
These metaphors were present multiple times throughout the book. Again, I get that the author was using them for effect to describe Juliette’s character, so if this isn’t a problem for you, read this book! Unfortunately, it didn’t have the same effect on me. Most of the time I had no clue what any of these metaphors meant and it took away from other elements of the book.
While this was the biggest issue I had, a smaller one would be the plot. Most of it I was confused about how Juliette got her power, and I felt that the book skipped over certain details to keep the action going. This wasn’t a giant issue, but it seemed to make the climax feel smaller and made it harder to connect to characters.
Nonetheless, this is the first book of the series, and I probably would have to continue to read the series to feel attached to the characters. So far I wouldn’t say that I’m into any of the romance portions of the series. Neither am I rooting for a certain relationship just yet. What about you?
Sadly, I didn’t love this book as much as people hyped it up. While I loved the setting and concept, the writing style made it hard to read. In general, I would rate it only ⅖ stars, but I would still recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind strikeouts and extended metaphors. For now, I’m not sure if I’m going to read any more books in the Shatter Me series, but if I do… I’ll keep you updated!
Favorite Quote:
The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself.
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