Shatter Me

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Supernatural, Adventure
Amazon Price:
       Hardcover - $9.88
       Paperback - $9.99
       Kindle Edition - $11.39

Summary:

"You can't touch me," I whisper.

I'm lying, is what I don't tell him. He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him. But things happen when people touch me. Strange things. Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Rating:
✰✰✰
3 out of 5 stars

"Her touch is lethal. Her touch is power," this is Tahereh Mafi's tagline in her debut novel Shatter Me. It focuses its story on a 17-year-old girl named Juliette Ferrars set in a dystopian setting. Her dilemma was her unknown power which she considered as a curse, a fatal touch that render anyone who touch her paralyze, limp or dead. If you're having an idea picturing her powers, well, it's very similar to Rogue of X-Men. Like her, Juliette, seems to have the ability to suck the energy out of humans and kill them.

So what can I say about the book? First, I was really interested about it because this book was released during the time Hunger Games became a hit in the screen and made few book worms interested in reading dystopian novels. Aside from this, it has an interesting plot, a heroine who (finally) has a power to take care of her damned self or so I thought. Okay, so the story start with Juliette locked up inside an asylum because she was seen as a threat to everyone because of her uncanny gift. One day, she was introduced to a cellmate, a guy named Adam Kent, which she recognized to be a schoolmate back in the past. With them sharing a cell/room together, slowly Juliette and Adam grew accustomed to each other and yet still wary with each other. Later on, she figured out that Adam wasn't a prisoner like her but a soldier sent from The Reestablishment to monitor her mental and social stability because they are planning to make her a weapon because of her ability. This is the point where she met the dashing and ruthless leader of the Reestablishment, Warner, who happens to be interested and obsessive with Juliette for no reason at all besides from her power.

As Warner tries to control Juliette, Adam slowly revealed himself to be attracted to Juliette and that he knows her as well. And the most disturbing thing is that he seems to have the ability to touch Juliette without hurting himself. Adam confessed to her that he had been watching her all along and wanted to know her, and that he's in love with her. Big surprise, eh? Together then, they escaped The Reestablishment and found their way to the Omega Point, a resistance group where humans with supernatural abilities like Juliette find their refuge at.

I gave Shatter Me a 3 star rating out of 5, yes, it was a good book but perhaps I was waiting for something more explosive out of it which I am looking forward to its sequel. I want to see Juliette as someone more braver and for God's sake, to finally use her ass-kicking powers to put an end to The Reestablishment. I hope to see more action, a clearer character background which Warner lacks and finally, a sequel fans will never forget of.

Another thing, readers may find interesting about this book is Mafi's unique way of writing in idioms and crossing out passages and lines from the book. I will definitely recommend this book to readers who wants to start getting into dystopian novels.

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