Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Intro

Juliette Ferrars is a 17 year old murderer. But everyone she murders has been an accident. She has a secret: her hands kill anyone who touches her. One day a boy named Adam becomes her roommate, and there is something about Adam Juliette can’t figure out. She starts getting closer to him, but when Adam turns out to be not the good person she thought he was, she is taken to meet Warner, the son of the leader of their government the Reestablishment. But when Warner proves to Juliette that looks and motive (and charm) can be deceiving, and Adam reveals his true self, Juliette and Adam have to escape from Warner and his guards. Along the way, Juliette uncovers new truths about Adam and meets someone who just might be able to help them from being on the run and finds a place where her powers are finally able to be used for good instead of evil.

How I came across the book

Everyone on the internet is obsessed with Shatter Me and I kept seeing it everywhere so I knew that I had to read it, and it’s also a banned book and I want to promote more awareness of banned books.

Other books by the author/In the series

Tahereh Mafi has written the main Shatter Me series: Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, Restore Me, Defy Me, and Imagine Me, but she is also the author of the Shatter Me novellas: Destroy Me, Fracture Me, Shadow Me, Reveal Me, and Believe Me.

The Good

• The first line is “I’ve been locked up for 264 days,” and that immediately is so gripping and catches people’s attention and makes them want to keep reading

• It is so interesting how her thoughts are crossed out so we can see what she is really thinking but knows she shouldn’t say

• HER CELLMATE WHO’S A BOY SHOVES THEIR TWO BEDS TOGETHER AND SHE DESCRIBES HIM AS GORGEOUS BUT THEN CROSSES IT OUT AND WRITES DANGEROUS

• I thought it is so interesting and powerful how she compares herself to a raindrop and says the raindrops are emptied over the earth and their presence is cursed and she said her parents abandoned her and emptied their pockets of her

• When the cellmate is looking at her and asks her name she says he reminds her of someone she used to know could this be a foreshadowing to a past relationship?

• She gives all these hints to her past like how no one can touch her and how she keeps thinking the cellmate is “him” and says how the world will forget her but she hasn’t revealed anything yet so we are just left to wonder which is a very smart method of Mafi and leaves the reader in suspense just by the first 11 pages

• foreshadowing information that boys and girls never find each other except for Juliette and the cellmate and she says it can’t be a coincidence so there must be a reason why

• AHHH WHEN HE SAYS HE DOESN’T USUALLY SLEEP WITH CLOTHES ON AND SHE GETS BUTTERFLIES AND DOESN’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK

• When he leans forward to ask her name and she freezes AND THEN SHE SAYS SHE THAWS

•  Oh my goddd when she tells him her name and says he repeats it like it entertains and delights him and she says IN 17 YEARS NO ONE HAS EVER SAID HER NAME LIKE THAT

• WHEN ADAM SAYS MAYBE HE IS INSANE AND IS SMILING JULIETTE SAYS SHE WANTS TO STARE AT THE CURVE OF HIS LIPS FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE

• WHEN ADAM SITS DOWN NEXT TO HER AND SHE SAYS HIS SHOULDERS ARE TOO CLOSE BUT SHE WROTE NEVER CLOSE ENOUGH AND CROSSED IT OUT

• SHE SAYS HER JOINTS ACHE WITH AN ACUTE YEARNING AND HER BONES ARE BEGGING FOR SOMETHING SHE CANNOT ALLOW WHICH IS FOR HIM TO TOUCH HER AND SHE CROSSED IT OUT

• She turns to meet his eyes and regrets it immediately because there are less than 3 inches between them and HER BODY IS FROZEN AND SHE CAN’T LOOK AWAY FROM HIS EYES

• SHE KEEPS SAYING THAT ADAM IS THE BOY WHO DOES NOT REMEMBER HER WHO IS HE

• The way that Juliette expresses her thoughts are so descriptive and Mari really lets us live in the mind of the character and we can feel what she isfeeling for example when Matt writes "In the absence of human relationships I formed bands with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words,stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction " (Mafi 68)

• It is really smart and admirable that Juliette is refusing to accept the temptations of the huge new mansion-like place she is living in with all the fancy rooms andher closet with expensive and lavish dresses and she decides to make her hatred non ever though she is being pampered now because Warner and Adam want to make her feel comfortable and privileged now that she is working for Warner but she grew up having nothing and she will never forget her broken past

• When Juliette is mad and yelling at warner for shooting Jenkins and he whirls her around and pins her against the door and grabs her face in his hands and his thumb brushes her cheek

• WARNER CALLS JULIETTE LOVE OHHHH MYYYYY GODDDDD

• HE SAYS HE IS NOT AFRAID OF HER HE IS ABSOLUTELY ENCHANTED

• WARNER TOUCHES JULIETTES LEG AND NOTHING HAPPENS WHICH MEANS HE CAN TOUCH HER AHHHHHH

• I love how Tahreh Mafi explores the deep and complex relationship between Adam and James and it’s really special how James is only 10 but they have such a close bond and Adam works so hard to protect James

• AHHHH WARNER SAYS HE WANTS JULIETTE TO CHOOSE HIM

• I love how Juliet goes to the Omega point in the end and Castle shows her everything because in this place she can finally be herself and her ability can be admired instead of feared and she doesn’t have to be scared anymore

The Bad

• The cellmate takes her whole entire bed so she’s forced to sleep on the floor that’s so rude especially since they are both in prison both of them should have somewhere to sleep and he shouldn’t hog her only method of comfort

• It's heartbreaking how Juliette has never felt the comfort and place of being touched by another person just because she claims herself to be a monster

• The guards come into the cell and Juliette says they are there to kill her and save Adan and as they drag her away she says I hope they kill me soon and her parents let her be taken to jail when she was 14 this is so awful

• ADAM IS POINTING A GUN AT HER CHEST AND WANTS HER TO DIE WHATTTT AND HE’S A SOLDIER

• ADAM WORKS FOR WARNER WHAT PLOT TWIST

•  Warner put Adam in change of Juliette to make sure that she will torture people for Aaron and forcing Juliette and Adam to live together and if Juliet disobeys Warner will kill her

• WHY IS SHE STILL LOOKING AT ADAM’S LIPS HE TRIED TO SHOOT HER

• THERE ARE CAMERAS IN HER ROOM THAT’S JUST CREEPY AND NOT OK EVEN IF SHE IS CONSIDERED A THREAT

• WHEN ADAM PULLS JULIET INTO THE SHOWER AND PRESSES CLOSE TO HER AND SHE WANTS TO GIVE IN BUT HE STILL TRIED TO SHOOT HER

• WHAT ADAM HAS KNOWN WHO JULIETTE WAS THIS WHOLE TIME SO ALL OF THE SEDUCING WAS FAKE AND WARNER TELLS HER THAT ADAM WANTED TO TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FREAK SHE HAD BECOME OH WE HATE ADAM

• JULIETTE LEAVES WITH ADAM BUT SHE NEEDS TO STAY WITH WARNER BECAUSE WARNER IS SO MUCH BETTER FOR HER ADAM IS JUST SOFT

• WARNER SHOT ADAM I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT

Who else would like this

Fans of dystopian worlds with high levels of romance and plot twists!

Rating

8.5/10 This was a life-changing book I have never read anything like this before. The way that we actually get to be in Juliette’s mind with her as she is thinking is something I have never experienced before in a book especially with the level of power and emotion and raw vulnerability that Juliette is feeling. I was kind of confused when Warner kept seeming like the one Juliette was supposed to be with especially since Adam tried to shoot her and Warner paints Adam as the bad guy for saying Adam lied about not knowing who Juliette was so then Adam is bad but then for some reason she forgives him? And then they escape and suddenly they are in a relationship??? But she keeps thinking about Warner?? But then she also shoots Warner so she can go save Adam??? Also everyone tells me that Juliette and Aaron are the right choice but theoretically Adam treats her better while Warner just forces things upon her (but maybe that could just be because I’ve only read the first book so far.) I was just a little thrown off, also the back of the book and between the pages on the hardcover version says “I spent my life folded between the pages of books,” but the story didn't mention books at all.