Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Blurb

Things happen when people touch Juliette. Strange things. Bad things. Dead things.

No one knows why her 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, without love, she’s finally discovering her strength – and maybe even a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

My Perspective

This is the fourteenth book I read from my post Credit Where Credit’s Due. I read about Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi from Lynette at Lynette Noni. You can read her thoughts on the book here.

Shatter Me is the first book in the Shatter Me series. It is about a seventeen year old girl named Juliette who possesses a very unique trait – if you touch her you will die. After a terrible accident occurs involving Juliette, she is abandoned by her parents, shunned by society and locked up in an asylum. However someone has their eye on her.

I really wanted to love this novel. Its style was so unique and the beginning captured me instantly. It didn’t hold me though and I’m actually quite disappointed with how the rest of the story panned out. A lot of people have trouble with this book because of the writing style (the use of purple prose) however that was not my qualm at all. I couldn’t stomach the romantic aspect to it. I found it so ridiculous and immature and boring. It completely took away from the dystopian part of it. It was filled with so much, well basically sexual content, albeit PG, which is NOT how the book is marketed.

Juliette is really easy to like and root for. Despite how she’s been treated, she’s not bitter, she still wants to do good. She’s brave and stubborn. She’s also not perfect, which makes her easier to relate to. She lacks self confidence (no wonder) and finds it hard to believe she’s not a monster. Adam, is of course, practically perfect. Strong. Sexy. Inherently good. What every teenage girl dreams of. It would have been nice if he had some imperfections to actually make him realistic.

The writing style was really intriguing. I’ve never come across purple prose before and i really enjoyed the style – some of the descriptions were fantastic. I did find that it petered off though, which was disappointing.

The dystopian premise was interesting however not super unique with the saturation of dystopian novels on the market at the moment. However Juliette and her predicament was definitely unique and really gave it a fresh twist. I really wish that this story hadn’t become so bogged down in kissing scenes.

There are two more novels in the series however I probably won’t read them. I can understand how teenage girls would probably love this book however if you like a bit more depth to your stories, I would probably look elsewhere. This book could have been so great and I’m really sad that it’s not.

Overall I can only really recommend this book to those into reading YA dystopian novels that mainly revolve around kissing scenes…

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Credit Where Credit’s Due

Obviously as a good blogger one must connect with and follow other blogs. To be honest i do find this challenging. As an introvert, i am quite happy to be by myself, drawing my energy from being alone. However even if i was happy having no one follow me, really the point of a blog is to connect, share etc. so as my personality also dictates, if i’m going to do something at all, by jingo i’m going to do it well! (And to be honest, much as it horrifies the introvert in me, i really am enjoying the connections that i have made so far)

Anyway, this post is meant to be about the 28 books that i have read about from a few of the blogs that i follow. From reading their perspective/reviews, i was interested in reading the different books, so i downloaded the preview for each book (if there was one) and i have to say that i am looking forward EVEN MORE to reading them!

They are:

~ Summers In Supino: Becoming Italian by Maria Coletta McLean

~ Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

~ Last Chance for Justice by Kathi Macias

~ Untangling the Knot by Deanne Wilsted

~ French Illusions: My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley by Linda Kovic-Skow

~ Sihpromatum – I Grew my Boobs in China by Savannah Grace

~ The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs

~ Rose Harbor In Bloom by Debbie Macomber

~ The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

~ Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison

~ The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

~ Gone South – A Novel by Meg Moseley

~ One Day In Apple Grove by C H Admirand

~ The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

~ Splintered by A.G. Howard

~ Rewrite Redemption by J.H. Walker

~ Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

~ Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

~ Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food, and Saving The Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard

~ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon

~ Terra by Gretchen Powell

~ Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

~ How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

~ The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

~ Murder at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison

~ Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart

~ Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

There was also a book that a blogger mentioned that they want to read and it sounded so intriguing i want to read it now too!

~ London Under by Peter Ackroyd

Anyway i have placed all of these books on my various wishlists and so i have quite a supply of gift ideas for my family 😉 I will be sure to review each book and it will be interesting if i share the same views of the blogger who posted about them!

Also in case you didn’t know (you would if you followed my other blog www.thechefandthewaitress.wordpress.com – yes a shameless self promotion!), Kel and i will be traveling to Europe and the UK via China for the next six weeks. Yep, that’s right. So i probably won’t be posting anything while we’re away due to limited WI-FI access plus I’m hoping that i will be too busy having too much fun!