Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Cover Source: GoodReads

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #1
Version Reviewed: Finished Paperback
Website: www.taherehbooks.com

I borrowed this book from my local library.

GoodReads Synopsis:

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.

Review:
This is one of those books that I've had on my list for quite some time. I do enjoy distopian but I'm more of a contemporary romance type girl so I have to be in the mood for books of this genre in order to read them. Therefore, it took me quite a while to get around to this book. When I signed up for the 2018 TBR Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader, I knew that I had to add Shatter Me to the list so that I would finally force myself to get around to it. Unfortunately, as a book blogger, it becomes a habit to put books on the backburner, even ones you've been dying to read.

Finally, I dove into the audiobook of Shatter Me and I was super excited to get into it... and then I got into it. This, for me, is the perfect example of 'if you think you don't like a book, try it in a different format'. The audiobook was not a great fit for me. The constant scratching sounds accompanying the story were insanely annoying and the repeated "I am not insane"'s almost drove ME insane. So, I returned the audiobook to my library and checked out a paperback copy. Oh, the difference it made. I dove in again and found myself completely enveloped in Juliette's story.

Juliette's character is so broken and rough around the edges that it's hard to not sympathize for her. The world that she has found herself in, as a prisoner, is terrible and the loss of contact she has had with the outside world would be unbearable if I was in her position.

And then her world gets completely turned upside down by Adam and Warner. These two characters bring such a crazy mix of action, emotion, and curiosity to the story that, at times, I felt sad, upset, betrayed, and angry for Juliette. The story only got better from there as it became much more action-packed, new characters were introduced, and events starting running full force into a climax.

Shatter Me is an amazing, unique story and I deeply enjoyed it's little X-Men twist. I definitely plan to continue the series and I'm excited to find out what happens next.

Rating: 5 Stars