Review: Shatter Me

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me
Volume: 1
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Fantasy

A Quick Summary: Juliette's touch kills people. She doesn't know why, but she's been locked up since her touch was revealed as fatal. The world is falling apart, people are starving, and Juliette repeats that birds don't fly anymore. Then she is pulled out of the asylum- into a situation that may be even worse. Now the Reestablishment, the brutal, totalitarian regime that she lives under, wants her to use her touch a a weapon. And for the first time in her life, Juliette is ready to fight back.

What I Thought: If you've read the book or any other reviews, you'll probably know the writing is a little unusual. It is almost poetic in the use of similes and metaphors, and there are crossings out (strikethroughs) where our narrator, Juliette, has presumably tried to avoid thinking something, or writing something (?).  It was an interesting style, but it wasn't really my cup of tea, I found my mind wandering. Juliette as a character wasn't one of my favorites, and I wasn't all that fond of the love interests (because there had to be a love triangle), though one of the boys isn't technically a love interest yet- but it is obviously going that way. The insta-love thing was driving me a little crazy by the end (okay, fine, well before the end)

Juliette is a broken character- the world hasn't shown her much kindness, and she's been kept in solitary confinement for a long time. Her own parents rejected her, and she hasn't been touched by another person in years. So I can understand how her response to human kindness is kind of skewed.

Overall, this wasn't really my sort of book. I haven't read a lot of love triangles that I've enjoyed (current tally comes to about... two tops). I'm also getting tired of the particular brand of hormonal teenager drama (which, given that I am a teenager is, I suppose, saying something).

A Fact: Human contact is very important for development, especially for children. It can lead to a lot of psychological damage, and stint emotional development in the long term.