Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

GOODREADS BLURB:
"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 on 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.

Okay, wow. Where to start...

This book started off arduous difficult tough to read. The prose was complicated complicated complicated and hard to follow at times.

I really wanted to put the book down.

BUT.

Wow. Once it got going, dialogue picked up, and Adam showed up, I changed my tune. Mafi has TALENT. TALENT TALENT TALENT (and I mean that with no pun alluding to the book at all!) :) I can't wait to read more books from her!

THE GOOD:
I felt everything that Juliette felt. Saw everything she saw. There was no detail that was left out from her emotions, or even how they were processed in her mind. I don't think I've ever felt like I knew a character as intimately as I felt I got to know Juliette. I really was rooting for her the entire time, because she was simply transparent and honest in her thoughts and emotions. Adam is genuinely a good guy. Mafi leaves the book at a sensible point, yet leaves me invested enough to go "I need more pages!" at the end. That's a good thing. :)

THE BAD:
Like I said, I was really struggling to enjoy this book for the first 25%. I only kept going because two good book reviewing buddies told me I needed to and I hate to put a book down, so I did. The prose feels overdone and the constant strikethrough of words is taxing. While I totally understand her point and goal with this idea, I think someone should have put a leash on it at the same time. It works, it really does, it just was a bit overboard in the beginning. Other than that, I really enjoyed the book!

CONCLUSION:
WOW. That's all I've to got to say. This author has a lot of talent, and if you enjoyed Hunger Games, this is definitely the next book you should pick up. The writing is hard to get used to at first, but I promise it's totally worth it to get through the first bit and get to the meat of the story. You won't regret an adventure into this book, and it will definitely leave you wanting more.

FAVORITE QUOTES:
"Hope is a pocket of possibility."
* * *
"I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction. They want to delete every point of punctuation in my life from this earth and I don't think I can let that happen."

RATING: 4 Books