It has been 264 days since Juliette has seen or talked to another person.
For 3 years, she has been taken to doctors, psychiatrists, legal offices, and, finally, in an asylum where she has been isolated from humans.
All because of an accident that Juliette didn't mean to do.
Every since she was a baby, Juliette has lived with her curse. She cannot touch another human being. If she does, she will kill them - with just one touch.
Juliette stayed far away from everyone, but when she was 14, she tried to help a little boy up. When she did that, though, she felt power and energy rush through her, making her stronger while she was accidentally killing the little boy.
So she was punished, taken to doctors to find out what was wrong with her. When no one could find any answers, they did the next best thing - lock her away from other people.
It was a surprise, then, when she got a roommate. And even more surprising? Finding out that her roommate was a boy, a boy she went to school with.
The Reestablishment has been trying to fix the ecosystem after everything had started to wither and die. Birds don't fly anymore, plants aren't growing, animals are sparse and hard to come by.
So when Juliette and her new roommate, Adam, were forced from their cell in the asylum into the real world, it wasn't very picturesque. However, to Juliette, it was Heaven. She hadn't had fresh air or felt sunlight on her skin in 264 days.
It wasn't so ideal, though, when she was in the company of the Reestablishment's leader, Warner. He wanted Juliette to use her power in his army, being a torturer by just touching the army's victim.
Juliette wanted no part of it. She fought off Warner at every corner, while she started to grow closer to Adam.
When Adam and Juliette decide they want to run away from the army and Warner, they come into trouble. Will both be able to escape and stay hidden from Warner, or will they get caught and make Juliette be a part of his torturous plan? Read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi to find out!
My Thoughts/Reflections
Wow. I loved this book. If you are a fan of X-Men, this is a book I think you will enjoy. In fact, Juliette really reminds me of Rogue in the first and second movie, and she's my favorite X-Men character :)
Juliette is one tough cookie. She was traumatized as a little girl, never wanting to hurt another person but wanting to be a normal person who her parents could love and hold.
She missed a humans touch, not only through skin but also touching another person's heart. With her "disease" everyone called her nasty names and tried to hurt her, so she never had a friend.
Except Adam. She never talked to Adam while they were in school from 3rd to 9th grade, but he sat closer to her than any other student, he stood up for her when the other students called her names, and he looked at her like a real person, not with evilness like everyone else.
So it was shocking when the one person Juliette would have called a friend just happened to be a new roommate at the asylum.
The world that Tahereh Mafi created was very realistic, with just enough description to describe the setting of the book but not enough to bore young adult readers. It was also helpful that Juliette was so attuned to the outside world, describing all of the things that she had missed throughout those 3 years of isolation.
Mafi's writing was a little unique, and I've read some reviewers who didn't like it.
I found it refreshing, if somewhat odd, where Juliette's thoughts were written in numbers and were repetitive. But I think it was very realistic as Juliette hadn't talked to anyone in almost a year and she remembered events through numbers.
This was an amazing novel. I already want to reread it to experience it again and I cannot wait for Mafi to continue this series to see what will happen next with Juliette, Adam and Warner. Unfortunately, I have to wait until February 2013 to read the second novel :/
I would definitely recommend this book, especially to teen girls as there is a strong, leading female who sticks to her beliefs and is has a very kind, generous heart toward everyone.
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