Shatter Me: Shatter Me (#1)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON http://shelversanon.blogspot.com

SHATTER ME is a first-person narrative from Juliette, a seventeen-year-old girl from an Orwellian future, who is locked in solitary confinement to protect others from her lethal touch. Now really, if that fact alone doesn't grab you, I doubt anything in this review will convince you otherwise, but I'll try.

According to Juliette, her lethal touch (she causes excruciating pain and eventual death in whomever she touches) has been with her since she was an infant, causing a lifetime of alienation and isolation. She is treated either as a freak or a nonentity, both at home and at school, culminating in her solitary confinement after she accidentally touches and kills a stranger.

264 days later, she is given a roommate, a smokin' hot boy named Adam. Eventually, we learn that Adam is a face from her past, and it's no accident that he was placed in Juliette's cell. As the story unfolds, Mafi, through Juliette, tosses us other tantalizing details, such as descriptions of the Big Brother-esque ruling class called The Reestablishment, whose local leader, Warner, is responsible for arresting and confining Juliette.

Warner is also the one who releases Juliette (into his own custody, of course) and tries to persuade her to use her power for the good of The Reestablishment. In his own way, Warner is smokin' as well (isn't that always the way?), but he dreams of power and control, even as he seems to crave Juliette's company for her own sake and yearn for a way to show his new captive how thrilling power over others can be.

So now Juliette has to choose - Adam or Warner? Established power or rebellion? Her choice would be easier if she knew whom she could trust, including herself.

Juliette is a nutcase, and I love her for it, and I love Mafi for letting Juliette find her voice. The prose is distinctive with its stream-of-consciousness, rambling careful wording, babbling fears, and obsession with numbers. The book is her journal, her thoughts as things happen, and as quickly as the thoughts come tumbling out she goes back and carefully edits herself, allowing us a look at things her character would truly never say but would still think. These edits, as well as Juliette's fixation on numbers and counting, are her attempt to control herself and her world, or at least what little she can, as she never can control the power of her touch except through isolation. When a voice is true and consistent, I find myself thinking with that voice long after I've walked away from the book, and Juliette was in my head from start to finish.

Warner is probably the second-most fascinating character. He's the villain, the Hyde to Juliette's well-meaning Jekyll, but Mafi allows him moments of humanity that lend him a depth that Adam lacks. Optimist that I am, I would be thrilled if he found his own (at least partial) redemption by the end of the trilogy, but I will nevertheless be happy to follow him down his crooked path wherever it may lead.

Overall, Mafi receives solid marks for this story. The premise is interesting and the story is addicting, even if the ending falters into somewhat familiar territory. For those who enjoy the angsty, pathos-ridden, somewhat unrealistic romance found in Twilight, this book is for you. I am not one of them, but I will wait for the sequel with measured interest for the sake of Juliette, the fascinating little freak superhero.

***Points Added For: Unique voice, addicting storyline, flawed baddie, twitchy protagonist, wisecracking sidekick, a touching twist!

***Points Subtracted For: Unrealistic romance timeline, too-true lover, stereotypical malevolent parents, love triangle, poor cover art (That's supposed to be Juliette? Are you joking?).

***Good For Fans Of: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, Divergent by Veronica Roth, lovers of angsty teen romance.

***Notes For Parents: The following book contains moderate amounts of violence, poor teen choices, and at least one makeout scene.

After all the hype surrounding this book, I decided to give it a read. The premise: Juliette’s touch is lethal. Her parents couldn’t give her the love she craved. At school, she wasn’t allowed to interact with other children in case she harmed them. Her world is one of physical isolation and extreme loneliness.

At the age of fourteen, the unintentional use of Juliette’s “power” causes her to be taken from her parents’ home, submitted to batteries of tests, and eventually placed in solitary confinement for almost a year. The only thing that keeps her company is a notebook in which she pens her innermost thoughts, often censoring what she considers unacceptable by crossing out entire lines of text. One day she wakes up to the sight of her new cellmate: Adam.

Juliette is emotionally shattered by her ability, by what it does to her and what it can potentially do to others. The society where she lives is a dystopian one. Her world is in a state of environmental decay, extreme poverty and political chaos. One powerful individual seeks out her ability and wishes to use her as a weapon in his new social order, where old ideologies are to be destroyed and replaced.

Warner, a powerful young man in the military, frees Juliette from her prison and wants to harness her ability. Adam is one of Warner’s soldiers, and he falls in love with Juliette and is determined to free her from this new life, where she is just as much a prisoner as she was before.

Juliette is easy to identify with. She is frightened, lonely, hungry for someone’s touch, and determined not to use her ability to harm anyone. What is most captivating about Shatter Me is the stream-of-consciousness writing. The reader is immersed in Juliette’s thoughts, and the style reflects her broken, shattered mind. It is this rich style that gives the novel its uniqueness and carries the reader through the scenes.

The pace is rapid and the tension steadily mounts as Juliette tries to find her freedom and a place where she belongs. At the same time, the plot contains several very convenient coincidences, and they are not always entirely plausible. The reader needs to suspend disbelief on many occasions, and I found myself jolted out of the narrative more than once wondering: Isn’t it convenient that when Juliette is on the run, hungry, and desperate for transportation, she just happens to find a car with keys in the ignition and a bag of groceries in the back seat?

The ending has a contrived, X-Men flavour about it, which left me with a bitter taste of disappointment. After such a promising beginning, I had hoped for a more original ending, not one replete with clichés. Still, for its stream-of-consciousness writing style and insight into the character’s shattered life, Shatter Me is definitely worth reading.