The Reader's Shire - Book Reviews

Book Review: Shatter Me Trilogy

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #1
Genres: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction, Romance.
Format: eBook
Length: 338 pages
Publication date: November 15, 2011.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.02 out of 5 stars.
My Rating: 2 out 5 stars

"I've spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association."

Confession time:

So, I read this book when I was 13. My 13 year old self was stunned by the gorgeous cover and didn't bother to read the blurb. I also forgot about checking the reviews. Don't judge me, okay? I was only 13 - I found the book fairly entertaining and rated it 4 stars despite the cringe worthy metaphors. When I started to use my Goodreads account, I was shocked to see the negative reviews and surprisingly, I agreed with most of them.

So there you have it. Once upon a time, in a faraway galaxy, I liked this book. Sure, there are positive aspects but they can't compete with the negative ones. Hence, my rating has dropped from 4 to 2. Sue me.

"All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart."

Our mc, Juliette Ferrars possesses the power to kill people with her touch and has been locked in an asylum for an accidental murder. Now, when I read this in the blurb, I was expecting her to be this ruthless heroine but how wrong I was! She has to be one of the most annoying fictional characters I've ever encountered. Apart from her lethal touch, her greatest abilities are whining and throwing temper tantrums. While that was very unbearable, it was understandable at the very least. I understood her self-hatred, loneliness and depression which was on the verge of forming into insanity. What I couldn't understand was her extravagant beauty. How is it possible for someone whose never had a proper diet and hardly any access to sunlight to be the most gorgeous human being to ever exist?

This is precisely what I loathe about YA novels. Why does the heroine have to be Aphrodite? Why can't she for once be okay-looking but still kick ass? And fine. Say that she is a Greek goddess. Why does she have to be so oblivious to her beauty and need boys to confirm it?

As for Juliette and Adam's rs, I despise insta-love but I can forgive her for feelling so attracted towards Adam. He was after all, the first person who was compassionate plus tender towards her, the only one who resistant to her touch and she was obviously craving all of that. But I couldn't stand their make out sessions, the mushiness, her awe at his ugly tattoo and her obsession with his stupid blue eyes. I mean, I get it! His eyes are blue. That's not so impressive. Many people have blue eyes. Move on! (Spoiler alert: The stupid bird tattoo served no purpose to the story BTW. Thanks for getting us curious for something useless and then practically ignoring it, Mafi!)

Given all those years of getting shunned and ridiculed by society, including her parents, you would've expected Miss Ferrars to be naturally suspicious of Adam. Like, you just met him. Instead of going like, 'Bitch, screw you. I can get out of this prison myself. I don't need your bullshit lovey-dovey ness', she happily trusts him so damn easily. I suppose whenever we feel abandoned, we can either be stonehearted or helpless. Juliette was part of the latter. I guess it was nornal for her to be dependent but I was getting very tired of her getting constantly saved by random boys.

"Swords may cut and kill, but words will stab and stay, burying themselves in our bones to become corpses we carry into the future, all the time digging and failing to rip their skeletons from our flesh."