Sunday, February 24, 2013

BOOK REVIEW - SHATTER ME - TAHEREH MAFI - SHATTER ME # 1 - ALLEN & UNWIN - 5 ADAM with a dash of KENJI STARS!

By: Tahereh Mafi
Published By: Allen & Unwin
Released : Available Now
Details: Paperback from Big W,  338 Pages

RATING: 5 ADAM with a dash of KENJI STARS!!

Blurb : Goodreads

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.







BOOK REVIEW by Michelle:


Because I’m a monster 

Because I am a Venus flytrap. 
And I am lethal. 

I luuurrrvvved Tahereh’s voice she gave to 17 year old Juliette.

It is the thing that hit me smack in the brain when I started reading this book. I thought it was very original and gave that 3D feel of being inside this character’s head.

The crossing out of words was brilliant! It showed me how this girl was feeling mentally from being locked up for 264 days with 1 window, 4 walls, 144 square feet of space.

My life is 4 walls of missed opportunities poured into concrete molds.

6,336 hours since she has touched another human being.

Juliette is in an insane asylum.

Juliette now has a cellmate.

A boy.

His arms are tatted up, half sleeves to his elbows. His eyebrow is missing a ring they must’ve confiscated . Dark blue eyes dark brown hair sharp jawline strong lean frame. Gorgeous Dangerous. Terrifying. Horrible.

The crossing out of words is like a push me pull you. One says one thing the other , another. I LOVED this as I really connected with Juliette from the start. It was instant. She let me inside her head and you got this feel of her holding it together. She was 14 when basically abandoned by her parents to the hands of doctors and shock treatments and other horrendous tests.

I am a raindrop.
My parents emptied their pockets of me and left me to evaporate on a concrete slab.



I want to be angry angry angry.
I want to be the bird that flies away.
“What are you writing?” Cellmate speaks again.
These words are vomit.
This shaky pen is my esophagus.
This sheet of paper is my porcelain bowl.



A notebook and broken pen her only items she kept hidden in a wall.

A two minute shower in the dark.

Almost starved, daily.

.........Enter the boy. Adam Kent.

I watched Juliette , the more you read the more she becomes mentally more capable. The crossing out of words becomes less as she becomes more trusting of the boy, more hopeful, more sure of herself. 
Don't get me wrong, she is a very intelligent, strong character, but she can have a conversation between herself and herself .

Warner. 19 years old

What a tyrant.

What a creep.

What a beautiful mad deadly man in a teenager’s body.

He’s beautiful.
His crooked smile is calculated evil.


There is a scene that will have you holding your breath. Tahereh put on her villain cape and wrote a power evil scene that puts Juliette in a horrendous position. You will literally grip the book.

The Reestablishment.

Reestablish Equality. Reestablish Humanity. Reestablish Hope, Healing, and Happiness.

What a load of crock.

There is a love story.

"Juliette ---" His body presses closer and I realize I’m paying attention to nothing but the dandelions blowing wishes in my lungs.

There are secrets.

Tahereh just kept bringing the story to me in page turning excitement. The story evolves, the characters will grip you and hang on.

Enter Kenji. I actually love this guy.

“What the hell are you doing in there?” Kenji shouts through the door. Pounds it a couple times. “I mean , shit, man, I don’t think there’s ever a bad time for a nooner.......”

“I don’t think you should decide until the swelling goes down,” Kenji continues matter-of-factly. “It’s only fair. I have a pretty spectacular face.”

There is such a beauty to reading Tahereh’s use of prose through Juliette’s eyes.

Prose is a form of language which applies ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech. I got that from good ol’ Wikipedia for those of you unsure of the word Prose. I had to look it up myself.

His eyes scan the silhouette of my structure and the slow motion makes my heart race. I catch those rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage.


I am nothing but novocaine, I am numb, a world of nothing, all feeling and emotion gone forever.
I am a whisper that never was. 



There are wire cutters carving holes in my heart. 

They think I’m a doll they can dress up and twist into prostration.


Truth is a jealous mistress, vicious mistress that never ever sleeps, is what I don’t tell him. I’ll never be okay. 

A spectacular, intense dystopian with all the right ingredients. The villain is contradicting in his appearance and age and spontaneously evil. He is quite a sicko ...... but then there was that twist! 

Oh, it was a major game changing twist.

I am still deciding how I feel about this twist as I think Tahereh just made a combo genre.

It did a 180. 


I am intrigued. 


Michelle


Available now!



7 comments:

  1. Gah! I wish our library finds/replaces their copy soon! I like crazy stories and this one set in the asylum is a winner. Why did I wait too long to read this?!

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    1. Matey!!

      It is in an asylum but then it moves to ...... well another form of I suppose you could say mad house in an indirect way but then...... I really dug this dystopian...but then that twist!!! I have had this sitting on my shelf since it was released, but the one thing Lauren Oliver had taught me was sometimes it is good to read two books together after what she did to me with Delirium!!

      :D
      Mich

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  2. Great review! I had issues with this book. Yes, the prose is really unique, but it's VERY flowery. If you look back on some of the writing, it can get a bit cringeworthy. I like some of the ones you chose to feature. Yeah, I don't know. Adam was so blah. Warner was an evil genius and so twisted but it was hard not to kind of dig him. I barely even remember Kenji. I remember that he betrays them...? I think.

    The romance was also just too overpowering for me. I didn't really get to know Juliet. I didn't care for her, I didn't understand where she was going. She was lost. And yes, it makes sense considering her circumstances but... I don't know. Most people who read this book LOVED it, and initially after my first reading of it I was the same. But since then I just can't find it in me to want to read on. Hope you enjoy the rest of the series though. I'm sure I'm missing out on a lot but I have no regrets. (So many books to read!)

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    1. To sum up: many people will end up loving this book, but it just wasn't for me. I think it's good to go into a book like this and not expect to love it 100%, because there is SO much hype out there and that is partly why I was so disappointed. So don't take what I said as an attack on the book, but another opinion. For perspective.

      PS. Those Aus covers really aren't that nice, are they? :P I'm not even sure if the new cover (to replace the one you showed up above) is any better...

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    2. Hey Cass :) I have to admit I was drawn to the prose, I like using that word as I didn't realize it was called prose ..hehe!! It made it for me personally as it was a unique voice for Juliette. But that is cool it may not be for everybody , but it is what I kinda loved about this book. It gave me this Juliette individuality, it kind of fit with where she was and that talking to herself. I must admit I am not that crazy about the covers, especially Unravel Me , Aussie cover, but that is ok.

      Warner is an interesting one. I think he is exceptionally well written as he is EVIL!!! Spontaneously EVIL! But he is in a beautiful gift wrapped package.

      Thanks for your thoughts Cass :)

      Mich

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  3. I really loved Juliette's voice throughout this book. I think Tahreh's use of words cemented Juliette's character in a way that regular prose just could never do. I loved the strike out thing. A lot of people didn't like it, but I thought it was fun and different. I actually think it's funny because most of the people I know who didn't enjoy it, they're the same people who say there are too many similar stories floating around out there. I guess some people are just hard to please :) Anyway, great review! I really need to read the sequel!

    Jesse @ Pretty In Fiction

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    1. Hi Jesse,

      I think we like the same types of YA/NA. I really thought Tareheh made Juliette stand out as far as a dystopian goes. I think she gave Juliette that something extra. Most female leads in a dystopian novel have to have a strength about them and be able to kick some ass to save themselves, but this voice added that extra for me too and I watched her appear to get better as she grew more into herself. I mean that Slaughterhouse scene and that toddler scene, far out!!

      Mich

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