Monday, March 19, 2012

I Am Not Breakable

Published: November 15th, 2011
Shatter Me
By: Tahereh Mafi
Harper Collins
ISBN-13: 9780062085481


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.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.


Review

   Juliette has been in jail for murder for almost a year.  She hasn't touched anyone since trying to help a little boy at the supermarket got him killed instead.  That was when Juliette learned that her touch is deadly to others.  Her parents have given up on her, she's given up on herself, but there is still someone who believes in her...Adam.  He is from her old life, the only one who was ever kind to her in an increasingly harsh world order (even though she never spoke to him at all).  But now he is a soldier for The Reestablishment, the new government that promises a better life in a world torn apart by war and evironmental devastation.  It turns out that Adam was placed in Juliette's cell as an undercover agent for Warner, a 19 year old soldier who wants to use Juliet to torture the Resistance and anyone else who gets in the Reestablishment's way.  Juliette and Adam must find a way to escape from the crushing influence of Warner and the evil he stands for, while trying to figure out why Adam is immune to Juliette.  Oh, it also throws a wrench in things when they start falling in love.  I enjoyed this book.  However, all the things I truly love about dystopian fiction were barely present in the plot as it was given.  Yes, the world is dying.  But that's about the amount of detail we really receive about the situation.  I don't mind that the story revolves around Juliette's unusual abilities and her struggle to control her own destiny.  I did mind the overwhelming and sickeningly sweet romance between Adam and Juliette.  It was too much of an insta-love connection.  Also, I couldn't get behind the passages with things crossed out.  It began to really annoy me at certain points.  Overall a decent book, just not what I was expecting.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*

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