BOOK REVIEW - SHATTER ME by TAHEREH MAFI

PUBLICATION YEAR: 2011 GENRE: Dystopian Romance / Thriller PAGE COUNT: 338 FORMAT: Paperback BUY ONLINE: amazon

The synopsis at the back cover of this book goes like this-

“ I HAVE A CURSE.

I HAVE A GIFT.

I’M A MONSTER.

I’M MORE THAN HUMAN.

MY TOUCH IS LETHAL.

MY TOUCH IS POWER.

I AM THEIR WEAPON.

I WILL FIGHT BACK.”

The beautiful front cover (see pic)  and the above synopsis drew me towards this book. The story is set  on a dystopian world and follows a girl named Juliette who happens to suffer from a rare lethal disease where her mere touch can kill people. She has been living in an asylum of sorts until the bad guys from “The Reestablishment” try to use her as a weapon of destruction. There she meets the main villain Warner and her childhood crush Adam. She has to decide whether she wants to use her power for good or for evil.

The story is told from Juliette’s perspective. so we get to know about her constant inner struggles and thoughts.

The writing style is the most interesting element of this book. The sentences are poetic and flowery. Sometimes it was so ornamental that it did not even make sense. For instance,

“ He says it with a small smile the size of jupiter”,

 “ the sky is raining bricks right into my skull “ ,

 “ his smile is laced with dynamite”  LOL 😆

 There were metaphors and similes in almost every other sentence. I personally hate such writings where the author tries to be poetic  by using over the top flowery sentences. That was the reason why I could not even finish “The Wrath and The Dawn “ by Renee Ahdieh despite it being one of the most popular acclaimed books of recent times. With this book though, I did not mind the writing as the metaphors were too obvious and easy to understand . In fact, I found them a bit funny at times. 😄

The other interesting aspect of its writing style was that some of the phrases and sentences in the book were struck out. For instance,

“ I want to believe him I dont beleive him.”  

Basically Juliette is trying to self censor her thoughts by striking out those sentences which she feels is not right to say or think . This was pretty cool.

The overall plot was simplistic with the three main characters- Juliette, Warner and Adam playing significant roles. The love story / romance in the book was convincing but sometimes a bit gross and creepy. The heavy use of metaphors while describing the romantic intimate scenes made me cringe a bit.

Also a Trigger Warning for Abuse and Torture. Some of the torture scenes were horrific . They were exaggerated to make it more dramatic.

Overall, I would have hated this book had it not been an extremely fast paced book. I was able to finish it in two sittings. This was good but not good enough for me to go ahead with the series.

RATING- 🌑🌑🌑 ( 3/5 )