Shatter Me
We've all got some sort of power within us, some a bit more lethal than others.
Juliette just happens to kill people with her touch.
WARNING: SPOILERS
I've been following Tahereh Mafi on twitter for a while, and she's been an absolute joy either way. Discovering her through her husband, Ransom Riggs, I was captivated by the charm and aesthetic-filled life she lives. That's how I found her, and how I found Shatter Me. {Side note: I should continue this trend of finding authors through their twitters, it helps me to get a feel for their influences before I read their books. Also, authors are really great at tweeting.}
I bought it on the fifteenth of August, a day known for its heat wave. I read the first few pages in Barnes & Noble. The initial line crossing in the books reminded me of Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go--and since I loved the Chaos Walking series, I went on reading Shatter Me.
And I haven't looked back since.
{The book trailer. Personally, I think the voice is
wrong for Juliette, but it's only a book trailer.}
First Impressions
I'm fond of strikethroughs. They give me the impression of what could have been said. Strikethroughs represent the possibility of parallel universes where other words could have taken the storyline in a different direction. In Shatter Me's case, they represented Juliette's fickle train of thought.
When I understood that she was in a jail cell at the beginning of the story, I took in all the other details, too--that she was imprisoned for her power, that there was Some Government being cruel to the rest of the world, that her conditions were bleak, etc. A general dystopia vibe spilled in.
For the record, I was really interested in the idea of the Reestablishment's commitment against history and textbooks. Mafi didn't spread much detail after the initial revelation, and I wished she had, as the concept of eliminating history is such a bold form of brainwashing that I would have loved to see more about it. Juliette's devotion to her own words should play a bigger part in the story, and in that sense the dystopia couldn't stay in my thoughts as much as it should have.
Early on, a new cellmate arrives. Readers later realize that's when her childhood friend comes into the story.
Adam, with beautiful eyes the color of bruises, is revealed to be a soldier. Both him and our main antagonist, Warner, are coincidentally close to her age level.
And that's when Juliette's asked to become a weapon.
Figuring Out How To Feel
Shatter Me is marketed as a dystopian novel meant for a young adult crowd. Unfortunately, it's heavily involved in the romance category--so much romance, in fact, it was a miracle I even picked it up in the first place. For others, that's great. Not so much for me.
Something to know about me: I've really aversed to novels with romance as a main plot. Subplot, I can tolerate, but I try to avoid romance being a main storyline as much as possible. It's why I hated the ending to Mockingjay. It's something I really didn't want to tolerate in Afterworlds. It's why as soon as Adam came in, I didn't know what to do. On one hand, the revelation that Adam was a soldier could have gone so well--could I trust him romancing Juliette? Could I marvel at Adam's crafted personality and his real one? The romance could have been done so well if it had been slowly built. It went all too fast for me. It went straight into romance territory, and it took so much away from the dystopian landscape.
Heavy romance frustrates me--it takes away a word count that could have been dedicated to building Mafi's universe. How did the building full of orphans operate? How did Juliette's several talks with Warner go? We take away crucial scenes from the antagonist himself in order to give Adam and Juliette a secret romance plot. It would've been absolutely lovely seeing Warner take advantage of their fondness for one another, but we only see Juliette sacrificing everything for Adam. (We see most of Adam's dedication go to his brother, instead.)
And Warner. Ah, yes, Warner. As soon as the romance plot burst onto the pages, my attention went straight to Warner. He's a little shit! He's manipulative, he's pretentious, he's a dick. Love him so much. Juliette hated him, of course, with very valid reasons to do so. Warner never understood why Juliette couldn't have stood by his side, and that was his difficulty. Sucks to be you, Warner.
It was a shame he became the other end of that love angle. Juliette fostering romantic feelings for him--it crept me out, given all that had happened between the two of them. Now, Juliette manipulating Warner to get what she wants, that I could understand, but her falling in love--? I'm still trying to understand where this is going to go. If she hates him so much, what's she going to do with all those feelings?
Now, the three of them could have had a very interesting dynamic had Juliette chosen to manipulate Warner's sorry ass right back. If Warner tried manipulating her, Juliette and Adam could've double-teamed to bring Warner down from the inside, having the best of everything while taking Warner down. Juliette could rise to the challenge and find a way to gain all of his supporters. But that would require Juliette being freed from her guilt of taking all those valuable resources--and she could not do that. It's a relief knowing that Juliette's not a sociopath, but I could only think of the possibilities of Juliette finding a way to take everything away from Warner while right by his side. (Here's to hoping that the other books find a way to make that happen.)
Juliette
Speaking of Juliette, I don't know why there was constant mention of Juliette being beautiful. Adam telling her she was beautiful, Warner telling her she was beautiful--I just saw it repeated over and over. Being locked up for over 200 days, Juliette's appearance shouldn't have been glossed up like that. Juliette herself didn't like looking at mirrors--there's a heavy self-esteem issue tied with her powers, and I think it could have been handled in a better way than everyone in the building giving her looks. I know that men are creepy. I know.
The lack of women in the first book really unnerved me. You have Juliette, surrounded by all these men who would take advantage of just about anything, and there's nowhere for Juliette to establish her own boundaries. If Adam had been a woman, that would have changed the dynamic entirely. Juliette would have found comfort in the only other woman there--it would have be amazing, to be honest. They could have been taking down Warner, for crying out loud. That would've been so great.
I hope the next book gives Juliette more of a chance to open up to the women around her. I'm hoping so much for it. Juliette's internal dialogue gives the readers a chance to see her bouncing thoughts, and that's what I love the most about Shatter Me. Chances are, the later books will show the change in her character through those strikethroughs. And that's what excites me.
Another thing that excites me--Juliette herself. There's a few things wrong with the series, but there is still a lot of potential.
Juliette learning to love herself and her powers is on my priority list! Her learning her own worth in a stream of dystopian chaos would give us something to root for. We'd be able to believe in Juliette rather than side with the two teams that are clearly in this.
.... Rating??
I did mark it 4/5 on Goodreads. For all the complaining I did in this post, I really did like it. I read it so quickly. I swept through page after page, finishing it at 2 am one night. Originally, I did mark it as 5/5, but I broke my rule of rating it as soon as I finished it. I needed time to gather my own thoughts, so after a day or two of trying to figure out my biggest issues with it, I gave it four out of five stars.
The male to female ratio still bothered me--the love angle annoyed me--the dystopia came second place to the focus on romance. So many things wrong, but I love the rush I had reading it. I gave this rating based on what I felt about it, not on criticizing its story details.
I'd recommend this book, of course, but not without a hint of caution. This book is not for everyone. It's a love it or hate it book. I still adore the way Mafi writes, from her internal dialogue to her characterization of an asshole like Warner, so of course I'll read the other two books in the series. I can't bring myself to hate it because I cherish it so much.
Despite having everything I've always hated, I still loved it, and I don't know why.
Wishing the best of luck to the rest of this series--I wonder what's next for me.
Love,
Dianne
