Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Just look at this cover.  It is so beautiful.  How could the book not be amazing with such a beautiful cover?  Thankfully the cover does not let us down because the book is just as amazing as the cover!




This book takes place in a dystopian world where The Reestablishment has taken over the government to mold the world the way they want it.  This book is told from Juliette's point of view.  When we first meet Juliette she is in locked up in an asylum.  She hasn't had contact with another human for 264 days.  Her first human contact comes when she gets a male cellmate, Adam.  Adam is not what he seems though.  He is a solider there is evaluate Juliette and see if she can be used by The Reestablishment in their war.  Later we meet Warren, Adam's commanding officer, and the one who wants to use Juliette and her abilities in the war.  We find out later in the series that the war Warren is fighting is different than we originally thought!  A good reminder to not judge a book by it's cover.

Now the one thing to know about this book is that for a good portion of the first book you don't really know what is going on.  The writing is so amazing, however, that you don't really care.  The writer is incredibly talented and uses her words is such an amazing way that she paints pictures in your brain and you don't want to stop reading because then the paintings stop.

"I always wonder about raindrops.
I wonder about how they're always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the day the drops dare to tap on their doors.
I am a raindrop."
~Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

When you read this series you also get to see Juliette's confindence grow in the most interesting way.  In the first two books, as you read, you see lines that are crossed out.

"I distinguish almost 50 lines, each perfectly straight, perfectly spaced, so many soldiers standing single file I lose count.  I wonder if Adam is in the crowd.  I wonder if he can see me.I wonder what he thinks of me now."~Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

We can see, in the writing, Juliette's thoughts that she alters because she doesn't trust herself.  She has been beaten down by the cruelty of the world to a point where she questions everything she says, does, and even thinks.  As the series continues we can see Juliette's confidence in herself grow because the number of crossed out lines decreases until finally there are no more crossed out lines.

I loved this series so much that I read the entire series in a single week.  The author did an amazing job of creating a new world, with a slight X-Men, vibe to it. If you haven't read this series then what is wrong with you?  Read it!!!!

Come live a thousand lives with me.