Shatter Me

5.0/5.0 stars


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I read the Shatter Me trilogy in two days and it was e x h i l a r a t i n g

Shatter Me pulled me in with the force of gravity, undeniably and irrevocably tying its words around my little finger. Reading its sequel Unravel Me, I said holy shit out loud faster than I could count in the space of three minutes and my heart was beating so hard I couldn't keep up; I haven't read so many plot twists and turns strung together in one long sentence in forever. And I turned the first page of Ignite Me and melted into its pages.

I haven't been so swept up by a series, so attached and invested in characters, so caught up in a world written in ink that I was momentarily knocked back upon reading the last line of the final book. I genuinely didn't know what to do with myself. I just sat on my bed staring at my kindle, stunned, comprehending the fact that I had no more books left in the series to read and kinda shell-shocked at the speed with which I finished what is now one of my favourite series. And all I knew was that I had to own this damn trilogy.

Shatter Me follows a 17 year old girl, Juliette, who is burdened with a curse whereby her touch is lethal. Touch her, you die. Her parents repulse her, her classmates fear her, "a monster" is what society labels her. An unfortunate accident that deems her a murderer then leads to her capture by the authorities, The Reestablishment, who lock her up in an asylum for the mentally unstable in order to protect society. Starved of human contact and confined by the four metal walls of the box that cages her, she is hinging on the edges of sanity, with her mental fragility threatening to drop her into the abyss of insanity.

Until she is kidnapped by the very government who had her locked up. Entangled in a complex plot involving the government, and those who call themselves rebels, designed to both break and fix the dystopian world in which she lives, she has to decide where her loyalty lies; separate the truth from the lies, distinguish between deception and honesty, and make the choice between weapon and warrior.

It would be wrong to classify Shatter Me as a classic dystopian fiction; its focus is not the messed up world that Juliette is part of, but rather, it is the tale of Juliette herself. And it is difficult to not drown in her words. Tahereh's writing style is nothing short of sheer brilliance. The strike-outs that litter the page at the beginning of the first novel are a stroke of genius (pun not intended!). Together with the constant repetition, they shed an insight into the complex thoughts and wanderings of a young girl who is trying to maintain her balance on the tight rope of sanity. Her internal dialogue is so realistic, so dark and complicated, an utter mess, and it paints such a profound picture of her struggle with loneliness and isolation. There are moments when the strike-outs are clustered and jumbled together and at these points in the book, it's clear that Juliette is losing her mind as she grapples with her clouded head and heavy thoughts. They betray the times when she second-guesses herself and questions the worth of her human life. The shifts between the more articulately structured writing, and the words that she crosses out, I think accurately represent what it's like for Juliette to go from feeling "okay", to honing in all the negativity and hatred that she keeps bottled up inside her, and for me personally, it was just so human. I felt like I had stepped into Juliette's mind and read the constantly streaming thoughts that plague her mind. The writing style is simply unbelievably real.

And what's great about it is that as the story progresses, it slowly fades. As Juliette grows and develops as a person, she learns to accept and love herself and that's reflected in the writing. The strike-outs change pace as she becomes more sure of herself and that spin on creative symbolism is so unique, so daring and experimental and holy eff it works. Speaking of creative. The vivid imagery in these books ohmyword is beyond stunning. Tahereh's words are art. She writes beautiful prose that could read as poetry with a lyrical quality that is simply mesmerising.

What shines through the most about her writing style is that it fluidly transitions between her characters. Her novellas, Destroy Me and Fracture Me, that bridge books 1 &2 and books 2&3 respectively are written from the perspective of characters other than Juliette and the writing is just as real and just as beautiful, yet significantly different and just as accurate in voicing the character's mind. Her ability to create such fleshed out characters and change her writing style to match them is remarkable. Her character development is one of the strongest that I have ever witnessed in writing. People who say that the book is flawed from the lack of world building to the insta-love to the writing style, have completely missed the point; they each have a crystal clear purpose and are entirely pivotal to the character development that is the premise of the Shatter Me trilogy.

The writing is flawless. To be able to capture thoughts and emotion in such a dramatic fashion, and to create complicated, tragically broken characters through mere words is unbelievable talent. And the love triangle. I have such issues with love triangles, but this one...MY HEART. So cleverly done. I have never ever, in the history of ever, done a 180 on a character to suddenly root for an entirely different love story to play out. Take a bow Tahereh Mafi. Take a bow.