Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Summary (from Goodreads): 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: A combination of dystopian and paranormal, Shatter Me is a unique novel that follows Juliette, a young woman unable to touch anyone. Then she meets Adam, and starts to learn more about the world outside of the cell she’s been confined to. As Juliette’s knowledge grows, her view about her power begins to change. Is it really a curse, as she has always believed? Or does she have the ability to make it a gift?

Shatter Me is definitely a book that has a lot of potential, and while this potential is never fully realized, there is no denying that Tahereh Mafi is a talented author who actually has the ability to write a moving novel. Unfortunately for me, this was not that novel.

Juliette is a likable enough protagonist, but also had her fair share of annoying traits. For the first half of the book it felt like every time she entered a new room she’d either cry or blush. For a character who is supposedly strong at heart, Juliette’s constant breakdowns felt contrived and unnecessary. Half the time it felt like her emotions only presented themselves so Adam or Warner could comfort her. This wasn’t good enough for me. When an author states repeatedly that their character is strong and tenacious, I actually want to see proof of that, not a scared teenager running to a love interest whenever something bad happens. I wouldn’t have cared that Mafi had written Juliette the way she did if she hadn’t tried to pass off Juliette’s behaviour as strong. Juliette was not strong for the majority of the book and I hated the feeling of being force-fed the idea that she was.

Shatter Me also contained two of the most loathed tropes in YA literature - insta-love and a love triangle. The love triangle was wholly unnecessary and seemed to exist just for the sake of it. I honestly didn’t see the point of including it - I felt some of the tense scenes with Warner were diminished when all Juliette could think about was how attractive he looked.

The prose in this novel was both its biggest flaw and its saving grace. There were times that I was able to be swept up in the beauty of it, and other times when I was rolling my eyes, wishing Mafi would just get on with the story. I think the prose would have had more effect if the overdone phrases were more spread out. When every other sentence is an overwrought description, the overall effect of the writing is diminished.

Overall, Shatter Me just wasn’t the book for me, but I know plenty of others will enjoy it. Mafi succeeds in blending the dystopian and paranormal genres and the book contains some truly touching moments. Although I wasn’t a huge fan, I will check out Mafi’s future work, if only because her writing had enough sparks of brilliance to convince me that, with some work, she could produce something genuinely special.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Mix It Up Monday (3)

Mix It Up Monday is a meme hosted here at Crack A Spine Book Reviews. On the first Monday of each month I will post a review of a book that:
a) I wouldn't normally read, or
b) Wouldn't normally be reviewed on a YA blog.
Link-up under the review.

Summary: No secret is too dark.
No revelation too sick. But you must have the appetite for it.

After forty years, twenty-eight ODs, three botched suicides, two heart attacks, a couple of jail stints, and a debilitating stroke, Steven Adler, the most self-destructive rock star ever, is ready to share the shattering untold truth in My Appetite for Destruction.

With Adler's newfound clarity comes a fierce determination to tell it all. Revelatory, heartbreaking, hilarious, and ultimately inspirational, you will never read anything more jaw-droppingly honest than My Appetite for Destruction.

Review: I’m a huge fan of Guns N’ Roses, so I’ve read my fair share of biographies about them. After reading the band’s ex-guitarist, Slash’s autobiography, I was more than a bit dubious about picking up ex-drummer Steven Adler’s book. After all, he is the one that has the severest drug problems, and probably has the worst memory of all the band members. However, although I was far from blown away by this autobiography, I did end up enjoying it more than I thought I was going to.

Alder starts the story at his childhood, and quickly sets the tone for the rest of the book - whining, moaning, and a whole heap of blaming others for his own mistakes. He is someone that seems to have an excuse for every bad choice he makes, and is convinced that everyone but himself is to blame for his life has turning out the way it has. Although this sort of attitude is okay for a teenager, on a 40+ year-old man, it just seems pathetic. 

I also wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of the anecdotes Adler chose to share with his readers. They seemed random and many of them were pointless to the progression of his life, so I couldn’t understand why he felt the need to keep them in the book. Adler is a recovered drug addict, but you couldn’t tell from reading this book - the many ways he glorifies drug-use is mind-boggling. Instead of facing up to his problems, Adler seems to have deluded himself into a false sense of security, and reading this book, I feel that it is only a matter of time before he falls off the wagon.

For all these flaws though, I did find myself enjoying this book. It was a quick read and, I will admit, some of the stories Adler shared were very entertaining. Overall though, unless you’re a die-hard Guns N’ Roses fan, stay away from this book. There are many more rock biographies on shelfs that don’t smack of desperation, whining and pathetic attempts to relive the ‘glory days’.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner

 Summary: Cass and her drama-crazy best friend, Julia, were planning a road trip to California. When Julia is killed in a car accident, Cass decides to follow the original plan anyway. Even if she has a bicycle instead of a driver’s licence, and even if Julia’s ashes are coming along in Tupperware.

This is a story about friendship. About love. About traveling a thousand miles just to find yourself. And it’s a story about the kookiest high school musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.

Review: The summary of this book drew me in immediately and I thought I was going to be in for a fantastic read. Unfortunately, the story fell flat for me and I was left feeling disappointed.

Cass was a likable enough lead, but she just wasn’t distinctive enough to make a lasting impression on me. She could be very selfish at times, and had a real problem facing up to her issues. A lot of the story talked about how much Cass felt excluded when her best friend Julia made new friends, but in reality, if Cass had actually made any effort, she would have been readily accepted into the new group.

Speaking of the supporting characters, they were another issue for me. They suffered from a lack of development to the point where they all more or less blurred into one for me. They were also very stereotypical, don’t break the mold types of characters and I felt it was a real shame that the author didn’t take the time to flesh them out more, as strong supporting characters can often lift a book from being average, to being great.

The time jumps in the book were quite jerky and sometimes took away from the flow of the story. It could have been improved if the jumps to the ‘Then’ chapters actually related to what was going on in the ‘Now’ chapters, but to me, it just felt too much like two completely different stories.

Overall, the book was a sometimes fun, but mostly disappointing read. If the author had spent more time developing stronger characters, I think the outcome could have been quite different.

Rating: 2 and a 1/2 out of 5