'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Monday, 27 December 2021

Review: Shatter Me

A broken girl tries to survive in a broken world. But when your touch can literally kill people, how on earth can you find a place to belong?

Juliette has been locked away because she’s a threat to everyone around her. In a dark and ominous prison, she is alone and starting to lose her mind. 

Until someone from her past walks into her cell and changes her life forever.

But is Adam there to save or destroy her? Juliette has been locked up and forgotten for so long, so why, now, does everyone seem to want to find her? And what exactly do they plan to do with her?

Shatter Me is the first book in a dystopian YA series about being different, finding courage and fighting for what you believe in (and who you love). Author, Tahereh Mafi delivers strong and rich characters in this book — both characters you wish you could be and characters you wish were real people in your life.

There’s a real closeness in this book not often achieved in literature. It’s written in first person, but it also has a really unique and intriguing writing technique that allows you to learn not only what Juliette is thinking in the most private part of her mind, but also what she knows she should be thinking — what she knows society expects her to think.

Set in a future world where a new order (the Reestblishment) has taken over (and not for the better), this book looks at consumerism, climate change and belief systems while it explores themes of identity, courage, friendship and love.

If you like YA dystopian romance, you are definitely going to want to check this one out. It’s got all the elements of a ‘can’t stop thinking you about’ YA read, and the ending sets things up perfectly for things to go bigger in book two.

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: Allen and Unwin, $19.99
Publication Date: September 2021
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781761066733
For ages: 13+
Type: Young Adult Fiction