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Monday, January 19, 2015

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Song I Played While Reading- It Was Always You by Maroon 5
Rating- 4 1/2 stars

Synopsis- 
I have a curse.
I have a gift.
I'm a monster.
I'm more than human.
My touch is lethal.
My touch is power.
I am their weapon.
I will fight back.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon. But Juliette has plans of her own. After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever.

Hello hello hello hellooooooo. I finally finished this baby. I've been wanting to read this for EVER and I have and I'm giddy and drunk off it. I'm bursting at the seams here with spoilers so I'm gonna try and keep this part short. The writing? Phenomenal. I love lyrical/metaphorical style of writing. Lauren Oliver does the same and I swear it brings me to my knees in awe because it's so powerful. The story line was very straight ford and simple; this girl has a fatal touch and the government wants to use her as a torture device for any rebels. A little cliche, but it manages to hold its own. It's both a science fiction/dystopian and ROMANCE. Like, ROMANCE ROMANCE FUCKING ROMANCE. I felt like dousing myself in cold water at some points. It can be a little heavy on the blue emotions, there aren't that many funny moments or super funny characters that give us a little room to breathe while we navigate the bleak world we're introduced to. BUT it's definitely doable, and I recommend it to everyone.

Alright bye non-spoilery people,  I NEED TO DISCUSS AND WORK THINGS OUT HERE SHOO.

Hi. Okay. So. I first want to talk about Adam. I knew, from the first description we got of him ("His arms are tatted up, half sleeves to his elbows.") I just KNEW HE WOULD BE THE DEATH OF ME. My throat gets all choked up with emotions whenever I think about him. What's interesting is that he's not that much of a bad boy. He's describe at first like one, and does some dickish things to Juliette in the beginning, but he quickly melts like a fucking stick of butter (got that from Mafi, thanks girl). He's not as sarcastic and witty as he appeared, which would have helped the book oodles and oodles. Like I said before, this book is a little heavy.
The one source of amusement was Kenji. He was sassy and spoke his mind and always pissed Adam off cause he flirted endlessly with Juliette. I liked him from the beginning. Juliette doesn't want him so whatever I'll take him and Warner and make myself a nice hunky man sandwich. It seems like he might like Juliette a littttttle more then we think, which could be interesting. Love square?
Which brings me to the last corner of this shape, WARNER. He's got mommy issues. And probably daddy issues. And is trying to run a sector of The Reestablishment all on his own and he's only nineteen. Phew.  I personally liked Warner. He obviously had his faults (shooting and maiming people perhaps?) BUT he only does that because he thinks he's doing the right thing. You can't deny he knows how to get what he wants.
I knew of the love triangle before I even started the book because people would always write in their review, "Team Adam! Team Warner!," and I was pleasantly surprised when we were first introduced to Warner. Like how is Mafi going to spin this story so that she likes both her knight in shinning armor and her captor?
"He tastes like peppermint, smells like gardenias. His arms are strong around me, his lips soft, almost sweet against my skin. There's an electric charge between us I hadn't anticipated.
My head is spinning.
His lips are on my neck, tasting me, devouring me. I force myself to think straight. I force myself to understand the perversion of this situation. I don't know how to reconcile the confusion in my mind, my hesitant repulsion, my inexplicable chemical reaction to his lips."
Uh, can I get a HELL FUCKING YEAH?! I know he likes Juliette. He truly does. He's created this fantasy in his head of them ruling together and taking over the world. I remember thinking this during the scene where he's tied up and Juliette and Adam were just about to escape. You could see he was honestly shocked to find out they were together. Had been for a while. And the funny part is, he actually convinced me of not trusting Adam. In that moment, I had never connected more with Juliette.
"But I'm too anxious. I'm too suspended in disbelief. I'm too insecure to be confident in my own decisions. I need to pull myself together.
"Adam--"
"I love you," he says to me, his eyes just as earnest as I remember them, his words just as urgent as they should be. "Don't let him confuse you--"
"You love her?" Warner practically spits. "You don't even--"
"Adam." The room shifts in and out of focus.""
Adam was too perfect. He looked the part, said the right things. He had the perfect boyfriend down to a science, and that made me suspicious. I get that they had history together, but to me that wasn't enough. Could that justify the instant love they had for each other? After their first make out he said he loved her. It was iffy. The whole situation was. And I feel like they went too far too fast. They almost had sex 3 different times. I'm being a complete hypocrite here, cause I probably would want to jump the bones of the hot piece of ass that is one of the few people who can touch me, but IT JUST SEEMED TO FORWARD, SLOW DOWN, LET THE GIRL BREATHE BEFORE SHE HAS A HEART ATTACK.
And finally, the ending I never in a bajillion years saw coming. X-MEN SHATTER ME EDITION. I love x-men and superpower books, so boofuckingyah for that ending. THEY HAVE FREAKING CUSTOM MADE SUITS. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? I hope Juliette and Brendan become friends. He's British and quirky and cool as hell. I thought she was the only one to have an ability, but I guess it makes sense now when you think about the condition of the world. Animals and plant life are mutating because of radiation and the pollution, so why wouldn't humans too? Thats my theory.
Another one of my theories is that Mafi got inspiration for Adam from Superman. It would draw in with the theme of the superpowers everyones got (maybe even Adam!), the way he looks (dark hair, blue eyes, tall, built) and hello?? HIS LAST NAME. Fucking Adam and Clark Kent, Supermen.

Okay I'm done here. Even though I could go on and on about this book, TIS TOO LONG.

Quotes
"Why won't you answer me?" He's too close too close too close.
No one is ever close enough.
I suck in a breath and wait for him to walk away like everyone else in my life. My eyes are focused on the window and the promise of what could be. The promise of something grander, something greater, some reason for the madness building in my bones, some explanation for my inability to do anything without ruining everything. There will be a bird. It will be white with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head. It will fly. There will be a bird. It will be-
"Hey-"
"You can't touch me," I whisper. I'm lying, is what I don't tell him. He can touch me, is what ill never tell him. Please touch me, is what I want to tell him." (pg. 11)

"He clenches and unclenches his jaw. He runs a hand through his hair and I realize for the first time that he's not wearing a shirt. It's so dark in this room I can only catch the curves and contours of his silhouette; the moon is allowed only a small window to light this space but I watch as the muscles in his arms tighten with every moment and suddenly I'm on fire. Flame are licking at my skin and theres burst of heat clawing through my stomach. Every inch of his body is raw with power, every surface somehow luminous in the darkness. In 17 years I've never seen anything like him. In 17 years I've never talked to a boy my own age." (pg. 23)

My favorite
"I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stores threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being compromised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.
They want to delete every point of punctuation in my life from this earth and I don't think I can let that happen." (pg. 70)

""I just told you I don't-"
He cuts me off. "I'm not worried about your moral dilemmas. You're just stalling for time because you're in denial. Don't worry," he says. "You'll get over it. I can wait a little longer.
"I'm not in denial-"
"Of course you are. You don't know it yet, Juliette, but you are a very bad girl," he says, clutching his heart. "Just my type."
This conversation is impossible."

"My fingers are tugging at the hem of his wet clothes and his eyes widen for only a second before he rips the material off himself. He grabs my hands and lifts my arms above my head and pins me against the wall, kissing me until I'm sure I'm dreaming, drinking in my lips with his lips and he tastes like rain and sweet musk and I'm about to explode."
This is the scene where I felt like dunking myself in a bath of cold water. It was twice as long as what I only posted and well.. be glad I didn't post the rest or you'd be running to the bathroom too.
Happy readings :)

(Image and synopsis from Barnes and Noble)

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