The Shatter Me Series
My Touch is Lethal.
My Touch is Power.
Ever wondered what it would be like if human contact could kill a person? Ever wondered what it would be like to never be able to hug someone, hold hands, or touch a person, being afraid you would hurt them?
If you're looking for a series to bring you to the dystopian universe (and if you want to read some romance) this is the one for you.
Tahereh Mafi, a New York Times best-selling author, writes an amazing ongoing dystopian series known as the Shatter Me series. The series is going strong in keeping its popularity and its readers interested, with 4 novels and 3 novellas published. There are still books yet to be published, so the story has not ended yet. The 5th installment of the series, titled Defy Me, will be coming out later this year in April, which is quite exciting. (I still haven't read the 4th book (Restore Me), though, so that won't be covered in this review...)
The story starts off with a 17-year-old girl named Juliette Ferrars, who lives in fear of her paralyzing, lethal touch. She's been confined in an asylum for too long - 264 days to be exact. Enter Adam Kent, Juliette's new cellmate, who turns out to be one of the soldiers of Sector 45 - the area where the story takes place (in North America). Not too long after, we meet the leader of Sector 45, and the villain of the story, Aaron Warner (you'll know why he's important as you keep reading this ;) ).
Image taken from @wovenwithwords
The Shatter Me series follows Juliette as she learns to embrace her powers and strives to survive in dystopian America. She forms new friendships with her lack of social skills and uncovers surprising secrets of those around her. Sorry to those who aren't a big fan of romance - although, I did warn you earlier that this book contains it - this book largely revolves around dramatic and thrilling romance, especially with the love triangle. Love triangle? Yes. This won't be a huge spoiler, but there's Juliette capturing the hearts of two guys named Adam and Warner (the villain). The love triangle was a quite conflicting aspect of the book for me because I couldn't choose who to ship Juliette with.
I can't help but mention one of the most loved characters of the series, as well as my favorite character, Kenji Kishimoto. He isn't so significant around the beginning of the book, but as the story progresses, he becomes Juliette's best friend. The friendship between Juliette and Kenji is amusing and adorable, which balances out the romance in the book. This character has been portrayed very well and is the type of person you would actually want to be friends with. Looking for humor, charisma, and a loyal friend? Kenji is the perfect person for you... except he doesn't exist :(
Like every teen novel, this series does contain profanity, but it isn't excessive. If you're super into dystopian and romance and supernatural stuff, I really do recommend this book. I have to warn you, though, there isn't much world building, meaning that the setting isn't as developed as other books. But although the series does not contain much world building, the character development and stories between the characters make up for it.
The books are written as if they were Juliette's diary entries. Tahereh Mafi's writing style helps project Juliette's voice and thought process. She uses plenty of metaphors, and she places an emphasis on the form of text. The way she writes the book in first person, really allows you to grasp Juliette as a person and understand her. In the first book, it is easy to see that her mind is filled with doubt and self-deprecating thoughts, through how she tends to cross out many of her words and phrases. (I was disturbed by this at first, but it helped me understand the character as I kept reading.) As the series goes on, there is less of that, and the character becomes more confident as a person as she gains a better understanding of her powers. The author uses this form of crossing out words to convey character development. This is only somewhat related, but it's interesting to see how even the way the work is conveyed - the actual physical form of it - reveals characterization and development
Now, this is just the trilogy that has been covered, but there's more to the story. The 4th book in the series is written in 2 perspectives, meaning that Juliette will end up with one of the two guys in the triangle. But if you want to know who, I guess you'll have to read it :)