Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

“I've been screaming for years and no one has ever heard me.” 

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.

I've got a message for our heroine: Juliette, you're a pretty cool person. You believe that you're going to be devoid of human contact for the rest of your life and will most likely be eternally held in a cell against your will and somehow, you're not having a mental breakdown. So props to you, Juliette.

Okay, in the book, we get to see some of Juliette's more hidden thoughts using strikethroughs. They're used, well, just like this. I loved the effect they had with the writing. I don't think Shatter Me would have been the same without them.

Plotwise, I was lost—but in a good way. (I hope that makes sense to someone besides me.) Usually, I go into a book knowing what the bulk of the story is going to be about:

This book is going to be about 24 kids fighting to the death.
This book is going to be about a young boy going to a school for wizards.
This book is going to be about a teenage girl dating a vampire.

But with Shatter Me, every time I thought I knew what the characters were going to do for the rest of the book—gotcha—there was a twist to uproot them and move the location somewhere else entirely.

And while I won't spoil anything, be sure to look out for Kenji—who now holds the record for being one of my favorite secondary characters ever. Every good story needs that bit of humor for the tough times and he, much to my joy, brought more than his fair share.

Maybe this is just me, but I can't really seem to find a series where the main character doesn't get into a relationship with their soulmate by the end of the first book. Sure, I love seeing my beloved characters happy as much as the next book-obsessed girl, but I don't like it to be able to predict it. Also, it leaves me scared to pick up the sequel because I know something horrible is going to have to happen between them to make their relationship still interesting and relevant in books to come.

My other problem was the writing style—the author has a very poetic one, which isn't a bad thing. Some of it I loved:

“My life is four walls of missed opportunities poured in concrete molds.”  

But some I wasn't too crazy about:

“I'm wearing dead cotton on my limbs and a blush of roses on my face.”

Some people completely rave about her style, but some of it just wasn't for me.

I got a  kick out of Juliette's story, I'm crossing my fingers that this couple will break YA tradition and stay together throughout the series, and Unravel Me has officially been added to my TBR list: Let the wait begin.