Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Read: Jan. 27-Feb 3, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 338
Genres: Romance, Fantasy (Paranormal)

Blurb from Goodreads:

"I have a curse
I have a gift

I am a monster
I'm more than human

My touch is lethal
My touch is power

I am their weapon
I will fight back

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 feel like this is one of those books that are really popular and I'm the only one who hasn't read it yet...so...I've read it now...and I'm still not sure what people see in this book?  Where was all the excitement I was promised, huh?

Anyways...Juliette can kill people just by touching a person's skin.  She sucks the life from them.  Yes, it is as painful as it sounds.  So people think her dangerous (I would think so too), and locked her up in this asylum, then this crazy power hungry guy comes along who wants to erase human society and rebuild it again wants to use Juliette to destroy any resistance.  Obviously the plot is so much more complicated (kinda), but that's the gist of it.

This book was strange...and when I say strange, I mean, it went by extremely fast.  For a 300 paged book, unless the book is incredibly wonderful, it would take me quite a while to read a book...but THIS...this book seemed to fly by. 

So. 

Fast. 

Maybe it was the size of the font...?  It was just weird how I read this book so quickly...okay?  So...this brings me to my next point...

What happened?!  A 300 paged book, and...I'm not sure what I read...I don't mean I was confused...well, yes, I was confused, but not what I was reading, but for all the 300 pages...it doesn't feel like 300 pages...more like 100 or so...a 300 paged book, and I feel only a few things were mentioned...and nothing much happened...argh!  I can't describe this properly! 

But wait, I'm going to give this one more try...and I'm really just going to ramble and hope it makes sense, so bear with me, okay?

Thanks.

So...I read a 300-ish paged book, and I'm just not sure what information filled those 300-ish pages!  300 is a lot of pages!  And I can only recall Juliette being stuck in a prison like asylum, getting "rescued" from a power hungry madman, and then persuaded to join the "evil side".  She was spoiled and bribed, none of which worked on her, and there is this other guy she apparently has history with.  Who also happens to be the only person she can touch without killing.  They also happen to be lovers no surprise there, right?  Then the two lovers try to find a way to escape, while the madman is so desperate to have Juliette chose him instead of the other guy she has history with.

Juliette doesn't pick the bad guy (duh), and manages to escape with her chosen lover and she meets people and finds people similar to her.  THE END.

That's not a 300 paged book, guys...

I just...where did the 200 other pages go, people?! 

I'm just...so...confused....!

And I didn't even really succeed in explaining anything...I just summarized the story....gaaah, I'm so bad at explicating my confusion...baaaah!

Aaanyways...

So...what does it say about me if I wish, that for once, the protagonist can and will choose the evil side?  (gosh, my mind is so warped and twisted, what is wrong with me?!  Am I the only one?)  The protagonist always has to be fair and just, kind and perfect in every way.  Even their flaws are perfect...wait...what did I just say...?

Aaanyways...Juliette, being the kind hearted protagonist she is, doesn't want to be a part of the power hungry dude's plan to conquer the world, even though he spoils her with a life of luxury.  But of course, Juliette isn't tempted with good food, bed, and sanitary stuff (she may have been living in a prison cell with pretty much nothing for almost a year, by herself...no windows, no light, no toilet, no human interaction, it's just a stone cell), she has to be a righteously altruistic character who has ridiculously admirable traits and couldn't be corrupted.  Like, what?  WHY?  HOW?!

Not only is that incredibly unrealistic...it's just....
You know...this book would have been so much more interesting if Juliette succumbed to temptation.  Even once!  But, no.  She didn't.

Well...I can't exactly say I'm really looking forward to reading the next book, but I'm slightly interested to see where this is headed...hopefully somewhere more exciting....

So, tell me?  Have you ever wished the protagonist could just do the wrong thing, and be happy with it (but that would make them the antagonist, wouldn't it...?)?