Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi - Book Review (no spoilers)

"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 colour.

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 had read so many negative reviews of this book that I wanted to try it out and see for myself how bad it was. I thought it couldn't be as horrible as they said, but I was wrong. Of course, I had read some good reviews as well, and the two were at such extremes that the book sounded interesting. I started this book with expectations as low as they get, and still, I was let down. I couldn't believe the author published something like this. 

It was every bit as bad as people say and worse. I had not gone into this book expecting it to be a romance, but that is the only way to describe it. I hated that the author has put crossed out sentences in, instead of writing them in italics when they were her thoughts, or removing them entirely. The book would have been so much nicer without them. Nothing in the story made sense. At all. Not even the slightest bit. One moment two people are talking, the next one of them is asking the other what she's writing? What is that even supposed to mean? 

Here is how the first part of the book goes.

I'm insane.

I'm not insane.

He's looking at me.

I want him to touch me.

I blush. I don't reply.  

The world/my life is a mess.

I freeze. I am a statue. I do not move.

I blush.

Seriously, the number of times she sits still as a statue and her muscles freeze and the world tilts is frustrating. 

It felt as if the main character wasn't really experiencing anything or registering the things around her. Nothing was described properly, and I couldn't get a clear picture of what was happening. The author has used so many senseless phrases and "metaphors" that hardly fit the context. Most were not even physically possible. The whole book is such a mess.

The second half was slightly better, but nothing could make up for the horrible beginning. The story finally picked up, yet nothing much happened, and even after finishing the book I feel like I haven't really read any story. I have no wish to suffer through more of the author's writing style. The plot is only slightly interesting, predictable, and none of the characters are appealing. Juliette was psychotic. Adam was just there, and I couldn't tell you a thing about anybody else. 

I would give the world building half a star out of five. It was so terrible that it wasn't even there. The sky had supposedly changed colour from grey to grey, and there were no flowers and animals?? So what I gathered is their entire world was a dusty desert with metal buildings and a manipulative government headed by a boy. Half a star for the writing style as well. I refuse to believe that anybody liked how this author writes. It was the most irritating book I have ever read.

I would not recommend this series at all. Books with a similar storyline and a lot nicer writing do exist. You can always read Maze Runner, Divergent, the Fates Divide, and even Red Queen if you're desperate. A one star review for this disappointment of a book.