Shatter Me

Written by Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by Kate Simses

X-Men meets The Handmaid's Tale in this first instalment in an epic and romantic YA fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen, Netflix's Stranger Things and Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows.

A fragile young teenage girl is held captive. Locked in a cell by The Reestablishment – a harsh dictatorship in charge of a crumbling world. This is no ordinary teenager. Juliette is a threat to The Reestablishment's power. A touch from her can kill – one touch is all it takes. But not only is she a threat, she is potentially the most powerful weapon they could have. Juliette has never fought for herself before but when she’s reunited with the one person who ever cared about her, the depth of the emotion and the power within her become explosive …

"Addictive, intense, and oozing with romance. I’m envious. I couldn’t put it down.… – Lauren Kate, New York Times bestselling author of Fallen

'Dangerous, sexy, romantic and intense. I dare you to stop reading!' – Kami Garcia, bestselling author of the Beautiful Creatures series

Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series which has been published in over 30 languages around the world. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, Ransom Riggs, fellow bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, and their young daughter. She can usually be found overcaffeinated and stuck in a book. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @TaherehMafi

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Sep 25, 2020
• ISBN: 9780755502554

Tahereh Mafi

Tahereh Mafi is the #1 international bestselling and National Book Award nominated author of over a dozen books, including the Shatter Me series, the Woven Kingdom series, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and An Emotion of Great Delight. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in Southern California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs, and their daughter. You can find her online at taherehmafi.com.

Reviews for Shatter Me

[Sybil Milne · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’m not sure what I expected when i started this audiobook but I was gripped from the start.
The narration was amazing and captured Juliette and the characters in this book.
I’m ready for book 2!

[Sunna · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Don't waste your time on this one, absolute garbage or kindling, which ever you like better

[Elizabeth Iman · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. The ending was so cliché. The beginning super boring. The middle part stressed me out because how did no one discovered them ughhh

[Sybille · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Compared to the Woven Kingdom it feels a little light on colour and authenticity. The characters seem to be a little flat and 2D and whilst I thought the feeling of 'stream of consciousness' that we sometimes get from Juliet was an interesting way to 'describe' the character it didn't make up for the lack of depth in the other characters. I might listen to the next one (it wasn't available when I finished the first), because it got better towards the end and more interesting.

[El Smith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Amazing. First audiobook I’ve ever listened to, it was an amazing experience. I feel so connected to the characters.

[Shaden Shebili · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved it so much, so excited to read the rest of the series.
Tahereh Mafi you are a genius!

[Jinghay · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well that was a trip and a half!
This book was both like everything and nothing that I'd anticipated. Warner? ? God damn did not see that coming at all. And Adam? ?❤️ Their love might have been a bit insta-lovey, but honestly it's a YA series from 2011 so you've got to give it some leeway atleast.?‍♀️ I'm sure the series will improve with each book (and that there's more surprises to come ?)

Younger me would have honestly ADORED this series, I regret not having started it sooner :(
Divergent, The Hunger Games, Flawed, Scythe.. it basically reminded me of all the dystopian YA books I used to devour~

Can't wait to read more!

Rating: 4/5

[Yolanda · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The last part really got me intrigued enough to continue.

[Fena Reti · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Wow this was bad I didn’t expect to hate it this much

[Emily Thomson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mafi has such a poetic way with words and really illustrates Juliette's unique inner monologue.

The narrator does an exceptional job. Took me far too long to realise the scraping noise was to strike through the previous sentence.

[muzmuz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not sure if its cause of the audio or cause i've been reading more dark romances but the book felt a little bit childish to me.... did not see the attraction of warner, he felt like a 5 years old throwing a tantrum.
i liked Juliet and am glad she is standing up for herself...
not sure if i will continue with the series but probably will listen to few more to see what's the fuss about.

[Brett White · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This my favourite series in the entire world! I love it so much that I just couldn’t put it down!

[phairouse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Aside from Sarah j. Maas' books I haven't read anything so enticing.

[Charlotte · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I listened to Shatter Me on audio and the narrator is so good, I loved listener to her and she's probably one of my favourites so far.

I would have rated this a 4 stars but Warner is too hot and cold for my liking and then throw in this love triangle and I was starting to get whip lash. I've heard the rest of the series is so much better and I will definitely give the other books a try because I loved the world building and the plot. I am thoroughly intrigued.

I'm getting massive Darkest Hour vibes from this book and I love that. I hope Juliet starts to fall into her own and become confident in who she is because at the minute she is very unsure which is understandable, but now she's found her home and I hope she finds herself.

[wanderlustlover_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have such a hard time trying to think about rating this one, and I think a lot of it comes down to the formatting of *how* I was reading it but I can't remove one from the other. I read Shatter Me on the Epic Reads website while it was free for 60 hours. I'm so torn up and disjointed on my thoughts about this book, which I think come from having to sit in front of my laptop and read it the whole time, with really wide white margins and background colors and things that were not my Kindle.



This book is. Wow. How do I ever.

There is prose in this book that is straight out of poetry and my heart eats that right up.

The writing and narration and the POV are very specific and very sparse from the very beginning. We are in her mind like she is in the cell. It's all bare walls. All the naked thoughts, emotions, reactions, lack of reactions. The strike through's, which do take a little while to get used to, are amazingly bold and another part of the character. Of how repressed she's been, by the world and, especially, by herself.

The love story is convenient, and I have to admit I'm more interested in The Regiment, Omega Force, Warner, Kenji and the twist conclussions than I am at all in Adam. But he does his YA novel boy job. I really want to rate this a 3, more than a 4, when I talk about the story itself though. About how little we know of the world through the main characters eyes, and how little I even know what rooms look like and people look like and what this bright brand new world she's in is like.

It made sense in the cell, but once she was remove it was this glass wall I was pounding on for more.

So, 3 stars for the story and love interest. 4 stars for the fact there was poetry in my book EVERYWHERE.

[evelynnygren · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh. My. Word. I did not think that this book would be THIS good. Listen, I haven’t read a dystopian series since The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, but even then, I’d already read The Hunger Games, so I was used to reading that series anyway. But Shatter Me? It truly shattered my expectations. (Get it SHATTER haha). Anyway, this reminded me a lot of the X-Men movies because of all the special powers. It also made me feel like it was similar to Divergent, but don’t quote me on that because I haven’t read Divergent yet. I KNOW RIGHT. I’m such a disappointment to the book community. I’m planning on reading that series soon, don’t worry. Back to this book though, I was pleasantly surprised by so many aspects of this book. I really liked that Juliette’s character wasn’t a natural born fighter/didn’t really have any spark like Katniss Everdeen. I think Tahereh made a good choice in starting Juliette’s character out this way, I think it will give her lots of room to grow and find some confidence and much-needed courage. I liked both Adam and Warners’ characters, but I was not expecting the psycho-energy from Warner. I think he also has potential to grow—and possibly follow in Juliette’s footsteps—and I am quite interested to see where Tahereh takes his character. After learning that both Adam and Warner are immune to Juliette’s touch, I think that both have some kind of power—at Castle’s suggestion—that neither of them know anything about, but will discover at some point. The idea is very intriguing and I really hope that this is the case. Besides all of that exciting stuff, I liked the world/state of the world that the book is set in and I like the classic Man-In-Charge terrorist organization that has been created for this story. I have high hopes for the rest of the series and I can’t wait to continue reading! <3

[jennybeast · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Kind of a neat concept, if you can stick through the main character’s never ending, dramatic whining. The second book could go so many places! Too bad I read the first one.

[abbieriddle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Okay, so honestly.....this took me a bit to actually get into. Maybe it was the writing style, which is like a journal or the inside of a person's head with crossed out thoughts and the things she replaced them with. Or maybe it was the fact that it seemed slow to build. And the end.....well the end builds so quickly and leaves you absolutely hanging with no hope of resolve unless you pick up book two.

Do I mind that I need to read book two? Absolutely not....about midway through the book I was hoping that Adam Kent really was a good person and I was having a conflicted feeling about Warren. And still at the end of the book I am torn in whether I think Warren is completely bad or if he is just a product of his environment and nurturing. I want to see the stories of all the characters unfold and see where this series goes.

[akbouterse · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting read and I'm glad I read it. This book has been in my consciousness for forever and I've heard from people that love it and people that hate it. I think if I had read this back when I was in 5th or 6th grade when I was reading a lot of YA dystopian books like this, I would have really liked it. I thought the flowery language was a little annoying because it's just not a style I've ever liked but everything else about this book was fine, I've just read similar plots so many times by now. I didn't care about Juliet's relationship with Adam at all. It just felt like a very typical love at first sight story. I'm just never impressed by the plot where it's like "oh no, it's not instalove because they knew each other years ago, even if you never get to see that." It's shown up a lot in books I've read recently and it never seems any less like instalove.
The plot of this book was fine but definitely not compelling enough to keep me reading. I really doubt I'll pick up book two. I don't care about the Warren plot line, I don't care about the things we found out at the end of this book, and I don't really care about finding out the source of the powers people have. Maybe someday I'll read book two, but probably not for a long time.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Teen fiction; paranormal romance/adventure. Possibly the best paranormal romance I've read all year. The cover's all wrong (what IS that dress she's wearing? And the pose? Not appealing at all) but Juliette's voice is distinctive and interesting and edgy, and the romance is sizzling. Really looking forward to the rest of this series.

[ssperson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful book. I loved Juliette's voice, and how it changed as the book progressed, from fragile, scared girl to a confident woman. This is one series I'm looking forward to continuing.

[ash600-888477 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Third five stars in a row, either i'm lucky picking up good books or i'm a total "5-stars-w**re"...
anyway, i'm reading too fast and i'm way behind in my reviews (and my classes)
hope i can catch up by the week-end.

[payday1999-430350 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is such an amazing start to a great series. I love this book and I couldn't put it down. It's one of the best sci-fi books I've read in a long while. I love the world Mafi has created and I really like Juliette the main character.

This was a definite page turner and it made me want to continue on with the next book to see what would happen next.

[m_mozeleski · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very interesting book! I'm not sure if I want to finish the series, because it threw you into the special formatting right off the bat with...not a lot of explanation until about 30 pages in. Fine, whatever. It was a good book, though, fairly solid writing.

[krau0098 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Shatter Me series. I got this as an audiobook from Audible.com.Audiobook Quality (2/5): This wasn’t the best audiobook. The narrator uses a sort of “little girl” voice for Juliette and sometimes her voices for other characters were too similar to discern from each other. Additionally, they use a scritching noise to show that something Juliette is thinking has been scratched out (which is done in the book). This noise is incredibly annoying. Juliette also repeats herself...a lot. I almost stopped listening to this after listening to the narrator repeat "I am not insane" for like 5 minutes straight….it almost made me insane.Story (2/5): I wasn't a fan of this one. Not a lot happens in this story and it is incredibly predictable. Basically Juliette escapes an institution and joins a rebel group; does that sound like a million other YA dystopian novels to anyone else? Oh wait she has super powers too!!! Add to the above that this suddenly turns into an X-Men episode in the last couple chapters of the book and I was just done with it all. It was so silly and such a waste of time to listen to. SPOILER ALERTI also found it annoying that the first boy who can safely touch Juliette is the one she falls desperately in love with. It was super annoying that there is this big mystery about why some people can touch Juliette safely when it's incredibly obvious that only people who love her can touch her.END SPOILERCharacters (2/5): Our lead heroine, Juliette, is overly dramatic and the language and metaphors she uses are dramatic to the point of silliness. She just came across as completely silly to me. I didn’t really like any of the other characters any better. Setting (3/5): This is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic world where a political group called The Reestablishment has taken over. It’s pretty typical for a dystopian setting. We never find out a ton of detail about how The Reestablishment came to power. This was very focused on Juliette and her trying to adjust to her freedom and power. I would have liked to learn more about this world, especially things that would differentiate it from the many other dystopian novels out there.Writing/Drawing Style (2/5): This writing style was not for me. Juliette speaks and thinks in very dramatic and outlandish metaphors. Everything is compared to something extreme and dire. There are plenty of quotes from this book in other Goodreads reviews, so I don’t feel a need to provide more examples. There is also a lot of repetition, especially in the first part of the story. I thought the whole thing moved too slowly and, when I look back at the story, there wasn’t a lot that actually happened. I do think some people will like the metaphors and language, it is different and artistic, but was definitely not for me.My Summary (2/5): Overall this book and Mafi’s writing style were not for me. I did not like the writing style or how the audiobook was narrated. I thought the story was slow and predictable, and just didn’t offer any differences from a million other dystopian books out there. The parallels between the end of the book and X-men are incredibly stark and had me groaning a bit. I will not be reading any more of this series.

[melrailey-412132 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Juliette's touch is fatal. It's been 264 days since she touched someone - and that person died. Now, she's in an insane asylum. Now the government wants to use Juliette as a weapon to torture others. And Juliette doesn't know whether to go along with the plan or to fight back.

I enjoyed this book. It wasn't the most awesome book I've ever read but it was good. Sometimes it was difficult to follow but it was good. I went into expecting a paranormal book but it wasn't. I didn't expect the kind of book it ended up being.

I'll definitely be reading the sequel.

[kayis813-163108 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this book! The concept is so interesting and the writing style was EXACTLY what I needed to get pulled out of my reading slump. I went out and bought the rest of the books in the series today so I can finish it sometime this coming year (I hope).

I never got bored and I found the characters interesting and well rounded. The only reason it's not a 5 star book for me is that 1. As much as I liked the characters, I couldn't really connect with them thought that's probably because I just jumped off a book that spent 600 pages characterizing characters. And 2. I thought that the romance seemed kind of sudden but that's also probably because my last book moved so slow.

I'm sure I'll be able to connect better with the next books once I start them.

(Also that cover is amazing. It's like 70% of the reason I marked this book as a favorite.)

[cindywho-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Juliette is loopy and is imprisoned in a dark post apocalyptic future. She's got a special power that fuels the books obsession with touch that segues into the not on all sides love triangle. It's overwrought but weird enough to lead me on.

[kerilynned · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another really great read! I wasn't expecting it to be so good! I have had this one on my list for a long time now. When I started to read it I realized I couldn't even remember what it was about! I was surprised to read it was a dystopian novel. I haven't read on in quite awhile so it worked out! I'm really interested in seeing where this story goes and how things develop. I especially love the relationship between Adam and Juliette. I love that they have a really great history so it doesn't make it so much of the instant love.

[roses7184_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book blew me away.

Shatter Me has undertones of dystopian fiction, but it is really its own entity. How do I explain this? Imagine that your favorite paranormal, superhero, and dystopian books were put into a blender to make one single book. That right there? That would be this book.

Now I think it's important I start off with the writing style in Shatter Me because that seems to be the one thing that might keep people from falling in love with this gorgeous book. I'll admit, Tahereh Mafi's writing style is unlike anything I've read before. It's eerily prosaic, wonderfully descriptive, and oddly disconcerting, all at the same time. Replete with strikethroughs and repeated phrases, it feels sometimes like you might be going crazy yourself. I think it's important to remember that the reader is inside Juliette's head during the story. This is a girl who hasn't seen another person, hasn't touched another person, for what seems to her to be an endless amount of time. Being in Juliette's head can be off putting, or it can be beautiful. It all depends on how much you allow yourself to be immersed in the girl, and the world, that is built here.

Juliette's character is what really brings Shatter Me to life. Constantly fighting a battle between the madness that she thinks still might consume her, and the giving person Adam knows her to be. Juliette is equal parts strong willed and vulnerable. The knowledge that her power can harm others cripples her, and she constantly wavers between feeling like a monster and a normal girl. Juliette truly has a power that can be used for good or evil, and both opportunities are presented to her. It might sound cliche at first glance, but I assure you that the girl on the pages is anything but that. Juliette's wariness at trusting others, her need to help even if she isn't sure if she should, her constant questioning of herself even when she's fairly sure that she is right, is all the product of her past. Tahereh Mafi builds up a girl who is believable and unique wrapped into one package. Juliette isn't perfect, and I loved her for that.

Shatter Me is definitely dsytopian, and the world that is built around Juliette's story is amazing. Cities crumble to the ground in the wake of The Reestablishment. People cower in doorways as what is left of society is patrolled, and essentially owned, by the soldiers who are loyal to the movement. The explanation as to how this came about hit very close to home for me. To say that this world is possible, well that's an understatement. I won't spoil anything, but I will say that there is a distinct possibility we really could get to that point. It made me ponder that, and that made me fall even further under the spell of this book.

If you can't tell from my musings above, I fell madly in love with this story. Devouring 120 pages in half an hour let me know that I was in for the long haul. I admit that I know that it won't be for everyone. As I mentioned, the writing style is different and might put some people off. However I can honestly say that if you give it a chance, if you allow yourself to fall wholeheartedly into Juliette's world, you might just find a story that will immerse you like it did me. Shatter Me is a refreshingly unique read that I enjoyed thoroughly. If there is indeed a sequel coming, I can't wait!