Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

by Evelyn Jakubczak, age 13

Taherah Mafi’s Shatter Me series has 11 dystopian themed books with plenty of twists and turns that make you gasp in your seat. The main female protagonist faces many challenges, and must find people to trust in order to overcome these challenges. Will she be able to keep her new friends safe while the world is falling apart?

Julietter Ferrars is an ordinary 17 year old girl with a big secret. Warner and Adam join her in the main plot. Warner is the child of a military commander and Adam is a soldier. The story begins with Juliette stuck in an asylum, where she was sent after making a mistake at the age of 14. Her past made her reluctant to trust anyone. She learns how to survive in a new plush life that Warner brings her into after her long time in the asylum, and she figures out how to trust Adam enough to share her past.

The world is now broken up into 555 Sectors and Warner is the commander of Sector 45. He gets Juliette out of the asylum, but struggles to make her enjoy her stay in the compound. Adam is the main body guard to Juliette when he is placed in the asylum to see if she could handle human interactions. After spending so much time with Juliette, they both start to grow a connection and longing to each other. Adam struggles to keep Juliette and his ten year-old brother safe in all that's happening to the new world.

Warner has been watching Juliette for quite some time. He wanted to know if she was actually insane, or if she also acted as normal as she looked. Warner sends Adam as the test subject to double check this hypothesis. After learning Juliette is capable of safely interacting with others, he takes her out and into the main compound of Sector 45. Juliette realizes that while she was in the asylum a lot of the world had changed, and now almost all the animals are gone and all of the continents are broken up. The reestablishment is a big organization that now rules the world and controls everything. When Warner starts bringing Juliette into normal situations, she gets very mad because she believes that she shouldn't have such nice things after everything that has happened to her. Juliette was shunned as a kid, and because of this she believes she has to act small and quiet.

Later in the story Juliette finds that the only one she thinks she can trust is Adam. Because of this, they both make a plan to escape. After the plan falls through they start running, trying to find a safe place to live. They run into Kenji, another one of the many soldiers in Sector 45, who fought alongside Adam for years. Together, they all work to find a place for them to live safely without getting caught.

Shatter Me is amazing if you are stuck in a reading slump. With the many books and plot twists it keeps you entertained the whole time. It is mainly written for teens and young adults who think they would enjoy a new storyline. Overall this book is a great story of how a girl can push through over and over again when life puts her down.