Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

   

Paperback, First Edition: 340 pages
Published: October 2nd 2012 by Harper Collins (first published November 15th 2011)
ISBN: 0062085506 
ISBN13: 9780062085504

Goodreads Summary

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.

My Review

I read this book over a year ago and decided that since I had recently read the novella Destroy Me, which follows the villain Warner, that it would make more sense to post a review of Shatter Me first. You need to know the plot of Shatter Me in order to understand the significance of Destroy Me.
 

I picked up Shatter Me because it was the monthly read for a book group on Goodreads. When I first started reading it, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it. There are a lot of crossed out lines within the text and Juliette seems to have obsessive thoughts and is rattled with anxiety. As I began to learn Juliette’s circumstances—her ability, her parents sending her away, her incarceration—it all began to make sense.  And the once the action and romance came into play, I was definitely hooked. This book is most definitely a page turner.

I liked Juliette as a main character. I really felt for her. She has been treated like a monster because of her ability, something which she is unable to control. Even her own parents wanted nothing to do with her, which is always sad. The reality of it is that Juliette is far from a monster. She doesn't want to hurt anyone. The fact that she makes a point never to touch anyone proves that. What I find the most amazing is that despite her history of being shunned and feared, she never took Warner’s promise of revenge. She knows that using her abilities to elicit fear and to gain power will not make her feel better. I also think Juliette may have more control over her powers than she truly realizes and I think that she will learn and develop it more as the story progresses in the rest of the trilogy.

Warner is the villain in this book. He is a head solider of the Reestablishment, the rulers of their world after people started dying from the effects climate change and global warming (e.g., heat, animals dying, famine). Warner is egotistical, arrogant, selfish, and out for only himself. He wishes to use Juliette and her powers as a weapon. He tries to convince Juliette that he holds the key to her getting revenge on all who have wronged her. As good of a villain as Warner is, however, I think there is a lot more to his story than meets the eye, which would explain why he is the way he is. I actually like that we don't know much about his story right now because I believe that if we did, we may have difficulty disliking him.

“You are the only good thing left in this world.”

This leads us to Adam Kent. Adam is a solider in Warner’s army and is assigned to watch over Juliette while she’s held captive by Warner. He knew her as a child in school and it turns out he is the only one who did not view her as a monster. 

I love the relationship between Adam and Juliette. I love the passion that lies between them. Adam is able to see Juliette for what she truly is (which isn't a monster) and he seems to want to protect her. He also provides the love and friendship that she's been missing and yearning for her entire life. In turn, Juliette is the confidant he has always needed. He has always been the one that serves and protects others, never having anyone to admit his fears to. With Juliette, he is finally able to admit his fears when he is at a loss without fear of being viewed as weak. 

“I don’t know what to do,” he says, and it’s like a confession that costs him much more than I can understand. Control is slipping through his fingers and he’s desperate to hold on. 

Up until this point, he has been the one with the plans and solutions. This type of confession is very difficult for him to make and Juliette is probably the only person in the world to which he can let his guard down. 

“There will be a bird today…It will fly.”

There is a bit of symbolism in the novel…the white bird. In this era, it has been a long time since anyone has seen an actual bird fly by because of deterioration of the ozone layer. However, in Juliette’s dreams, she sees a white bird. 

“I've dreamt about the same bird flying through the same sky for exactly 10 years. White streaks of gold like a crown atop its head.”

She soon learns that the bird in her dreams isn't just a dream when she sees a tattoo on Adams chest of the same bird. Although we don’t really know just yet what the bird tattoo means, I think there are some things that can be taken from it symbolically.  Juliette speaks of the bird flying away, which is truly what she wishes to do, so obviously the bird flying represents freedom. It also represents a better time in their society, before the world climate became completley unstable, before the Reestablishment took over. For Juliette, a bird flying in the sky represents a brighter future for their society. Finally, the tattoo of the bird on Adam’s chest is a part of their special connection. If that particular bird means freedom for Juliette, it being on Adam is sign that he will be her savior, her ticket to freedom. 

One issue I have is that I have a hard time really visualize this world because they don't go into very much detail about it. We know that the Ozone layer disintegrated, that climate is unpredictable, and many of the creatures that we know of are unable to survive within it. The rest is a bit up in the air. Unlike many other dystopian/apocalyptic novels, this book doesn't really seem to be centered on that. I hope that we learn more in the later books, because I would like to have a better grasp of the situation. 

I highly recommend this book. It is well written, the language is almost poetic, there is some good character development, symbolism, and it has a lot of action and romance. The route the book takes at the end wasn't entirely surprising to me, but it was kind of cool because I've never read a book that went that route. The book doesn't end in a clear cut cliffhanger, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered which make me excited to read the rest of the series. 

Guardians of the Akasha by Celia Stander

Guardians of the Akasha by Celia Stander

Goodreads Summary

Eighteen-year old Keira Wilde has finished school and is determined to make her own plans for her future, thank you very much. She wants to be a photographer; not go to Oxford, like her parents want, or be a hero, like her aunt wants. But Keira’s plans go flying out of the window when she is attacked on the streets of London and she is forced to use her powers in self-defense.

Unfortunately, her actions attract the attention of a predator intent on using her...or destroying her. Preferring to be neither used nor destroyed, Keira takes charge of her destiny and enters the hidden world of the Guardians of the Akasha.

Fighting side by side with the battle-scarred Marco Santana, they race from London to Argentina and a castle in the forests of the Czech Republic to find the source of all knowledge and prevent the fabric of time from unraveling.

My Review

I read this book as a read & review. When I first agreed to the R&R, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the book. The plot seemed interesting enough, but something I couldn't quite put my finger on left me a bit skeptical. After reading it, I am happy that I gave it a chance and that I had proven myself wrong. 

"Akasha literally means ‘space’…Everything around us, from the smallest atom to the biggest planet is connected through the Akasha."

What is the Akasha? That is the major question throughout this novel. The term itself comes from known religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akasha).  The easiest explanation for it is the quote above. For the basis of the novel, it is not an alternate dimension, but rather an area between dimensions that connects them. Since it connects all dimensions and realities, any manipulation of the Akasha can alter time and dimensions as they are currently known. Hence the need for the Guardians for the Akasha, to guard the Akasha from those intent on misusing it for personal gain. The Guardians are people who are born with the special ability to manipulate space and energy. This ability tends to run in specific families, why some members possess these powers while others don’t is unclear. 

Keira finds out that not only is she one of these special people with these abilities—not the lone weirdo freak that she had believed herself to be all this time—but that her powers are great and that she has a specific destiny within the Guardians. Keira's powers and her destiny are so crucial that Daemon, who wishes to use the Book of Knowledge--which holds all the secrets and history of the Akasha--to manipulate the Akasha to alter time, will stop at nothing to use Keira. 

Keira is a very likable protagonist. Her overall strength is seen from the beginning of the book. She has a rebellious nature and a desire to follow her own path. As she learns more about the Guardians and her destiny, there is a sense of obvious confusion within her, yet she still has the ability to make up her own mind and make her own choices. This puts her and Marco, the commander of the Draaken (warriors who protect the Guardians) who has sworn to Keira’s Aunt Victoria to protect her, at odds with each other constantly.

One thing I liked about this book is the setting. Even though its a fantasy that it includes supernatural powers, magic, and fairy-tale-like locations, its all within real-life locations like London, Argentina, and the Czech Republic. Many fantasy novels (and even some dystopian, apocalyptic ones) include made-up places that can never be located on a map. While the exact location of the castle and the Santana estate probably cannot be specifically pointed to on a map, their countries of origin can. This added a level of realism that I enjoyed. 

One issue that I have to mimic other reviewers on is that there is a lacking in development. Many times we’re taken from one place or situation to another without much explanation as to how we got there. Keira definitely went through a transformation as she learned about the Akasha and her powers, but there really was no development there. One scene she’s a typical human high school graduate, with no real understanding about the Akasha and her powers and the next she seems to understand and know everything and has morphed into the powerful girl. There is very little description or explanation of how she got to this point. As Keira describes it, the whole training felt like only days as opposed to weeks. It could very well be explained by the factor that the dimension she was in time seems to have slowed to almost a standstill, but still more development there would've been helpful. 

Also, there is one instance in particular that seems very much unrealistic. Without giving too much away, basically Keira and the Guardians go from one country to another to intercept a plane that is about to take off. I understand that this is a fantasy novel and in a fantasy novel almost anything is possible, but there still needs to be just at least some realism. This scene in particular seemed way too convenient for my taste. 

Besides Keira, Marco, and the Draaken, little Amber was by far the bravest character in the novel. She is a nine-year-old daughter of the cook and the groundskeeper of the Castle of the Guardians. Don’t let her age  and smalls stature fool you; she has a lot of spunk and courage for a young girl. Even though she's sweet and a bit talkative, she's definitely got a fire within her with flames as red as her hair. I don’t want to give anything way, so I’ll just say that by the end Amber was as much a savior as Keira, Marco, and the Draaken.

There are battle scenes, with the Draaken battling Dameon's forces to protect the castle, the Akasha, and Keira, but they sometimes fall short a little in their length and description. The revelation and resolution in the end is a bit rushed and could use a little more development. The situation with the Book of Knowledge in particular needed more development  It can't be a simple as Keira not knowing or understanding the Book one moment and then instantly knowing everything the next. 

This book was very intriguing, creative and a fun read. The world of the Draaken, the Guardians, and the Akasha was very different than many of the other fantasy YA novels I have read. However, because of its uniqueness, a little more explanation and development would definitely have been helpful. It is not listed on Goodreads or Smashwords as part of a series, but the ending does leave room for a least a sequel. If Celia Stander does come out with a sequel to this book, I would definitely pick it up to see how the abrupt cliffhanger turns out. I definitely recommend this book to YA fantasy lovers.