Shatter Me & Unravel Me - Book Review

Author: Tahareh Mafi

Genre: Fantasy, dystopian

Shatter Me (Book One)

Rating: 4/5 stars

synopsis: Shatter Me follows the narrative of Juliette Ferrars, a 17-year-old girl with a paralysing and killing touch. She can take living organisms' energy. The book starts out with Juliette in an asylum due to the fact that she murdered a small boy three years prior, in a store, using her unusual touch.

“I have a heart, says science, but I am a monster, says society.”

I thoroughly enjoyed book 1, although a lot of character development was needed in Juliette, Adam and Warner. I wasn't a fan of either of these characters in the first book, my only fave was Kenji. I will talk about the characters in depth while discussing book two.

Juliette has a lethal touch, whoever is in contact with her bare skin, dies. Warner (the villain of the book) and Adam (the hero, i think otherwise ;))))) are immune to her touch, meaning, they can touch her without dying.

In my opinion, the romance between Adam and Juliette was sloppy and forced(?). Juliette was just relieved to find out that someone is immune to her touch, and so she had a romantic relationship with him. Adam has apparently loved her since they were in like seventh grade, which lets be honest, is absurd. How can you be in love with someone you've never talked to? especially at such a young age?

I liked the main idea behind the book, you know the whole lethal touch situation, but i believe it could have been written in a much better way. but there are some questions which come to mind, had she never touched her parents? how did she not know about her lethal touch until she killed the child? I feel like the whole plot about her having a lethal touch could've been explained in a little more improved manner. Anyways, let move on to Book 2!

Unravel Me (Book Two)

"The truth is a painful reminder of why I prefer to live among lies"

I loved book 2, so so much. The character improved, the plot got better, and Adam and Juliette were no more together, so yay for that.

So, there were quite a few revelations made in this book, for example, Adam and Warner being brothers. I always knew there would be some sort of relation between the two because of their similar immunity to the lethal touch, but I still was somewhat surprised. I am still confused if whether or not Warner knows about this, and i hated the way Adam reacted to this shocking revelation.

Lets talk characters:

Juliette: I liked how her character grew in the book. In the beginning she was whinny and annoying, but thanks to the realistic advice of Kenji and Castle, she grew out of herself.

Adam; I HATED HIM SO SO MUCH. Firstly, he was forcing his relationship with Juliette after they found out that he's not really immune to her touch and is actually fighting his own ability to be with her. She broke up with him, but he just wasn't letting go man. Then that scene in which he finds out about Warner's immunity to Juliette, he acted like it was the end of the world. It was because of his childish behaviour that Kenji had to fight death. Juliette grew out of herself and stopped sympathising with herself through the course of the book, but as the book went on, Adam started acting like he's the most miserable man on Earth, like excuse me ma'am, people are DYING out there, get over yourself....

Warner: his character developed from being the villain to being the good guy, REALLY QUICKLY. i feel like there should've been more development in character, and he shouldn't have become the good guy till like the end of Book three. And how on earth did he fall in love with Juliette so quickly? He only knew/met her for like three weeks or something man, come on. I hate the whole love aspect of this book. But if i have to chose, i'd be team Warner, because god knows how much i loathe Adam.

Kenji: I loved him and his personality, he's friendly, kind, supportive, realistic, and most importantly had a good sense of humour. If it wasn't for Kenji, this book would've been the most boring on earth.

so, these were my thoughts on the main plot and characters of the book. Let me know what you think!