Shatter Me

Publisher: Harper Collins

Publish Date: November 15, 2011

Version: hardcover print

Pages: 338

Series: Shatter Me

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. 

Juliette Ferrars has been locked up in an asylum for 264 days by the Reestablishment.  They locked her up because her touch is fatal.  She spends her day looking out the one window in her cell.  She wonders about rain drops and birds.  It has been awhile since she has seen a bird in the skies.

She has been alone all that time.  Now she is getting a roommate.  At first, she is excited to see another human being, but has mixed feelings once she finds out her roommate is male.  Adam, that is his name.  Juliette has been alone for so long, that it is difficult for her to open up and talk to anyone.  At first, she ignores him, but then she helps him out with the things that they do daily in the cell.  Juliette cannot help the feeling that she knows Adam from somewhere.  She knows his eyes.

After a while, soldiers come in and take Juliette and Adam out of the cell.  They take Juliette to another place and there she meets Warner.  She also learns that Adam’s name is Adam Kent, that he is a soldier and can finally place where she knows him.  Warner tells her that he wants her on his side in the war.  At first, she doesn’t understand what he is talking about.  When she figures out that he wants her to torture people to get information for his side, she instantly refuses.  Warner then shows her the things that she is missing.  One of those things is that she gets to go outside, which is exhilarating to Juliette because it is not a dream.

Juliette has choices to make and questions to answer.   Will she side with Warner and do what he wants her to do?  Will she forgive Adam for deceiving her when he first came into the cell?  How will she get out of this current predicament and where will she go?

This book was very well thought out.  There were points in the book that I didn’t know what would happen.  Not because Juliette was wavering, but the circumstances prevented you from predicting it.  I found that I could understand the feelings that Juliette had and the actions she took because of them.  There are a few surprises in this book and I won’t spoil them for you, but they make the read worth it.

«Juliette.  She is the main character in this book.  Her touch is fatal and so she thinks that she is a monster.  It takes a lot of persuasion to get to start thinking otherwise.  When she is forced to kill a soldier so Warner can see what she can do, she feels awful about it.  She never wants to feel that again.  She has been ostracized her whole life because of this strange power that she has.  Throughout the book, she learns what it means to have such power and what people will do for it.

«Adam Kent.  He is the boy who is put in the cell with Juliette at the beginning of the book.  At first, he is mean to her, but then he softens up.  When Juliette finds out that he is a soldier, she believes that she was just a “job.”  Throughout the book, Adam has to keep up appearances and he does it so well sometimes that Juliette doesn’t even know which side he is on.

«James, Adam’s brother.  You don’t meet James until the later part of the story, but he is a neat kid.

«The strikethrough print.  It was interesting to read what Juliette was thinking in contrast to what she said.  It was like she was debating on whether to say something or not.

«Warner.  He wants Juliette on his team to torture people that he captures in the war.  He puts her in situations where she will have to use her power even though she is dead set against.  He doesn’t want to let Juliette go.  He uses fear as a tool and kills people for trivial things.

«The Reestablishment.  You don’t hear a whole lot about them in this book, but you do get a sense that they are not the good guys.  They were supposed to come in and make things better, but instead they take over and try to rule.

On the cover, there is Juliette dressed in a white gown with her hair down.  There are lines coming out of her like she is wielding a secret power.  She has her hands on her hips which is symbolic of defiance.  The cover reads: My touch is lethal.  My touch is power.  I like how the cover is shiny.  It really makes Juliette stand out on the cover.  This fits the description of Juliette well.