Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

 

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK SHATTER ME - READ AT YOUR OWN EXPENSE - THIS IS A SUPER SUMMARIZATION WITH AN ANALYSIS AT THE END

The main character, Juliette, from the book Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi is a very complex character. In the beginning of the book Juliette is in an insane asylum. In this time she is dwelling on her emotions and explains little about her life other than the fact that she can’t experience physical touch. When one day she gets a cellmate, Adam Kent. She is terrified and acts rather rude to Adam by ignoring him. All she does is stare at him while he tries to talk to her. This part of the book is hard to get through because she is acting unreasonable, when Adam talks to her she doesn’t respond. She helps him get food and find the shower but other than that, nothing. 

Later on Juliette gets shipped to Aaron Warner, the son of the Supreme Commander Anderson and the Chief Commander and Regent of Sector 45. She learns that Warner wants to use her ability to hurt innocent people. This is where we learn that Juliette has a strange ability where she cannot touch anyone or they get paralyzed and die. Adam has stopped talking to Juliette until one day Warner put Juliette in a terrifying simulation where she had to save a baby without touching his bare skin. Adam found Juliette in the shower crying after the simulation and that is when he told her that he could touch her. As a reader I was torn at the fact that I really liked Adam but it seemed as though he thought of Juliette as a hopeless emotional baby. Warner saw Juliette as her true strong self but he was cruel to her.

Adam and Juliette devise a plan and escape Warners sanctuary. While escaping, Warner brushes his hand on Juliette’s leg in an attempt to grab her. Juliette now wonders if he knows that he can touch her. 

Adam and Juliette escape to Adam’s old house where Juliette meets James, Adam’s 10 year old brother. James is not afraid of Juliette’s ability and is happy to meet her. This scene is also when Adam and Juliette start “dating.” A little while later they hear a bang on the front door. The voice of a man calls from the other side of the door. Kenji, a man who worked with Adam while they were in the military, walks in and meets Juliette. Later on Kenji will become Juliette’s best friend. 

Adam, Juliette, Kenji, and James escape to Omega Point after being found by Warner and his men. Omega point is where we see Juliette’s improvement physically and mentally. Juliette starts to realize that she can’t spend her whole life dwelling on her ability when she could learn to control it and use it for good. But her improvement is not taken well by Adam. Castle, the leader of Omega Point, tests on Adam to see why he can touch Juliette. But the tests he has Adam do are torture, Juliette sees this and gets angry. She punches the floor and it explodes under her. This is the first time she’d ever experienced her ability at full power. 

Juliette learns how to control her ability and is able to use her anger for power. But by doing this she is becoming distant to Adam. Adam and Juliette fight and she realizes that Adam is not immune to her touch, he is just able to absorb her power for a moment. So in reality she is hurting him when she touches him. This takes a toll on their relationship because Juliette doesn’t want to hurt Adam. 

Now that Juliette and Adam don’t talk as much, Juliette starts to work with Kenji on controlling her abilities. She learns a lot about herself and this is the time where we see a lot of character development in her. Kenji allows Juliette to come work with Omega Point to steal resources from the Reestablishment, a bad government that made the world worse, so that they can provide for the rest of Omega Point. Juliette finally knows what she wants to do, she wants to fight back.

Her whole life she had never been given the chance to speak up. Her own parents abandoned her at the age of 14. Juliette has felt trapped in her own skin for ages. Now that she’s been given a chance she's going to take it. As you go through this book you can see how her thoughts and body language change. Towords the end of this book she is able to understand herself and know exactly what she was made for. She also realizes how much Adam weighed her down emotionally and we start to see how much she sympathizes with Warner. I really recommend this series, there was not one point in the book where I was bored or ready to put the book down.

Mafi, Tahereh. Shatter Me. New York, Harper, 2011.