Shatter Me: A Revisit

 

I have to be honest, this is actually the third time I have read this book. The second time I listened to it. I don't normally like to listen to books, but the woman who narrated was so good that I got incredibly absorbed into the story and it felt like reading a whole new book. 

I had decided to reread the first three books (listen to them actually) because Tahereh Mafi, who had a few years before, had told us that she was finished when she released book three. Then, SURPRISE! There was a book four and a book five and a book six. Of course that meant a reread. And since I haven't read much since being locked away in my house during a shut down in my state, and since book six came out during that time and I still haven't read it. I, of course, have to read them all again. 

I will probably be doing that with a lot of series, just FYI.

Anyway, let's talk about book one.

I had actually forgotten how crazy Juliette sounds when I picked this book up. But I loved it. You can just picture her in the corner of a cell chewing on her hair, muttering to herself, and rocking back and forth. I guess being alone with your thoughts for as long as she had been would do that to anyone. There were days last year (2020) when I definitely felt a little nutty. I also forgot about her other super power. Not only does she kill people with her touch, but she also has that super human strength and can crush metal doors and two foot thick stone walls. 

There was something I noticed, too. Besides how annoying I found Adam (I have always found him very annoying), I also noticed something in the relationship between Juliette and Warner. Juliette, as much as she says she hates Warner for being the giant a$$ that he is, she feels something other than hate and anger toward him. She feels pity for a while, but she also feels desire towards him at the end. 

The scene where she and Adam almost get captured, she kisses Warner to get his gun and feels something. Then, when they are all safe and away from the Reestablishment, she is still fixated on him. She was always so angry at how obsessed Warner was with her, but you get glimpses in her crossed out thoughts that maybe she is just as obsessed with him. 

In this reading I am also getting more of a vibe from Warner and picking up more about his character than I had before. He talks about how big and bad he is all the time, but there is something in the way he talks about it. he comments a few times about his relationship with his father and sometimes you get the sense that he is still just a little kid who wants his father's approval and is failing in getting it despite all of his attempts. 

While I know what happens because I have read the next four books, that's all I will talk about to keep from spoiling things. 

Next up: Destroy Me (Shatter Me 1.5)