Author: Tahereh Mafi
Published By: HarperCollins
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
Pages: 340
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Format: Paperback
Links: Goodreads, Book Depository
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.
The Writing: The writing in this book is very different from anything I've ever read before. Since we're reading from Juliette's perspective, we are reading her thoughts and those are sometimes crossed out with a line. We can still read the sentence but it's crossed out as if Juliette thought it was stupid when she was thinking it. The writing is also very poetic. Mafi seems to avoid commas and prefers a style that feels a bit like a stream of consciousness. A lot of words are repeated multiple times which adds to the drama of the book. The writing was probably my favourite part of the book just because it's so different and poetic. There are, however, a lot of metaphors that I could have done without.
The Plot: I found the book to be a little slow in the beginning but it really picked up after the first 100 pages. It sucked me in enough that I was able to finish this book in two days. Towards the end it felt a bit like X-Men, but X-Men is cool so I'm okay with that. I felt like there was a lack of explanation in this book especially in regards to Juliette's powers. Did she have this power since she was a baby? Did they develop later in life? There was also a lack of description in regard to setting. I get that it's a dystopia but where/when is it? I think I would have liked more of a background to the military rule that seems to be going on here.
The Characters: Don't get me wrong, I like Juliette. I really do. I just found her to be so dramatic sometimes that it annoyed me a little bit. Other than that, I did really like her character. You were able to feel sympathetic towards her but then also cheer her on when she performed some bad-assery. Adam is also a great male lead. He's very loyal and caring and smart. The only problem I had with their relationship was that it felt a bit like insta-love to me. They had barely talked before and then BAM they're in love with each other. It just felt a little inauthentic to me. Nevertheless, I do think they're cute together. I also really liked the side characters of Kenji and James. They were able to provide a little levity to an otherwise very heavy and serious book.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I think it's a fun read and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. I'm actually going to read the Destroy Me novella next!
4/5
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