ABC Network has announced a new show in production based off Tahereh Mafi’s beloved series Shatter Me. Film rights were bought prior to the release of the first installment in 2011 by 20th Century Fox and Chernin Entertainment will produce the film with screenwriter Mike Le. In light of this recent announcement, it is important to dig into the books that readers all over social media are so passionate about.
The Shatter Me series collection consists of 11 titles, including two trilogies and five novellas to accompany it. The six books are only 2,608 pages as a whole, but Mafi manages to intertwine plenty of action, twists, romance, and heartbreak into each one of them. This collection is a four out of five shields read for YA science fiction and dystopian romance lovers.
Book one, Shatter Me, follows the life of seventeen-year-old Juliette Ferrars, who has been locked away for the accidental death of a toddler, as a consequence of her peculiar gift that leads anyone who touches her into an early grave. Her dystopian world is run by a group that calls themselves the Reestablishment, and they are responsible for her imprisonment. When she is released, Juliette finds herself in Sector 45, where the leader and his son, Aaron Warner, aim to transform her into the weapon they require. With the help of her temporary cellmate, Adam Kent, and his ally, Kenji Kishimoto, she plans her escape.
Throughout the series, Juliette’s character development is staggering. Within her cell, readers see a frightened, vulnerable girl who is afraid to connect with others in fear that her gift – or curse, as she saw it – may harm anyone she interacts with. Her inability to do this leaves Juliette naïve. By the third book, however, as she develops relationships with Adam, his allies, and even someone she originally considered to be an enemy, she begins to learn what it takes to become the face of a rebellion and how to coexist with her gift.
The storytelling is full of unique lyrical prose and flows as natural thoughts, immersing the reader into Juliette’s character as well as how she interprets her surroundings. A personal favorite style within Mafi’s writing is how negative, intrusive thoughts are crossed out. This lessens as Juliette transitions into a beacon of hope to those who have suffered under the Reestablishment.
At its core, Shatter Me entertains the idea of power and how it can be wielded. Those who have an appetite for it abuse the power they are given, while those who innately hold it, such as Juliette, use power in reverence and for what they believe is a greater good; all it takes is one push.
