Shatter Me is a young adult dystopian romantic thriller written by Tahereh Mafi, published on November 15, 2011.
[1] The book is narrated by Juliette, a 17-year-old girl with a lethal touch and is unusual in that it contains passages and lines that have been crossed out like a diary entry.
Juliette is placed in an asylum 264 days prior to the start of the book after accidentally killing a small boy with her touch when she was 14.
At the start of the book, there are many intentional strikethroughs and the writing is often erratic in order to serve as a visual representation of the chaos in Juliette's mind.
[9] Kirkus Reviews praised Shatter Me for its love story, but said that the ending "falls flat" and that there was an "overreliance on metaphor".
[10] Publishers Weekly cited that while the book "doesn’t escape some rookie pitfalls," author Tahereh Mafi "combines a psychological opener with an action-adventure denouement in her YA debut," ultimately calling it "a gripping read from an author who’s not afraid to take risks".
[11] Booklist gave a mixed review, noting that there were "plot conveniences and melodramatic writing to spare" while praising it for its "rip-roaring adventure and steamy romance scenes".
[12] A youth reviewer for the National Post recommended it highly, stating that it had "just the right amount of action to make it thrilling, but not exactly gruesome.
An e-book novella told from Warner's point of view, Destroy Me, set after Shatter Me and before the sequel, was released on October 6, 2012.
A second e-book novella titled Fracture Me, set during and soon after the final moments of Unravel Me, told from Adam's point of view, was released on December 17, 2013.
On the same day, Unite Me, containing the two novellas combined into print for the first time as well as an exclusive look into Juliette's journal, was also released.
In April 2017, it was announced that Mafi would be releasing three more books in the Shatter Me series[16] starting with Restore Me, which was published on March 6, 2018.
Set ten years after the events of Believe Me, the novel will focus around James Anderson's quest to stamp out The Reestablishment's last remaining refuge on Ark Island.
Film rights for Shatter Me were optioned by 20th Century Fox in 2011, prior to the book's release date.