What I've Read Lately - June

Okay.  So if you have been paying attention, you will notice that my last 'What I've Read Lately' post has a June date, even though it says May in the title.  That's because I wrote the draft and never published it.  So here I am, a month later, writing about what I have actually been reading in June.  

I'm only going to talk about one book today, the one I just finished last night.  I've had some extra free time over the last week and a half, so I've read six books already (did I say extra free time?  I meant a lot of extra free time.)  The book (series) had been on my to-read list for awhile, but I wasn't actually planning to check it out on my latest trip to the library.  What I was planning to check out was nowhere to be seen, but lo and behold, I noticed  Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi on the shelf and grabbed it instead.

"YOU CAN'T TOUCH ME,"

I whisper.

I'M LYING,

is what I don't tell him.

HE CAN TOUCH ME,

is what I'll never tell him.

PLEASE TOUCH ME,

is what I want to tell him.

But things happen

when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

DEAD THINGS.

-inside book jacket

So, the book had been sitting in my bookcase at home in the special library book section along with the other nine I checked out at the same time.  While it was sitting there, waiting for its turn to be read, I just happened to be on Goodreads and notice the title on a list that was something like 'Book Series I just Can't Bring Myself To Finish Reading" or something like that.  You get the gist.  So I was wondering what was wrong with the series, and whether or not I would feel the same way (I don't often agree with a lot of the opinions on those lists), and I decided to read it next and see what the big deal was.

When you read as much as I do, you get to the point where you crave something different.  Something unique.  Something that has something that sets it apart so that it won't just blend into the blur of three-stars that most everything seems to become at some point.  I mean, you can only read so many books with the same basic premise before you are left saying "I liked that, but it wasn't anything particularly special."

After reading the first page, I was intrigued.  By the end of chapter two, I was getting pretty excited.  This book had something different.  More than just one something different, actually.  The author does this amazing stream of consciousness thing, using very short sentences along with long, un-punctuated or run-on sentences, combined with figurative language that often mixes up the senses.  And then, then she does something that, in the over 600 works of fiction that I have read, I have never come across even once.  She crosses out the things, the thoughts, that the character either does not want to say, or does not want to be even thinking in the first place.  The effect is incredible, powerful, helping the reader to not just know, but to almost  feel what the character is feeling. Without the author even having to tell us. Here is an example:

"Aren't you hungry?" His voice is lower now, a little worried now.  

I’ve been starving for 264 days.  "No."  The word is little more than a broken breath as it escapes my lips and I turn and I shouldn't but I do and he's staring at me.  Studying me.  His lips are only barely parted, his limbs limp at his side, his lashes blinking back confusion.

Something punches me in the stomach.

His eyes.  Something about his eyes.

It’s not him not him not him not him not him.

I close the world away.  Lock it up.  Turn the key so tight.

Blackness buries me in its folds.

"Hey -"

My eyes break open.  2 shattered windows filling my mouth with glass.

She does this type of thing again and again, but in just the right amount, so that it isn't too much and annoying, or too little and not effective.  And, for about the first quarter of the book, there is this element of mystery, where you know some things, and other things are hinted at, but you are on the edge of your seat waiting for information and wondering what is really going on and where is this story taking me and what could possibly happen next?!?!   And I'm wondering to myself, what could possibly happen to this story that would make people not want to finish reading it?

Well, eventually the story goes somewhere, and the place it goes is the same place that like, 50 other books have already gone.  And I was like No! No! No! No! No!  THIS CAN NOT BE HAPPENING!   I wish wish wish the author had taken this story someplace else.  The beginning was so full of anguish and angst and hopelessness and hope, (which, when conveyed using such creative writing, is part of why the book was so amazing) but by the end of this first book in the trilogy, those feelings are all almost gone.  The original voice is still there, but not as often, since those strong emotions are dwindling down, and by the end, well, everything is just peachy and the same ol' same ol' that I'm actually starting to get kind of tired of by now.

Of course, the book leaves you knowing that things are going to take a turn for the worse (for the characters in the plot, not in the writing.  I hope not in the writing anyway since I am already losing my excitement about it.), so there may be more opportunities for the emotional stuff, but the whole concept that the story has turned into has me thoroughly bummed.  Now I understand why some other readers out there decided that they just couldn't go on.

I'm still going to read the next book, and hopefully the one after that as well.  I will still even recommend that others read this, because it is an example of tremendously creative writing, and if you haven't already read even 10 other books with the same premise, you'll very likely be able to put this on your four-star list, even if I am just not feeling it anymore.

(Afterword:  I came across this song and the corresponding video clip a couple of months after I posted this, and I thought I'd share them with you.  This is exactly how the book made me feel!)

Music: TheFatRat - "No No No"

(download link on youtube)

(In case you didn't get it, click here for a link to a video of Shia LaBeouf repeatedly saying no as mentioned in the song above.)

Rating:  3.5 Stars
Reading Level: 4.3
Age Appropriate: Upper Grades
Page Count/Word Count:  338/ 76,089
Genre:  Paranormal/Supernatural, Dystopian, Romance, Action/Adventure
Keywords:  special abilities, romantic relationships, revolutions