Category: Recommendations

Title: Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 4/5

There’s a lot going on in the sequel to ‘Shatter Me’, and once again I couldn’t put it down.

Juliette has found a group of friends to support her. She’s safe, for now, and surrounded by other people with powers like her own. There’s a side to this book that feels like an X-Men story – people with powers struggling to understand the limits of those powers, and how to control them. She has the chance to explore her abilities – killing with a touch of her skin, and the strength to punch through walls – and to discover what triggers her responses, and how to protect the people around her. Her journey from rejection to becoming part of a community continues, and by the end of the book she is stronger – less afraid and more determined to help her friends.

There’s more detail on the dystopian world of the series, and on the collapse of modern society. There’s more background on the person who saved her from the dystopian government in Book 1, and more background on the person who wanted to train her as a weapon. We learn about their families and relationships, and their motivations as the good guy and the bad boy of the story.

And there are some very steamy scenes. When your touch can kill, being close to someone else is a challenge, and Tahereh Mafi takes the opportunity to explore this aspect of Juliette’s life in heart-pounding detail. Her continued use of unusual phrases and metaphors adds to the intensity of these chapters, and the first-person present-tense narration puts the reader inside Juliette’s head, and in her skin. My copy of the paperback states on the back cover that the book ‘contains mature content’. Yes. Yes it does – but this is all appropriate to the story and the characters.

This book gripped me at least as much as ‘Shatter Me’. Juliette’s journey from victim to strong young woman is engaging. The people around her are interesting, and busy with their own problems, even while they support her through hers. The ending is tense and exciting, and once again I closed this book and reached immediately for the sequel. It’s still an easy read, but there’s enough going on to keep me hooked for Book 3. I need to know how this ends!

Have you read the Shatter Me series? What did you think of the books? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

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Title: Enchantée
Author: Gita Trelease
Edition: Paperback
Rating: 3/5

Camille and her sister are struggling to survive in Paris in 1789. Orphaned by smallpox and exploited by their drunk, gambling-addicted brother, Camille and Sophie must find a way to pay the rent and buy food. Sophie is a talented hat-maker, but her earnings are not enough to cover their costs. Reluctantly, Camille begins to work the magic her mother taught her. Turning scrap metal into coins pays for essentials, but the coins don’t hold their shape. When Camille discovers the tools to work more powerful spells, she follows her brother into the dangerous world of gambling at Versailles. Disguised as a Baroness, she makes friends among the aristocrats of the palace, and learns to earn a living from their games of cards. But magic requires sacrifce, and Camille discovers how hard it is to walk away from the gambling table, and from her friends. As Paris moves towards revolution, Camille must keep herself safe as her family life and her double life at court collide.

In Enchantée, Gita Trelease paints a vivid picture of Paris in the early stages of revolution. The details – from fashion, politics, the experience of poverty, and the texture of the city to the manners and expectations of the aristocrats at Versailles – are carefully researched and beautifully woven into the story. Magic is explained as a secret skill, passed down through aristocratic families, but used at great personal cost. The magic used by Camille feels real, and dangerous. It takes practice to perfect the spells, it doesn’t always work as intended, and it always requires sorrow to work at all.

Camille is an interesting character. She does what needs to be done to keep herself and her sister safe, but the secrets she keeps from the people around her grow more complicated and dangerous as she moves deeper into the court at Versailles. The story is told from Camille’s point of view, but with third-person past-tense narration. While I found the book engaging, I also felt that the story moved very slowly, probably because of the detachment of a third-person past-tense narrative.

I loved Camille, I loved Sophie, and I loved Lazare – the daring aeronaut with his ground-breaking hot air balloon. I enjoyed the intrigue of Camille’s double life, growing in complexity against the background of mounting political upheaval. I enjoyed the cameo appearances of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and getting to meet the very human aristocrats of Versailles. The history of the French Revolution is usually told from the point of view of the winners, so it makes a change to see the build up to revolution through the eyes of the rulers who lose everything when the people turn against them. The author uses aristocratic magic as a metaphor for the pre-revolution power of the court, adding to the tension and danger of political change.

Enchantée is an engaging story with a strong and sympathetic female protagonist, set in richly imagined and gorgeously described historical locations, and told with an enchanting dash of magic.

Have you read Enchantée? What did you think? Did you find Camille’s story engaging? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

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Title: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Edition: Kindle
Rating: 3/5

This was good. It kept me reading – over breakfast, over lunch, and way past my bedtime. I kept intending to stop, but then reading just one more chapter, and then another.

Juliette is 17, and locked away from the world. She’s in an asylum – the only place her touch can’t hurt another person. Abandoned by her family when she is locked away for murder, she has no contact with the people who control her life. But the murder was an accident – she can’t control what happens when she touches another person’s skin, and now someone wants to use her as a weapon.

At the start of the book, Juliette is frightened and alone. She’s practising speaking, because she hasn’t spoken to anyone else for months. She has learned how to survive in her solitary confinement, but she’s desperate for human contact. Over the course of the book, she learns to take back control over her life. She learns to stand up for herself, and she learns who to trust, and who to fight. She’s an interesting character – strong, but damaged by the guilt she carries for the death she caused, and by the rejection of everyone she cared about. The first-person present-tense narrative makes her story immediate and intense.

As Juliette changes and develops, so does the writing style. At first, many of the sentences are crossed out. She seems confused, her thoughts often contradictory and extreme. She uses odd turns of phrase and jarring similies and metaphors to describe her feelings and experiences. As the story develops, there are fewer crossed out sections. As she grows in confidence, her thoughts become clearer. It’s an original and experimental writing style, and it helps to immerse the reader in Juliette’s world, and her state of mind.

The dystopian world is clearly imagined, as is the process of societal collapse. The supporting characters are likeable and just complex enough to keep you guessing at who can be trusted, and who is a threat. If I have one complaint, it’s that some of the things things that happen to the characters feel a little too contrived, the violence a little gratuitous, pushing an otherwise horrifying antagonist towards cartoonish levels of enjoyment.

That said, I finished ‘Shatter Me’, and immediately ordered the sequel. This is the first book of a series, and it feels like an introduction to a larger story. It was an easy, quick read, but I’m hooked, and I want to know what happens next.

Have you read Shatter Me? What did you think of the story? Were you, like me, in a hurry to find out what happens next? Click through to the full blog to access the comments section, and share your thoughts!

Review cross-posted to GoodReads.

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