In the month of November, Albert Lea High School’s Book Club started reading the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi. This young adult series takes place in a dystopian society where the world is quite literally falling apart. Narrating the story is Juliette, a 17-year-old girl with destructive powers that she has yet been able to fully understand. 

The one thing that separates this book from others is its writing style. Juliette is a complicated character and her writing style throughout the story reflects that. She has words and phrases crossed out throughout the entirety of the book, showing what she said but maybe shouldn’t have or thoughts she had that she didn’t put into actions. 

Many of the Book Club members have read this series, or parts of it, already. The general consensus is that this series gives middle school romance vibes. Members that have read the book before remember being obsessed with the book in the past, however, now they find it cringy and hard to read. We like the idea of the book but not the execution. 

Something that has been mentioned multiple times throughout Book Club meetings is how repetitive the books are. We are currently still making our way through this incredibly long series. The Shatter Me series consists of ten books: “Shatter Me”, “Destroy Me”, “Unravel Me”, “Fracture Me”, “Ignite Me”, “Restore Me”, “Shadow Me”, “Defy Me”, “Reveal Me”, and “Imagine Me”. All of the three books we’ve read so far seem like the same book being repeated over and over again. 

If you are looking for an easy and fast read, these books are pretty fast to flip through, however, if you are looking for something with more substance, these books are not for you.