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We all know there are a lot of first-person present-tense YA dystopias in the marketplace right now, but here's the thing: I'm pretty sure that Tahereh Mafi has written the ULTIMATE combination of YA dystopia and teenaged id-fic. I am seriously impressed. This woman is pretty much a genius.
Okay, so the heroine of Shatter Me has Rogue-style SUPER DEATH POWERS that mean that she can't touch anyone without accidentally murderinating them, and possibly also super-strength, and so EVERYONE THINKS SHE'S A MONSTEEER, including her parents, including also herself, and she has been hated and abused and downtrodden her entire life and then stuck in an insane asylum! BY THE DYSTOPIC GOVERNMENT.
Enter the hero, who is SUPER HOT and has MYSTERIOUS TATTOOS and ( spoilers? ) I am just. So impressed. What a way to tap directly into a teenager's id-feelings of worthlessness and make it a power fantasy (SUPER DEATH POWERS!) AND a you're-such-a-good-person fantasy AND a romance fantasy all at once.
Oh, and enter also the villain, Warner (which meant I spent the whole book visualizing him as the ex-boyfriend from Legally Blonde.) He is obsessed with our heroine because of her super death powers and wants him to join him in dystopic government superstardom, and of course he is also SUPER HOT. Emerald eyes! In fact everyone in this book is super hot. I was ready to get all indignant, because the only person who had not been described in glowing terms of hotness was the hero's Wacky Comic Relief Friend Kenji, and then Kenji shows up for the first time after his face heals up from a major attack and, oh, he also has got a "spectacular face, a defiant jawline, perfect eyebrows, eyes as pitch-black as his hair," so it's okay, Tahereh Mafi. We're good.
AND THEN ( major spoilers! )
Oh, and also subtext is narrated with strikeouts, like so -- "in 17 years I've never talked to a boy my own age.Because I'm a monster." -- which is miles above Mercedes Lackey angsty italics. Like, Mercedes Lackey is no longer even in the same LEAGUE.
TAHEREH MAFI HAS THROWN DOWN THE GAUNTLET. Challengers, come if you dare! Am I reading the sequel? YOU BET.
Okay, so the heroine of Shatter Me has Rogue-style SUPER DEATH POWERS that mean that she can't touch anyone without accidentally murderinating them, and possibly also super-strength, and so EVERYONE THINKS SHE'S A MONSTEEER, including her parents, including also herself, and she has been hated and abused and downtrodden her entire life and then stuck in an insane asylum! BY THE DYSTOPIC GOVERNMENT.
Enter the hero, who is SUPER HOT and has MYSTERIOUS TATTOOS and ( spoilers? ) I am just. So impressed. What a way to tap directly into a teenager's id-feelings of worthlessness and make it a power fantasy (SUPER DEATH POWERS!) AND a you're-such-a-good-person fantasy AND a romance fantasy all at once.
Oh, and enter also the villain, Warner (which meant I spent the whole book visualizing him as the ex-boyfriend from Legally Blonde.) He is obsessed with our heroine because of her super death powers and wants him to join him in dystopic government superstardom, and of course he is also SUPER HOT. Emerald eyes! In fact everyone in this book is super hot. I was ready to get all indignant, because the only person who had not been described in glowing terms of hotness was the hero's Wacky Comic Relief Friend Kenji, and then Kenji shows up for the first time after his face heals up from a major attack and, oh, he also has got a "spectacular face, a defiant jawline, perfect eyebrows, eyes as pitch-black as his hair," so it's okay, Tahereh Mafi. We're good.
AND THEN ( major spoilers! )
Oh, and also subtext is narrated with strikeouts, like so -- "in 17 years I've never talked to a boy my own age.
TAHEREH MAFI HAS THROWN DOWN THE GAUNTLET. Challengers, come if you dare! Am I reading the sequel? YOU BET.