Recap | Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Hello everyone! So one thing that Katie and I want to do on this blog is to make sure that we are not only prepared for new releases in a series but that you are as well. As you undoubtedly know, Tahereh Mafi is releasing Restore Me, book 4 in the Shatter Me series, over 4 years after book 3 was released. It’s been a while, we know. We also know that you have a bunch of other stuff you want to read, and maybe you can’t cram in a series re-read in the next week, so we are doing it for you. So make sure to keep an eye out for our recaps leading up to Restore Me so you feel absolutely prepared, and let’s jump right into my recap of book 1, Shatter Me.

We start our book by learning that our MC (currently unnamed) has been locked up for 264 days in isolation and that it has been 6,336 hours since she has touched another human.
She is told she is getting a cellmate by the “minions’ of the Reestablishment.
We learn she was taken to this asylum from her house. We learn that the world is different, that there are fewer trees, the world isn’t so green, and the sun no longer gives off “the right light.”
She writes in a small notebook with a broken pen.
When her roommate enters, it’s a boy. He immediately steals her bed and she is forced to sleep on the floor.
The next day she warms to him only because she is forced to teach him the ways of this place. About food, how to navigate to the showers in the pitch black. But also because his eyes remind her of someone.
He apologizes for being an asshole the first day and says his name is Adam. She can’t remember why she likes that name.
Adam wakes her after she has a nightmare. He is constantly too close to touching her and she both wants him to and needs him not to.
She finally tells him her name is Juliette.
We learn a little about Juliette’s past in a bit of a flashback. She’s locked in a room by her parents. They tell her that she ruined everything, and stole their happiness.
We learn that there aren’t much of seasons anymore, that animals are dying, and the world is basically shit because we couldn’t take care of it.
We also learn that the Reestablishment said they were going to fix it. But they only made it worse.
Juliette constantly fantasizes about a white bird “with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head” flying in the sky. But birds don’t fly anymore. Because the world is shit.
Adam and Juliette spend a lot of time asking one another questions they refuse to answer. The only thing they agree on is that they aren’t insane.
Adam then tells Juliette of how the world is now, and we learn more about the Reestablishment. They put their own leaders in power, dividing everything up into 3,333 sectors and said they only way to reach peace was by killing those who opposed them. They have decided to destroy books, artifacts, and even languages to start over, to create something completely void of the past.
Two weeks pass. Adam tells Juliette to keep writing because one day it will be illegal. He comforts her by touching her, and she lets him but only with the barrier of clothes, never her skin. But then she spazzes because it’s dangerous to touch her. Juliette finally quits lying to herself and admits that she knows Adam, but she won’t tell him this because she believes he doesn’t remember her.
The next day Reestablishment soldiers with guns burst into the room. They take Juliette and Adam, but between the fear, being beaten, and spending so much time without seeing so many people, Juliette blacks out for two days.
When she wakes they take her into a room. A young man with Warner on this uniform, obviously the leader, tells her that Adam is one of his soldiers that they planted in her cell and that he has a proposition for her.
He says he knows her secret and wants to use her as a weapon of sorts. Because he knows she’s mad at Adam, he puts Adam in charge of her.
Adam takes her outside for the first time since she was locked up. He then drives her in a tank to headquarters. During the drive, she remembers the world as it was, in desperate need of help and how the Reestablishment gave the world hope, but that now it’s all worse than it ever was.
When they get inside headquarters, Juliette basically has a panic attack when she sees all the wastefulness of the place while the world and its people are dying outside. Adam has to carry her to her room. He says he will be staying with her to keep an eye on her. He then says she has to get dressed for dinner with Warner, mentioning that they only place without cameras in the bathroom. He takes her in to show her and tries to talk to her but she thinks he’s trying to hurt her so he walks out.
Juliette refuses to wear any of the clothes Warner has given her so she goes to dinner in her old clothes. She then refuses to eat which upsets Warner enough that he shoots some sort of meat on the table. Adam convinces her to eat.
Warner decides he’s walking her to her room without Adam. Juliette tells Warner that they are nothing alike and will always be enemies. Warner says he wants to know what she’s capable of, he wants her to touch him. When she refuses, he calls a soldier over (none of which know what she is capable of) and tells him he needs to take Juliette downstairs but that she is trying to escape so he cannot let go of her.
In a panic, Juliette takes off running. When she is eventually surrounded by soldiers, the original soldier grabs a hold of her.
We learn now what it’s like when Juliette touches someone. She begins to drain their life and energy essentially. And because it makes her stronger and feel alive, she has to break the connection. When she finally pushes the soldier off of her, she’s panicked, screaming for someone to help him. They all know what she’s capable of now.
Warner takes Juliette to his room after she blacks out. When she wakes up, she demands to go to her room but he refuses. He says he cares about her and they argue about what the even means. He leaves her in the room alone and she sleeps.
The next morning he comes to take her to her room and explains that he made her hurt the soldier in front of everyone so that they would fear her (and him respectively for having her) and leave her alone. They argue about her not understanding the world Warner lives in.
He leaves her at the door where she notices that Adam is hurt as punishment for her disobeying Warner. As she walks into the room to get ready, Adam tells her to wear the purple dress. When she takes it from the closet, she finds her notebook inside and realizes Adam saved it for her.
She hides in the bathroom to read over her words but finds on the last page something Adam has written, It’s not what you think.
Warner arrives to take Juliette somewhere. On the way to the elevator, as Warner is being snarky and inappropriate as usual, Juliette makes a joke about Warner’s mother and he completely changes. Not only does he not get the joke but he acts confused and a bit distressed.
Warner takes Juliette to a courtyard between/above buildings. Below are the soldiers. He makes the soldiers do some weird choreographed marching thing to welcome Juliette. Then he has another soldier read accusations against a soldier who was stealing supplies to give to the poor in the sector. When the soldier admits he did it, Warner shoots him in the head.
Warner and Juliette argue again about the same thing. Juliette calls Warner a monster and he tells her they are the same. Warner talks about how much potential she has and she tells him to go to hell.
That night Juliette can’t sleep in the bed, but when she goes to the floor Adam is sleeping there. However, the next morning he isn’t beside her. She goes into the bathroom and finds Adam there getting dressed. In order to speak to her, he turns on the shower and they both get in. He tells her he found out while they were in the cell together that he could touch her. He tells her he’s going to get her out of there.
When he takes off his wet shirt, she sees a tattoo of the white bird with streaks of gold like a crown on its head.
A week goes by without she and Adam speaking a word. She argues with Warner a lot. We basically only find out that he’s 19.
She asks him to take the cameras out of her room. He says she can’t be trusted which leads to the recount of why she was locked up in the first place.
When she was 14 she saw a young mother at the grocery story dragging her child around on a leash. She kept pulling on it and hurting him and he kept falling and crying. Juliette couldn’t stand it and went to help the little boy up but killed him in the process.
She argues with Warner again. He says he knows everything about her and she says she won’t be an instrument for him to use. He says he will take the cameras out of her room if she agrees to touch him. She refuses, of course.
Then he tells her why Adam was assigned to her. He volunteered because he remembered her from school. He told Warner he was glad she was locked up.
Juliette gets upset and tells Warner to take his shirt off. He makes a spectacle of it. But when she asks him if he will remove the cameras and microphones if she touches him, he says his promises aren’t worth much, so she changes her mind.
He walks her to the door where Adam is waiting and obviously heard everything. Warner tells him to remove the cameras and mics from her room and that she has to hold up her end of the bargain.
As she watches Adam remove the cameras she recalls how she saw Adam for the first time in first grade. Everyone was mean to her and she spent her time alone. One time she saw Adam get thrown out of his father’s car at school and then his father beat him in front of everyone.
Adam apologizes for not telling Juliette that he remembered her. He also says he believes she didn’t hurt that boy on purpose. Juliette says he remembered him too. Then they kiss a lot.
Juliette reminisces about how she watched Adam grow up over the years. Someone knocks on the door. It’s Kenji, trying to get in to see Juliette but Adam won’t let him.
Adam tells Juliette that the troops are mobilizing for an attack in roughly three weeks time and that they will leave when the troops do.
Adam tells Juliette about all the times he thought she was super nice and stuff when they were kids even though people were mean to her.
2 weeks pass. Adam tells Juliette how Warner is obsessed with her. He disabled the cameras but every free moment he has, Juliette is with him.
One morning, while they are having breakfast, he gives her clothes to change into. It’s skimpy shorts and a tank top.
Warner says it’s her turn to hold up her end of the deal. He puts her in a room where spikes come out of the walls and floor (something like that) and then sends in a blindfolded toddler in nothing but a diaper. He could die by spike or possibly die if she picks him up.
She doesn’t have a choice and picks him up. He starts screaming. She managed to hold him up by just the diaper until the spike things stop. When she puts him down he is scared and starts running, but bumps into her legs and screams again.
Juliette gets angry and literally busts through the CONCRETE wall to where Warner is.
Even though she is half a second from killing him, Warner is more than pleased to see this added ability.
Later in her room, Adam finds her. She’s terribly upset but they make out a lot he tells her he loves her.
Adam leaves and Juliette puts on another one of Warner’s dresses he picked out for her. She looks in the mirror for the first time in years. Adam comes up behind her and tells her she’s beautiful. She tells him she loves him. They kiss a lot again and her dress rips.
Then an alarm sounds, some sort of breach. Warner comes in and tells Adam to go with the rest of the soldiers.
He rips Juliette’s dress more because he’s a creep and I’m really forgetting the later appeal as I reread this.
Then he takes the notebook out of her pocket because it wasn’t hidden very well. But just as he is threatening her, Adam comes up behind him and puts a gun to his head.
Warner pulls his own gun on Juliette but they disarm him. Then they zip tie his hands and feet together and he tells them that the alarm was a drill. Juliette tells Adam they need to go out the window, but Adam says they will have to climb down fast because as soon as the window breaks an alarm will call soldiers into the room.
Warner begs for her to stay and is absolutely distraught that Adam can touch her, Adam breaks the window and climbs out, and as Juliette is getting out of the window Warner touches her…and nothing happens. She hopes he doesn’t realize he can also touch her.
Once they are on the ground outside they take off running. At one point Juliette is too tired to run anymore and Adam has to carry her. He gets her to a fence and she climbs over, scraping her legs up. Adam explains it’s an old nuclear site that Warner used to have him run tests on but that it eliminates the tracker serum in his bloodstream. He also mentions that Juliette is immune to whatever it is.
They get to a tank that Adam hid there under the guise that it broke down when he was out there. Adam says he is taking Juliette home to his house.
They drive until they get into some underground parking garage. They kiss some, because why not, and then a little boy shows up.
This is James, Adam’s 10-year-old brother. They go into his apartment type place in an office building. Adam tells James that he cannot tell anyone they are there.
Adam takes care of Juliette’s cuts. He explains going into the army was the only way to help his little brother. She asks about his bird tattoo and he said he used to dream of the bird. She tells him she did too until he came into her cell.
That night they get like really kissy again until James has a nightmare and has to sleep with them on the floor.
The next day Adam gets James ready for “school.” While Adam is showering there is banging on the door. Kenji is in bad shape outside. Adam doesn’t trust him but gets the bullet out of his leg and tries to clean him up. He said they were trying to get answers out of him since he was friends with Adam but he ran away. He said he was on the verge of death when some man carried him outside Adam’s door. Adam is pissed because no one knows about James and now they have to leave.
Kenji is always hitting on Juliette so Adam wants to kill him.
Kenji tells them he has a safe place they can go and hide. They get ready to go so that when James gets home they can leave. Right before they leave soldiers show up at the door. Adam has another exit hidden in James’s room.
Once outside in the town/city/village thing, they are being shot at. Kenji can’t keep up so Adam puts him and James in a building so he and Juliette can get a car.
While running from the soldiers and stuff they are suddenly surrounded. Adam is shot and on the ground and Juliette is being dragged into a building with a bare hand over her mouth. So obviously Warner noticed he could touch her.
Warner gets hella inappropriate and rapey with Juliette and tells her he loves her. Again, I can’t remember the appeal, when do I start loving him again???
Juliette knows Warner has his gun, so she relaxes and lets Warner be a perv. Then she reaches her hand into his pocket and fires the gun. Warner is down, she has his gun, and she needs to find Adam.
It’s dark, but she finds a trail of his blood and follows it. It leads to a building with one entrance and no way to get the steel door open. So, of course, she uses her bare hands and pries it open.
She finds Adam deep in the building, a slaughterhouse, bloody and beaten and hanging from his wrists. She cuts him down and has to drag him out of the building. He says they left him there because Warner said he wanted to kill Adam himself, slowly.
It takes time but they find a car. Juliette doesn’t know how to drive so it’s a painful trip for Adam until they get to Kenji and James.
James is asleep because Kenji gave him a sleeping pill and Adam is not doing so hot in the back seat. Kenji takes them into some underground garage thing. He gets people to take Adam inside to the medical wing. Juliette has a bit of a freak out with her not being able to go with him and Kenji has to sedate her.
She wakes up in a room. Her skin and hair are clean and she’s naked. A doctor of sorts walks in and starts asking questions while she asks her own. She wants to see James and Adam but she can’t yet. She wants clothes and he says there’s a suit of some sort made just for her.
Kenji comes in and says that Castle wants to see her. Winston (the doctor of sorts) asks Kenji if he told her anything about the place. Of course, he didn’t because Juliette is asking a million questions no one will answer.
Kenji gets her some of his clothes. He takes her to see Castle, who is in charge of everything.
Castle asks her if she’s able to do the things he’s heard she can. He shows her around the underground headquarters. Castle explains that it’s called Omega Point. He says there are people like them there and that the world isn’t as bad as the Reestablishment is telling everyone, they are just hiding animals and crops.
Castle shows Juliette that he has psychokinesis. He also introduces her to Brenden who is very pale and very blond and his eyes are very blue.
He lets her in to see Adam, who is healing well with the help of healers. He is shocked to see that Adam is immune to Juliette.
He tells her that they have bee doing research for years and have a good idea of what causes the abilities but that they will discuss it at another time.
James comes in to see Adam and Juliette and he is very happy. Then Juliette tells Adam that she doesn’t think she killed Warner, which Kenji confirms. Kenji also confirms his ability to go invisible. He says he used to follow Adam home, but that his objective was always Juliette.
Then Kenji takes them to their rooms. Adam and James are rooming with Kenji, and Juliette is rooming with the healer twins. In the morning, Winston comes to get Juliette to show her the suit he mentioned the day before. Adam helps her put it on. It covers her whole body up to her neck so that she doesn’t have to worry about touching people.
The book ends with Juliette having a sense of freedom and courage to take on whatever she has to now.

The End.

Okay, my fingers hurt from typing. I hope this recap is helpful to you guys! And keep an eye out for the next 2, all leading up to the release of Restore Me on March 6th!