One of the most important things on my bucket list for 2016 was to tour Egypt. I have not yet accomplished that, but I have been visiting certain places in Cairo that are worth mentioning.
While “adventuring around”, I have been reading the Shatter Me series, and it caused my inner fangirl so much pain.
Right after I finished exams, I was offered to work as a copy writer at some advertising company. At the beginning I was perplexed by the reality of working and keeping up with my social life. It was a horrible tragedy for my body, I was always exhausted. I still am. However, touring Cairo gave things a little spark. I was taking the shatter me books with me everywhere.
But let me start with a brief about the synopsis; our main character Juliette is stuck in an asylum, and she is desperately fighting to stay sane. She happens to have a “curse” which is that she can’t ever touch people or else, she’ll kill them. But then a boy, Adam, is sent to her cell and guess what? she can touch him. The reason remains unknown until the second book. The Reestablishment, the opposing force that’s taking over their world which happens to be the same force that put her in an asylum, has plans for Juliette to use her as a weapon of torture for those who rebel.
Major spoilers ahead:
Warner, the son of the head of the Reestablishment, is not interested in Juliette because he wants to use her as a weapon, instead, he wants to observe her because his mother suffers a similar disease… except that his mother can’t even touch her own skin, so it’s basically killing her slowly.
Another minor detail is that Adam is a dick.
So I began with taking the first book with me at work. My mental state at that time was similar to Juliette’s. As in I didn’t like copy-writing at all and I was so intimidated by the place. I noticed that this happens every time I start something new. I become so scared and cry a lot. Juliette, just like me, was always so scared and intimidated by the what the world has become.
A minor detail: Juliette’s world is brutal, and like many parties in the world, they promised people change but none was offered.
Another minor detail (that I wish wasn’t so minor in the books): The reason for their world’s decline is that Earth became too abused and our environment started its own uprising.
The first book, briefly, was overstuffed with metaphors and poetic figures of speech that turned me off. However, if you’ve read the three books, excluding the novellas, you’ll easily understand Tahereh’s way of developing the story. In case you haven’t noticed; Tahereh, in the first book, crossed out many words that Juliette would think referring to her mental instability. By the second book, the crossing out decreased immensely, and in the last book, there was not one strike. Not even on the cover of the book.
I appreciate her talent. She was capable of creating one book filled with metaphors, and another with not-one-metaphor in sight.
Wait till you hear the playlist I made.
I gave the first book 2 stars for creativity.
I took Unravel Me with me to Hurghada.
My family’s yearly holiday destination. I read it by the beach or the pool and believe me, nothing could ruin my mood.
The second book discussed this theme of whether you should accept who you are, even if you’re partially evil, or change for the sake of acceptance? Not just acceptance… change to be better. This dilemma opened a gap in my brain and up till now i can’t ignore it. Thing is, a lot of times I pretend to be all goody-goody and cute. That’s not the truth at all. I’m not evil either but i’m definitely not a good person. I hate to admit it. I’m just not good. I get bored, and I end up doing things that I regret later. I think what makes me a good person is the fact that I regret those things. That’s it.
I began hoping that the book would give me an answer. Instead, it gave me more questions.
In the second book, I came across many beautiful quotes. I began falling slowly for the story and where it was headed.
My family came back to Cairo by the time I was wrapping up Unravel me. That’s when I had another adventure, that was to go to Cairo Tower.
The scenery was more than perfect. But i’m not here to talk about that.
A week later, I started Ignite Me. Ignite Me is definitely my favorite. At work, I was beginning to feel okay about it. I actually started liking it. Social life wise, I was having tons of fun.
Honorable mentions: I took Ignite Me with me to many churches in Cairo. One thing you have to visit if you ever come to Cairo is the churches. Each church has its secrets and its personal features. For example, St. George’s church was built around the 10th century but a fire ate away its original form. Inside the church there is a closed set of stairs leading to an old Roman Tower. People believe that this old Tower was inhabited by devils. Maybe that’s why it is closed? I’m not sure.
There are many other churches, such as, The Hanging Church, which is built above a gatehouse of the Roman fortress in Old Cairo. Its roof is a replica of Noah’s Ark.
I visited Ben Ezra Synagogue, which was originally a church. Visited Mosque of Amr ibn al-As, which is the first mosque ever built in Egypt, and visited the Coptic Museum, which was as impressive and yeah it had more Greek artifacts rather than Coptic. Oh well.
I have so many favorite parts and memories with Ignite me. I even had the worst book hangover anyone can have after finishing the books.
The book is over and tomorrow is my last day at work because college is almost here. Can you believe it? I’ll be a second year student. Time flies.
I say cheers to more adventures and more lives worth living.
This is my playlist for Shatter Me.
Let’s start from when Juliette was feeling left out and all alone. In other words; a monster. A creep.
“Sometimes I think the loneliness inside of me is going to explode through my skin and sometimes I’m not sure if crying or screaming or laughing through the hysteria will solve anything at all. Sometimes I’m so desperate to touch to be touched to feel that I’m almost certain I’m going to fall off a cliff in an alternate universe where no one will ever be able to find me.
It doesn’t seem impossible.”
What can I say? This is Juliette’s theme song.
“ I’ve been screaming for years and no one has ever heard me.”
11- Halsey – Colors
Adam’s eyes are as blue as the song’s lyrics.
“But he’s not so different, either. He still has the most unusually blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Dark and deep and drenched in passion. I always wondered what it’d be like to see the world through such a beautiful lens. I wondered if your eye color meant you saw the world differently. If the world saw you differently as a result.”
When Juliette shoots Warner.
9- Twenty One Pilots – Heathens
This song is for Omega Point’s people. I imagine them all with superpowers and as if those superpowers make them insane and they must belong to Heathens.
“Because sometimes you see yourself—you see yourself the way you could be—the way you might be if things were different. And if you look too closely, what you see will scare you, it’ll make you wonder what you might do if given the opportunity. You know there’s a different side of yourself you don’t want to recognize, a side you don’t want to see in the daylight. You spend your whole life doing everything to push it down and away, out of sight, out of mind. You pretend that a piece of yourself doesn’t exist.”
On a side note I love The Great Gatsby soundtrack so much. So this is from Warner to Juliette.
“And I’ve fallen.
So hard.
I’ve hit the ground. Gone right through it. Never in my life have I felt this. Nothing like this. I’ve felt shame and cowardice, weakness and strength. I’ve known terror and indifference, self-hate and general disgust. I’ve seen things that cannot be unseen.
And yet I’ve known nothing like this terrible, horrible, paralyzing feeling. I feel crippled. Desperate and out of control. And it keeps getting worse. Every day I feel sick. Empty and somehow aching.
Love is a heartless bastard.” – Destroy Me
According to the me, it’s Kenji who slaps Juliette back to reality in Unravel Me. I think this is from Kenji to Juliette.
Warner in a song. It’s the most perfect song for him.
“He’s 100 different people.
He’s the person who forced me to torture a toddler against my will. He’s the child so terrorized, so psychologically tormented that he’d try to kill his own father in his sleep. He’s the boy who shot a defecting soldier in the forehead; the boy who was trained to be a cold, heartless murderer by a man he thought he could trust. I see Warner as a child desperately seeking his dad’s approval. I see him as the leader of an entire sector, eager to conquer me, to use me. I see him feeding a stray dog. I see him torturing Adam almost to death. And then I hear him telling me he loves me, feel him kissing me with such unexpected passion and desperation that I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know what I’m walking into.”
5- Across the universe – I Wanna Hold Your Hand
Juliette to Aaron in Unravel Me. I loved that part when Warner read to her from her notebook… It just meant so much to her and how he knew everything she felt or thought. On another side note, the songs in that movie are one of my favorite soundtracks ever.
“But I see layers, shades of gold and green and a person who’s never been given a chance to be human and I wonder if I’m just as cruel as my own oppressors if I decide that society is right, that some people are too far gone, that sometimes you can’t turn back, that there are people in this world who don’t deserve a second chance and I can’t I can’t I can’t
I can’t help but disagree.”
Actually this song doesn’t fit in the series but they played it all the time at the office. Well maybe it relates to Adam as he was losing Juliette and unfortunately, losing our love for him as well.
“The tension is so thick it’s practically its own person, taking up a seat we don’t have to spare.”
3- Above & Beyond – Black Room Boy
I was buddy reading this book with Sherouk, my friend. This is her favorite song and believe it or not, it reminds me of Aaron. When he says, “With all this poison inside, it’s much too late to decide. You’ve got your mind made up, you’ve been living a lie in your white room.” in the song, it just reminds me of Warner.
For my love Warner.
“And if you insist on continuing to make assumptions about my character, I’ll advise you only this: assume you will always be wrong.”
Warnette.
“He kissed her like her lips were air and he couldn’t breathe.”
Just. Watch. The. Video. and relate it to Warnette. *CRIES-SCREAMS*
“I don’t think you’re crazy.” The world is blurring away as I watch it through the window. “And I don’t think you’re a psychopath. I also don’t think you’re a sick, twisted monster. I don’t think you’re a heartless murderer, and I don’t think you deserve to die, and I don’t think you’re pathetic. Or stupid. Or a coward. I don’t think you’re any of the things people have said about you.”
Finally I wanted to add another song for Kenji and Juliette but I couldn’t find the perfect one to describe their relationship.
I loved Shatter Me with all its memories. Thank you, love.
Red spirited creatures 