RANT ON TAHEREH MAFI WRITING STYLE
So guys, this is purely my opinion about the writing STYLE/WAY of Tahereh Mafi (the author of Shatter Me Series)
Tahereh Mafi’s books are written in a chaotic, hallucinating-ish, journal style that’s oozing and overflowing with metaphors. Don’t get me wrong. I love it when the author are playing with his/her sentences and there is still the essence of literary in it, however, it will come out bad if its too much. The writing became weird because there is an uncontrolled rhythm. At first, I understand it because of Juliette’s condition, in the verge of being crazy and normal because of her condition however when it still continue until book 2 and she uses it also in Destroy Me (Warner’s point of view) I became more and more irritated because it’s really out of place.
Others may find her use of metaphor (too much) as beautifully written (although that’s what I think in the first place) and another may find them trite, weird and overdone or you think that it’s a poorly written lump of ridiculous metaphors and horrid imagery. . I’m not forcing you to be like me because I know we all have different reading tastes and preferences.
As my point above stated that it’s okay to get fancy with words but not too much, for instance:
"I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
This is still okay, honestly, it’s one of my favourite, BUT
I always wonder about raindrops.
I wonder about how they’re always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It’s like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn’t seem to care where the contents fall, doesn’t seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors.
I am a raindrop.
It’s just a freaking raindrop for fckng sake
Or this
"I am nothing but novocaine. I am numb, a world of nothing, all feeling and emotion gone forever.
I am a whisper that never was.”
“He shifts and my eyes shatter into thousands of pieces that ricochet around the room, capturing a million snapshots, a million moments in time. Flickering images faded with age, frozen thoughts hovering precariously in dead space, a whirlwind of memories that slice through my soul.”
“His lips are spelling secrets and my ears are spilling ink, staining my skin with his stories.”
Well I think you get my point now.
Seriously, prose and metaphor is cool but DON’T OVERDO IT
Another thing that I don’t like (so much) about her writing is her numeral gimmicks. I don’t know the deal with this but I just find it kinda irritating because it’s out of sync with the book. I think this is to add the creativity or to intensify Juliette’s feeling but for me it’s just exaggerated and ridiculous.
However, I think that Tahereh Mafi have a credential in writing because the plot or the flow of her story is catchy and always something to look forward to.
So I repeat, this is all my opinion and I’m not forcing you to have the same as me. THANK YOU
