The Shatter Me books by Tahereh Mafi are some of my favorite YA novels—but if you’re new to the series, a quick glance at the full list can be confusing. So if you’re wondering, “What’s the proper Shatter Me series order?” you’re in the right place.
Good news: the Shatter Me books in order are simple. Read them in publication order. There are six novels and five novellas, and Mafi wrote them in the exact order you should read them—novellas included.
That means less guesswork.
Hurray!
Jump to:
Complete Shatter Me Series Order
We’ll just jump right into it.
Here’s the complete list of Shatter Me books in order. Follow it straight down the line and you’ll get Juliette’s story the way it was meant to unfold—character growth, reveals, and all.
- Shatter Me (2011)
Destroy Me (Novella) (2012) - Unravel Me (2013)
Fracture Me (Novella) (2013) - Ignite Me (2014)
- Restore Me (2018)
Shadow Me (Novella) (2019) - Defy Me (2019)
Reveal Me (Novella) (2019) - Imagine Me (2020)
Believe Me (Novella) (2021)
Can I skip the novellas?
The short answer is Yes! You can skip the novellas. They aren’t necessary at all to understand the main story.
What the novellas do is provide extra insight into the world of Shatter Me. They’re often from a different POV. For instance, Destroy Me, the first novella, is from Warner’s POV.
This allows you to see what Warner is thinking since Shatter Me is told from Juliette’s point of view. It also serves as an interlude between novels since the events of Destroy Me take place after Shatter Me but before Unravel Me.
But nothing learned within the novellas is crucial to the plot of the main series. They’ll only provide extra details that make the novels more impactful.
For that same reason, you also don’t have to read all the novellas either. The novellas are just extra content. They serve as bridges between books with supplemental plot from a specific character’s point of view, so you can cherry pick which character interests you the most.
Rest assured, if you choose to skip them you won’t miss out on the core plot.
Below is a Shatter Me reading order for those of you, like me, who don’t really read novellas.
Shatter Me Series Order: Books Only
If you’re not interested in the interlude novellas, this may be the right Shatter Me series order for you. The series has two main arcs based on when Mafi published the books, so that stopping point is how we’ve divided the books for this reading order.
1. Shatter Me (2011)
2. Unravel Me (2013)
3. Ignite Me (2014)
This ends the original Shatter Me trilogy, but Mafi wrote three more novels 4 years after the completion of the first trilogy.
4. Restore Me (2018)
5. Defy Me (2019)
6. Imagine Me (2020)
Shatter Me Books FAQ
How many books are in the Shatter Me series?
There are 11 total: 6 novels and 5 novellas. The complete reading order is listed above.
What About Unite Me and Find Me?
If you’ve done any bit of searching for the Shatter Me books on Amazon you might have come across the titles Unite Me and Find Me.
Unite Me contains the two novellas Destroy Me and Fracture Me (listed separately in the full Shatter Me series order above). So if you purchase those separately, you don’t need Unite Me. Or you can purchase Unite Me instead of purchasing them separately.
The same can be said of Find Me. It contains both Shadow Me and Reveal Me (also listed separately above), the two later novellas.
Is Shatter Me Spicy?
The Shatter Me series is a YA Science Fiction Romance. So let’s dissect that. First, Romance is an important aspect of the plot and it does contain romantic elements. But it’s also YA, or Young Adult, meaning that it’s meant for ages 13 to 17.
As such, the romance in Shatter Me is all very PG-13. There is no smut or explicitly sexual content.
Shatter Me‘s romance is what is called “Fade to Black”. That means anything spicy occurs off the page and is left to the imagination.
Is the Shatter Me series inappropriate for kids?
For older teens, it usually lands squarely in normal YA territory—dark dystopian themes, violence, and romance.
For younger children, it depends on what you’re comfortable with: the series includes heavy emotional content and increasingly steamy relationship scenes later on, so it can be a miss for middle-school readers unless they’re already reading darker/romance-forward YA and you’re fine with that vibe.
What is the Shatter Me Series About?
Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me is a YA dystopian series about Juliette Ferrars, a girl whose touch can kill. After spending years locked away by the government, she’s pulled back into the world when they decide her power might be useful—and that’s when the romance, danger, and bigger stakes all collide.
As you can imagine, having a lethal touch makes relationships complicated, and it’s a constant source of tension throughout the story. Juliette’s also carrying a lot of emotional baggage, and Mafi shows that on the page with the crossed-out lines in Juliette’s narration, like you’re reading her thoughts in real time and watching her second-guess herself.
Some readers find that style annoying at first, but you do get used to it. And honestly, I’ll take it over books completely written in dialect slang.
Looking for more books like Shatter Me?
If you want more science fiction authors and reading-order guides like this one, start with my Science Fiction Books in Order index.
11 thoughts on “Shatter Me Series Order | How to Read Tahereh Mafi’s Books”
can i read shatter me series by not reading the novellas.
Sure, you can ignore the novellas and still get the full experience. The novellas just provide extra insight into events and characters, but you won’t miss anything by not reading them.
Thanks for the information ! I was worried about missing something
Since Unite me is destroy me and fracture me put together when do I read it, after book 1 or 2?
I would read Destroy Me after Book 1 (Shatter Me) and Fracture Me after Book 2 (Unravel Me)
since unite me and fine me is a merge so how do i read them? when i mean after in what order should i read unite me after shatter me then i read find me after defy me or what please help me 😔☝🏻
But I would recommend reading the novella because it gives you the perspective of other characters. How they feel and analyse things? Destroy me novella change my whole perspective about Warner and I was able to understand the unravel me better. I think novellas are must to connect with the novels more deeply.
The article is awesome! The novel only provides more insight into the events and characters, but you won’t miss anything if you don’t read them.
Thanks for the information! If i want to read the novellas can I just read one of them and not all of them? or if i want to read the novellas do i have to read them all
The novellas are just added info. I believe each one stands on its own. They aren’t like a mini-series in and of themselves, but a way to bridge the gap between novels.
Hi where can I read shatter me book series