Book Review – ‘Perfect’ (#2 Flawed) by Cecelia Ahern

A rebellion led by a compassionate girl labelled flawed…

Genre: Y/A, Dystopian

No. of pages: 341

From Goodreads:

You will be punished…

Celestine North is Flawed.

Ever since Judge Crevan declared her the number one threat to the public, she has been a ghost, on the run with Carrick, the only person she can trust. 

But Celestine has a secret—one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground. A secret that has already caused countless people to go missing.

Judge Crevan is gaining the upper hand, and time is running out for Celestine. With tensions building, Celestine must make a choice: save just herself or risk her life to save all Flawed people.

As much as I enjoyed the sequel ‘Perfect,’ it did not feel as engaging as ‘Flawed.’ Even though I completed this in two sittings, staying up until the wee hours of the morning to finish it, there was an element of preachiness to the narrative as our protagonist Celestine gave many long pointed speeches.

There was a bit of swinging between indecisive and lost teenager to leader of a rebel cause with Celestine, but I found that realistic and true to her character, where I know in a different context it would have annoyed the willies off me. Because of the nature of this story, it deals with pride, confidence, and determination. These traits are compelling to read, but as previously mentioned, at times bored me a little with all the self-flagellation.

The other aspect around Celestine was her scheming – like she alone was more intelligent than Judges, Doctors, Politicians, and other adults. Sometimes I was like ‘yes! Rise up young woman!’ and others just elicited an eyeroll. It came off as trite. But even having said that, I was still wrapped up in her plight and revelled in the story from start to finish.

I did like how we got a resolution to the whole love triangle thing… it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and I didn’t like how the introduction of Carrick kicked off what I’m interpreting as insta-lust at the start of this series. I wasn’t sold. Though I ended up liking this pairing more in ‘Perfect.’ Her boyfriend from the debut (‘Flawed’) Art, has a more prominent role in this book, and is treated with intelligence and maturity. I think I must have had a flame burning for him from the outset, because I was realy shipping their pairing… As much as I loathe love triangles, the one in this duology just scraped past my sensor because it felt more organic.

The surprise I got with this novel came from the periphery characters and subtext. It touches on bullying, body-shaming, discrimination, and oppression. It conjures strong images of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ with how the Flawed are forced to wear their shame, and human rights are stripped away under the guise of (social) justice. There are some great zingers about self-worth and learning from your mistakes. About community and peaceful rebellion. ‘Perfect’ feels like an entirely different creature to ‘Flawed.’

The whole thing with Celestine’s scars left me squirming a bit. She doesn’t let you forget what was done to her. It’s a visceral feeling reading about her branding. It’s great that it makes the reader uncomfortable. It make you think about your own behaviour – how many shades of Judge Crevan do we have? How many of Celestine? Her story really makes you inspect your own judgement and treatment of people.

The writing style, though preachy in some short parts, is easy and has a quick flow. It’s open to digest quickly and the pacing increases the further you get into the narrative. Things just keep on happening. I was engrossed. On a side note, there was a little bit of jumping around the timeline for the sake of reveals in the storyline that felt cheap and out of character – why it was introduced in this manner so far into the duology I can’t quite swallow. For me, it did not add any impact. In fact I felt a little cheated.

The overall storyline is predictable, the tone of the novel sets you up to believe an inevitable ending; though there were so many little things that took place along the journey which had me excited. I really enjoyed ‘Perfect’ – it was the perfect YA dystopian read.

Overall feeling: juicy!

© Casey Carlisle 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Casey Carlisle with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Book Review – ‘Flawed’ by Cecelia Ahern

A world of emotional crime and punishment just as flawed as a political one, and a girl branded a rebel leader…

Genre: Y/A, Dystopian

No. of pages: 336

From Goodreads:

You will be punished…

Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.

But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed.

I don’t mind a bit of a dystopian novel every now and then, it takes me back to my younger days of reading filled with nostalgia, wonder and excitement. ‘Flawed’ managed to bring a fun and tense adventure worthy of this genre.

There is something righteous (not to mention vindictive and satisfying) about wrong-doers being labelled Flawed as punishment. Adulterers. I can certainly see the appeal. A part of me likes the justification of inflicting a label on the perpetrator after being emotionally scarred in the world of ‘Flawed.’ So too can I see the reasons in preventing people with these flawed tendencies from getting into positions of authority and power. But as soon as that premise is set up, we begin to see the cracks of corruption. That no system is infallible. And our teen protagonist Celestine is trapped in the political rip tide, and has to decide in which moral direction she wants to swim.

I like Celestine’s thought processes how they began to question small things all leading up to an incident she thought unfair ultimately landing in hot water. She comes from a place of naivety and innocence but with a resounding heart of compassion. This is where we begin to see the formation of her core values, something that drives her through this story. After Celestine is arrested and placed in a holding cell, I did not get her need to please, or comradery with her cell mate Carrick. There seemed to be no motivation or logical reason for her to feel this way other than the author playing God and steering the storyline. This was aspect was the biggest let-down for me – the attraction and concern between Celestine and Carrick initially felt contrived and full of unjustified tension.

The sister relationship between Celestine and Juniper annoyed me – I would have liked to have seen a better connection between these two, so that the tension they had for each other was justified an more realistic – it felt a little juvenile. They both had conflicting moral compasses and indignation towards each other that didn’t translate effectively. After reading the likes of ‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ by Jenny Han and the sisterly bonds described there – both loving and full of conflict, I look for these complex relationships in sisterhood.

A shining light was how much I loved Celestine’s parents, especially her mother, even though they weren’t too prominent in the storyline. You get a real sense of unconditional love and the lengths they would go to to protect their children. With a common trope of the single parent or absent parents that dominate this genre, ‘Flawed’ really stepped up with this parental representation.

Following on from the aforementioned instant attraction above, when it came to Celestine and her thoughts on possible love interest Carrick, all this exposition about her cell-mate – I don’t buy it. How can Celestine know what he is thinking all the time? Where is this strong connection coming from? It aggravated me. It wasn’t insta-love, but something equally akin to it, and started off on flimsy footing. Things did get better after this initial stumble… The love interest(s) dropped out priority in the plot and Celestine seemed to get her footing. I actually started to really enjoy ‘Flawed’ then.

The pacing got so much better and I no longer felt tripped up on the writing style or plot details.

‘Flawed’ was pretty much Celestine navigating her way through the treacherous world of political power plays, while remaining true to her instincts – these aspects of her character really grabbed me. The plot did feel a little contrived – demonising the ‘bad guy’ but it didn’t bother me so much. I like a good villain. The environment of mistrust – and everyone having their own agenda… that aspect felt refreshing.

Predictable – yes, fun – absolutely!  Loved how the conclusion was open-ended. I’m actually excited to get my hands on the sequel ‘Perfect.’

Overall feeling: You got me Cecelia Ahern!

© Casey Carlisle 2017. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Casey Carlisle with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

#bookquotes

An action packed story set in a dystopian world that has an undercurrent of what it means to be a human being. Beauty and perfection vs. humanity and compassion.

Loved it – keep watching for the review coming soon.

#bookporn

This has been popping up all over the blogosphere and I’m keen to check it out and see if it lives up to the hype. Love a good YA sci-fi dystopian read. Plus the cover art and dust jacket alone are enough for me to be adding this to my collection.