Cecelia Ahern
Feiwel & Friends
Available April 4, 2017
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Summary from Goodreads
Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine’s life has completely fractured–all her freedoms gone.
Since Judge Crevan has 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 to risk her life to save all Flawed people.
And, most important of all, can she prove that to be human in itself is to be Flawed?
My Review
Perfect was the first book by Cecelia Ahern that I’ve read. Even though I haven’t read the first book in the series, I found it fairly easy to follow the story. I think reading the first book would have helped me understand her relationship with Carrick better and made their reunion more meaningful.
The premise was the most interesting part to me. Celestine lives in a society in which good behavior is vital to survival. One mistake can leave a person literally branded as imperfect and make them outcasts. When Celestine ignores her society’s rules about shunning those outcasts marked Flawed, she earns her own branding.
The story made me think a lot of the beginning of I Corinthians chapter 13. It starts with this list of really impressive abilities—being able to perform miracles, helping the poor, speaking in the tongues of angels, etc—but warns, “if I have not love, I am nothing.”
In Perfect, Celestine’s society has become obsessed with living this outwardly perfect life. What Celestine discovers, though, is the price to live such a “perfect” life demands giving up compassion, mercy, and empathy. She rallies others around her to stop living these cold, rule-bound lives and instead forgive each other, show mercy. She wants everyone to realize that no one is without flaw, and therefore the system is based on a lie anyway.
I liked that message a lot. Readers who enjoyed Lauren Oliver’s Delirium or Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies will probably enjoy this book.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl. They have sex. The scene describes some lead-in, but not the actual event. Guard corral a group of women into a barn and force them to change into skimpy outfits to shame them.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
Celestine remembers a terrible incident in which Judge Crevan brands her without anesthesia. Soldiers believe Celestine hides underneath a pile of kindling and demand that her family light it.
Drug Content
None.
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Kinda of makes me think of Divergent, also. Even though know it is different. But still….these kinds of stories are still very popular, aren’t they? Makes me wonder what is going on in society and the world that makes this true. Thank you for your review!