But then Celestine encounters a situation in which 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.
In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society in which obedience is paramount and rebellion is punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything. (Pub Date: Apr 5, 2016)
Review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley.
Celestine always gone for perfection. She's not popular because she enjoys the security of being average and belonging. Unlike her older sister who always speaks her mind and acts on impulse, Celestine has always been perfect, with the perfect boyfriend, son of the powerful but friendly to Celestine Judge Crevan—she always calls him Bosco, though—, with the perfect family—aside from Juniper who doesn't even seem to want to belong there. But her world is not perfect, the Flawed are everywhere, their skins marked with the sign in correspondence with their moral lapses. One day, Celestine's judgment fails her and gets her straight to the Flawed Court, where she'll depend on Bosco—or should she call him Judge Crevan from now on?
Being Ahern's YA debut, I had no idea what to expect. I had picked this book for the author, I confess. I failed to notice two negatives for me: this is distopic as well as the first of a series, two types of books I tend to stay clear from. Maybe because of the hat the beginning wasn't doing it for me. Celestine was purposefully an annoying character, completely blind to anything to the point I could barely accept her as real. Wasn't Ahern forcing this too much? However, the book picks up at the point of the trial and I got sucked into that world.
At the same time, I had to cancel my judgment of the world-building. The Flawed concept is very real, very touchable, coming from a much credible reason, something like the big crisis in 2008/2009. Starting with the moral punishment premise, Ahern took elements from the antisemitism during the Second War and also a lot from the apartheid stories. I found it a great a theme, just wow! And the marks, her description of how they are made just had me crying for many, many pages—I did ask myself what was wrong with me I was so emotional but those are the facts.
However, the arguments for the maintenance of that world don't withstand a critical view. Unless she told me Second War never happened, that the UN doesn't exist... I think that the citizens in the book are simply too blind. She does include rebellious groups but I wasn't convinced the state of things would be like that. The more I read, the more I frowned. As an YA, from which you don't expect as much, this was enough but Ahern is one who could have been less naive. And so much more scary. Had she filled her characters with more logic, this would be a story that wouldn't let me sleep before I got to the end and knew people would be alright again.
So expect shallow from the story. Still, know that this is a nice story. The Flawed plot was really something that got to my skin and even now here I am thinking of how people would behave were it for real. And well, isn't it a little already? I said the way she described the reactions to the system wasn't credible (and even the system itself seems to centered to something which is supposedly spread all over a country, are there only those three judges? And no one to review their verdicts? And how can their sentences be so out of proportion, and very few voice against it?), still the implementation of something similar isn't far from reality at all, even if in lesser proportions (at first?).
And again, Ahern let me down on the romance area, though. Art... is a sad name for such a dreamy guy she wants to paint him as. And I never understood why Celestine was so promptly connect to Carrick. This is a series so I'm mostly hoping for her to find a third option. Then again we never saw much of Carrick but classic YA hero episodes. I find it interesting how Ahern is an author known for romances, an author I enjoy very much and yet I've never appreciated the romance in her books. At least, this is far from the center of the story. The problem is exactly on how alone Celestine becomes after everything.
My actual grade is 3.5. It's definitely above 3 so I've rounded it to 4 but it's not a stellar true 4-star book. Perhaps from now on? I have no idea what she plans with the series, and I'm eager to find out what will be of this world in the sequel. Even though this is just above average, it is an easy read and was a page-turner for me, despite the length. I recommend it even for those who are not that into YA's—as long as you take it as an YA, always with a grain of salt.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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