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? (Pub Date: Apr 4, 2017)
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
I had quite enjoyed the first part, and was glad the second one didn't take long. And the sequel didn't disappoint, it was the perfect (no pun intended) conclusion to Celestine's story.
This picks up from where the first one left, so you should check Flawed before. At the same time, if you have already read it, you don't need to go back or anything. My memory is terrible but Ahern did a good job retelling whatever we needed to remember from the first part.
Celestine has evaded and she is now hiding with her grandfather, even though she knows he can't stay long there as the Whistle blowers close in. So little time has passed from her branding and so much has happened, she is like another person from when we met her. She doesn't know who to trust, so she doesn't. Her aim has also changed, it's not just her predicament she wants to change, but the whole Guild and the Flawed system.
I think Celestine was a character easy enough to develop, considering how naive she was in the beginning. That's why I feared she would become something else. I was glad Ahern considered this and was careful enough to keep her essence. This is mostly revealed by her relationship with Art. By the way, even though Ahern will never do it for me when it comes to romance, I liked how she dealt with the love triangle. You could identify with Celestine's hesitations and support her choices instead of spending half the book wanting to strangle her.
Now about her being a YA heroine, this was the same old cliché. Half the time people kept following her as if she were this great leader, as if no one had ever thought of what she had. Considering many of the Flawed were basically there for their opinions, wouldn't any of them have thought of pacific resistance, for example? Or be able to make a speech to gather others? You have a couple of "perfect" people trying to do it but no Flawed but Celestine. What the heck is up with that country? After reading these stories, it's no wonder children think adults are dumb.
I also think Ahern lost an opportunity to address current humanitarian problems, not that this has made me deduct any stars from her but I confess I expected her to, considering how this world was built.
I mentioned how her romances usually fall flat for me, and one of the reasons in this book as Carrick himself. I couldn't fully figure him out. He acts like this dangerous boy—although, in my opinion, Celestine is the one bringing him trouble—, almost as if he was raised in the streets but the truth is that he received prime education, and for a long time he believed in it. So how can he be so street-wise? It was like I got the wrong background, which made it difficult to trust him. Or maybe that is just not my type? Not that I cheer for Art, either. Yes... me, romances and Ahern aren't a good combo.
I think the big problem with this book was that it needed more editing. Especially in the beginning, many times it felt rushed, as if Ahern was always running out of time or something? Things were all over the place for half of the book. And she had some amazing action scenes, I loved each of them—and I'm not a fan of action!—, so you can see how this could have been a great book, I mean, isn't action supposed to be the hardest considering her usual books? So I found it strange that the problem lay with the rest.
Still, I really liked her take on YA, and was surprised to learn this was the end of the story. I was so sure it was at least a trilogy! I surely would have read the third one. Well, there's always room, although the conclusion was pretty much an actual conclusion. So maybe I should say I can't wait for Ahern's next YA novel.
If you have read Flawed, you should also pick this one. It's not as good but it's worth it.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
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