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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
It was definetly better than I expected. Like seriously this duelogy deserves more hype. It's super underrated.
Perfect was beautiful and emotional book. The march of flawed people made me feel so many things. It was amazing. The way the author described all the feelings was really nice.
I have no idea what more should I say. Amazing duelogy. I will absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes dystopian books.
Perfect was beautiful and emotional book. The march of flawed people made me feel so many things. It was amazing. The way the author described all the feelings was really nice.
I have no idea what more should I say. Amazing duelogy. I will absolutely recommend this to anyone who likes dystopian books.
Perfect name for a perfect book. It was all I wanted and more. READ THIS SERIES. Especially if you like dystopian.
At times I was close to crying. Other moments I wanted to shout at characters. There were times I was so shocked about certain characters that I had to put the book down, gain some composure and then continue reading.
This series completely had me from the word go.
Perfect Perfect Perfect.
At times I was close to crying. Other moments I wanted to shout at characters. There were times I was so shocked about certain characters that I had to put the book down, gain some composure and then continue reading.
This series completely had me from the word go.
Perfect Perfect Perfect.
{Barely 2 stars}
"For someone to win, somebody else must lose. For that person to have won, they must first have lost something in the first place. The irony of justice is that the feelings that precede it and those which fruit from it are never fair and balanced. Not even justice itself is perfect."
"There's the person you think you should be, and there's the person you really are. I'm not sure who I should be now I know who I am. And that is the perfect place to start."
That is what Ahern wants us to come away with in Perfect but despite - or perhaps because of - her pushiness of her opinions, she does not succeed.
This is the second book (and thankfully final book) in the Flawed series - I couldn't take another, and barely survived this one. The book covers the second half of the world's most perfect and annoying teen's fight against the Guild, a pseudo-government court charged with monitoring moral and ethical justice and finding out the big Flaws of the accused.
Like I said before, at first I was excited to read it because I love the idea of karma and cosmic justice and all of that - I love the idea that bad people who do dumb, bad things get their coming. Cheat on your wife, you giant a*shole? Punishment! Harass women on the street for fun? Punishment! Mistreat your animals to feel powerful? Punishment! Bully smaller kids so you feel good about yourself? Punish! So a book about a system that was supposed to make this happen? Okay, let's see where this goes! Yeah, the book isn't about this at all. It's about Miss Goody Two Shoes Celestine North and her crusade against her former father-in-law, who now hates her for making him look silly in his stupid play-court, and to overturn this court because it is itself Flawed, and then it just shoots off in various directions, confusing its meaning.
Where to start? Wow, ok so this is, once again, a book in which an author pushes her specific views on the reader, her own preferred Big Issue - in this case, Ahern is pushing her views about mistakes and morality. Her way of thinking is clearly The Right Way so we should all just listen and bow down to her (a lot like her big bad guild her MC spends so much time fighting!). She has created the world's most obnoxiously perfect teen. I normally don't complain about MC's who are nearly superhuman or doing great feats - I normally love seeing strong, independent, smart women and don't care if they are maybe a little more powerful than in real life. But THIS book. This is one of those rare times when I say, Um your MC is way too perfect!
Through Celestine, Ahern is pushing her Big Issue for 600 (combined) pages. Guys! Look! We all make mistakes! Look! It makes us better. Abolish the guild! Okay lady, we get it.
This book itself if Flawed from the start (see what I did there ?). Each Flawed person must have done something to get there in the first place, surely, right? She chose to give Celestine a bullsh*t crime, "helping a flawed" (a sick old man on a bus) knowing the reader could look at that 'crime' only one way.
But she 'cleverly' avoided telling us what the flaws of the other Flawed were until the end because she knew people would take issue with them. So what are we left with? Who are our heroes? Besides Miss Goody Two Shoes Celestine we've got a cheater, an anti-vaxxer, a pregnant chain smoker and a dude who got rich on a cheating date site. And these are supposed to be the Good Guys? Like, I get it Ahern, we all make mistakes, we all learn from them. Branding their faces and whatever is gone a bit Nazi. But there is also a difference between a person who makes a mistake at work or whatever than a person who purposely builds a site to aid thousands of men cheat on their wives! Or a woman who goes around telling people not to get vaccinated based on some bullsh*t science! (That one hit hard in light of today's pandemic).
It's a bit hard for me to see these people as the good members of society. In fact, this whole country seems messed up and doomed, from the crazy and corrupt government to those branded flawed, the 'normal' people on the streets throwing onions, the messed up police officers, the prejudice teachers, the vindictive kids.
I couldn’t get my head around the concept of this book. It’s just dumb. I could get behind the concept if it was a system that punished wrongdoers but had since been corrupted, and they needed to return to before. But all she seems to be saying is that look, flawed people are great, no matter what! Ok we all make mistakes. I cheated on a test once in middle school, got caught, and got detention, and never did it again. I've made typos at work, missed deadlines, let dinner burn, forgot about a meeting. But I didn’t go out of my way to cheat with a married man or get rich off of other people’s cheating so I could buy a spots car! Bad people do bad stuff and bad people shouldn't get away with hurting others, especially when it's done with intent to hurt. I'm talking about the internet trolls, spouse cheaters, playground bullies, horrible bosses and cat-callers of the world.
I wish there was a better way to punish people that harm society. But branding people like cattle? Then ostracising them and herding them around like beasts? Like, what is that extreme, really?? The author has a really weird black and white version of seeing the world that doesn't match up with...well, the world.
It just seems like this is one of Aesop's fables, complete with snow-white narrator, strict moral code, which is often repeated, and the morale at the end for all the kids to know. It is a book specifically designed to shock, and to force the reader to confront the morale. That's why I hate these kinds of books. I like when there are two sides, when our loyalty is challenged, when we might look in a different direction. I don’t like when an author forces their Big Issue views on us (in this cases, mistakes and flaws).
Ok that's just the concept. The book itself has so many flaws. One was the amount of people who somehow made it through life just fine and until they walk in front of Celestine and SUDDENLY need saving. Like, only Celestine, the Celestial Being, can help them! So selfless! It's ridiculous.
Another is Celestine's “godlike” status - it is very annoying. Throughout the book, all these random people across this fake country recognise her, and bow down to her, practically kissing her feet. All these people risking their lives for her after knowing her for like 5 minutes. And her knowing all these random things - like Virgo symbol at the factory when she magically knew who the owner was, or how she got the FAB child released? She’s an annoyingly pristine 17 year old on the run, seriously she isn't a god!!
And finally, it is the love triangle. Yuck! It is written terribly. Even if I cared about teen romance, I really couldn't give a monkey's bum about how that whole thing ended.
The plot of the book is whatever, lots of running around, evading arrest, being arrested. There was little urgency - you knew she'd be fine. I wasn't worried for a minute. The ending was predictable and inevitable. There was nothing new or surprising. No character's actions surprised me.
Also… technically a spoiler but not really if you know how to READ:Raphael Angelo, Celestine North, Carrick Vane - How much more obvious can she get with the names? I like a good symbolic name, but you know who does it well? JK Rowling. You know who doesn't? Cecelia Ahern.
The book was bland, and I hope, for my sake, forgettable. Ok off to read something better!
"For someone to win, somebody else must lose. For that person to have won, they must first have lost something in the first place. The irony of justice is that the feelings that precede it and those which fruit from it are never fair and balanced. Not even justice itself is perfect."
"There's the person you think you should be, and there's the person you really are. I'm not sure who I should be now I know who I am. And that is the perfect place to start."
That is what Ahern wants us to come away with in Perfect but despite - or perhaps because of - her pushiness of her opinions, she does not succeed.
This is the second book (and thankfully final book) in the Flawed series - I couldn't take another, and barely survived this one. The book covers the second half of the world's most perfect and annoying teen's fight against the Guild, a pseudo-government court charged with monitoring moral and ethical justice and finding out the big Flaws of the accused.
Like I said before, at first I was excited to read it because I love the idea of karma and cosmic justice and all of that - I love the idea that bad people who do dumb, bad things get their coming. Cheat on your wife, you giant a*shole? Punishment! Harass women on the street for fun? Punishment! Mistreat your animals to feel powerful? Punishment! Bully smaller kids so you feel good about yourself? Punish! So a book about a system that was supposed to make this happen? Okay, let's see where this goes! Yeah, the book isn't about this at all. It's about Miss Goody Two Shoes Celestine North and her crusade against her former father-in-law, who now hates her for making him look silly in his stupid play-court, and to overturn this court because it is itself Flawed, and then it just shoots off in various directions, confusing its meaning.
Where to start? Wow, ok so this is, once again, a book in which an author pushes her specific views on the reader, her own preferred Big Issue - in this case, Ahern is pushing her views about mistakes and morality. Her way of thinking is clearly The Right Way so we should all just listen and bow down to her (a lot like her big bad guild her MC spends so much time fighting!). She has created the world's most obnoxiously perfect teen. I normally don't complain about MC's who are nearly superhuman or doing great feats - I normally love seeing strong, independent, smart women and don't care if they are maybe a little more powerful than in real life. But THIS book. This is one of those rare times when I say, Um your MC is way too perfect!
Through Celestine, Ahern is pushing her Big Issue for 600 (combined) pages. Guys! Look! We all make mistakes! Look! It makes us better. Abolish the guild! Okay lady, we get it.
This book itself if Flawed from the start (see what I did there ?). Each Flawed person must have done something to get there in the first place, surely, right? She chose to give Celestine a bullsh*t crime, "helping a flawed" (a sick old man on a bus) knowing the reader could look at that 'crime' only one way.
But she 'cleverly' avoided telling us what the flaws of the other Flawed were until the end because she knew people would take issue with them. So what are we left with? Who are our heroes? Besides Miss Goody Two Shoes Celestine we've got a cheater, an anti-vaxxer, a pregnant chain smoker and a dude who got rich on a cheating date site. And these are supposed to be the Good Guys? Like, I get it Ahern, we all make mistakes, we all learn from them. Branding their faces and whatever is gone a bit Nazi. But there is also a difference between a person who makes a mistake at work or whatever than a person who purposely builds a site to aid thousands of men cheat on their wives! Or a woman who goes around telling people not to get vaccinated based on some bullsh*t science! (That one hit hard in light of today's pandemic).
It's a bit hard for me to see these people as the good members of society. In fact, this whole country seems messed up and doomed, from the crazy and corrupt government to those branded flawed, the 'normal' people on the streets throwing onions, the messed up police officers, the prejudice teachers, the vindictive kids.
I couldn’t get my head around the concept of this book. It’s just dumb. I could get behind the concept if it was a system that punished wrongdoers but had since been corrupted, and they needed to return to before. But all she seems to be saying is that look, flawed people are great, no matter what! Ok we all make mistakes. I cheated on a test once in middle school, got caught, and got detention, and never did it again. I've made typos at work, missed deadlines, let dinner burn, forgot about a meeting. But I didn’t go out of my way to cheat with a married man or get rich off of other people’s cheating so I could buy a spots car! Bad people do bad stuff and bad people shouldn't get away with hurting others, especially when it's done with intent to hurt. I'm talking about the internet trolls, spouse cheaters, playground bullies, horrible bosses and cat-callers of the world.
I wish there was a better way to punish people that harm society. But branding people like cattle? Then ostracising them and herding them around like beasts? Like, what is that extreme, really?? The author has a really weird black and white version of seeing the world that doesn't match up with...well, the world.
It just seems like this is one of Aesop's fables, complete with snow-white narrator, strict moral code, which is often repeated, and the morale at the end for all the kids to know. It is a book specifically designed to shock, and to force the reader to confront the morale. That's why I hate these kinds of books. I like when there are two sides, when our loyalty is challenged, when we might look in a different direction. I don’t like when an author forces their Big Issue views on us (in this cases, mistakes and flaws).
Ok that's just the concept. The book itself has so many flaws. One was the amount of people who somehow made it through life just fine and until they walk in front of Celestine and SUDDENLY need saving. Like, only Celestine, the Celestial Being, can help them! So selfless! It's ridiculous.
Another is Celestine's “godlike” status - it is very annoying. Throughout the book, all these random people across this fake country recognise her, and bow down to her, practically kissing her feet. All these people risking their lives for her after knowing her for like 5 minutes. And her knowing all these random things - like Virgo symbol at the factory when she magically knew who the owner was, or how she got the FAB child released? She’s an annoyingly pristine 17 year old on the run, seriously she isn't a god!!
And finally, it is the love triangle. Yuck! It is written terribly. Even if I cared about teen romance, I really couldn't give a monkey's bum about how that whole thing ended.
The plot of the book is whatever, lots of running around, evading arrest, being arrested. There was little urgency - you knew she'd be fine. I wasn't worried for a minute. The ending was predictable and inevitable. There was nothing new or surprising. No character's actions surprised me.
Also… technically a spoiler but not really if you know how to READ:
Spoiler
um I knew there was something in that stupid snow globe the MINUTE Celestine received it. The moment the footage was mentioned as being important, I knew it was in there. So like halfway, 3/4 way through Book One!! And Celestine, our supposedly perfect super intelligent mathematician, doesn’t realise it's in the snow-globe until almost all the way through Book Two! And she doesn’t even realise it on her own! It's the lawyer dude who does. You know… the guy called Raphael Angelo ?The book was bland, and I hope, for my sake, forgettable. Ok off to read something better!
I hated the insta-romance between Carrick and Celestine. However, their relationship grew on me as the book went on. The ending was how I like my books to end.
This book was perfect (yes, I'm completely aware of how this is a terrible pun). It was just as good as the first book and kept me gripped and excited the whole way through.
I received this book as an ARC and read it last month but, now that's the books finally been released, I can post my Book Talk!!
I love the family aspect in this book and how the political angle of the book was executed. The whole political angle was captivating and intrigued me when this topic in a book usually bores me.
The story was superbly paced and everything came together beautifully in the end.
This novel explores of an alternate perfect society where people are punished and branded for being morally Flawed. Their skin gets branded and their segregated from the rest of society. The first book, Flawed, was fascinating and stunning, so I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone!
Full review: https://forever-fictional.blogspot.com/2017/04/perfect-cecelia-ahern-book-talk.html
I received this book as an ARC and read it last month but, now that's the books finally been released, I can post my Book Talk!!
I love the family aspect in this book and how the political angle of the book was executed. The whole political angle was captivating and intrigued me when this topic in a book usually bores me.
The story was superbly paced and everything came together beautifully in the end.
This novel explores of an alternate perfect society where people are punished and branded for being morally Flawed. Their skin gets branded and their segregated from the rest of society. The first book, Flawed, was fascinating and stunning, so I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone!
Full review: https://forever-fictional.blogspot.com/2017/04/perfect-cecelia-ahern-book-talk.html
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It had been so long since I'd read the first book, so jumping straight into this one without rereading it was a bit of a mistake. Thankfully there are some recaps in this books that refreshed my memory, but I was still missing some pieces.
However I did find myself really enjoying this book, and fell back into the groove, and caring for the characters.
I would have liked a little more meat to the epilogue, but I find myself feeling that way pretty often, so it might just be a me thing.
However I did find myself really enjoying this book, and fell back into the groove, and caring for the characters.
I would have liked a little more meat to the epilogue, but I find myself feeling that way pretty often, so it might just be a me thing.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
*I received an electronic ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
My favorite quote is the final lines of this book:
My favorite quote is the final lines of this book:
Spoiler
There's the person you think you should be and there's the person you really are. I'm not sure who I should be, but I now know who I am. And that, I say, is the perfect place to start again.
Dieses Buch. Dieses fucking Buch.
Ich, wie ich mir Perfect anhöre.
Was ist in dieser Stadt im Wasser?? Nein, ernsthaft, was ist in dieser Stadt im Wasser?? So gedankenlos kann sich niemand benehmen, der*die nicht permanent vom Kleinkindalter betäubt wurde. Und das gilt für alle Charaktere. Der ganze Plot vertraut darauf, dass sich jede*r so unüberlegt wie möglich benimmt. Kein Mensch denkt weiter, als bis zur eigenen Augenhöhle.
Ich, wie ich mir Perfect anhöre.
Was ist in dieser Stadt im Wasser?? Nein, ernsthaft, was ist in dieser Stadt im Wasser?? So gedankenlos kann sich niemand benehmen, der*die nicht permanent vom Kleinkindalter betäubt wurde. Und das gilt für alle Charaktere. Der ganze Plot vertraut darauf, dass sich jede*r so unüberlegt wie möglich benimmt. Kein Mensch denkt weiter, als bis zur eigenen Augenhöhle.
adventurous
reflective