29 March 2016

Review #382: Flawed (Flawed #1) by Cecelia Ahern



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.”

----William Blake



Cecelia Ahern, the international best-selling author, pens her new YA book, Flawed which marks as the first book in the new YA dystopian series by the same name. Now the regular Ahern fans might have mixed feelings about this book, where the regular YA dystopian lovers might just love this book. The book unfolds the story of a high school teenager who is perfect in every possible way, but soon her perfection is challenged between right logic and wrong rules and little did miss perfect knew that her dreams would get shattered with her gesture of humanity.



Synopsis:

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 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 this stunning novel, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society in which perfection is paramount and mistakes are punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything.



This is the story of Celestine North who lives a perfectly flawless life with her parents and her younger brother and always abides by the rules, set up upon by The Guild when the government failed to bring upon peace among its citizens, unlike her unruly and smart-mouthed younger sister. Celestine has nothing to worry about, with glowing dreams of being a mathematician along with her perfect boyfriend, Art, who happens to be the son of Judge Crevan who is the leader of The Guild. But one small mistake lands her up face-to-face with Judge Crevan in the courtroom, who will judge whether her mistake is forgivable or punishable, resulting which she might be branded as "FLAWED".

The Guild- people's body, has only one rule, you will be branded as "FLAWED", if you make ethical or moral mistakes in the society.

The author's writing is excellent and flawless, unlike the title of the book! The narrative is enchanting that kept me glued to the heart of the story. The scenes are written with lots of description and it feels like the scenes are unrolling right in front of my eyes and the POV of Celestine put me into her shoes that let me peek inside her perfect mind. The pacing is really fast as the story is paced with thrilling events and complicated challenges.

The author's way of world building is done diligently. From the first page with Celestine's POV, the author unwraps the conditions and make and build of this dystopian yet realistic world bit-by-bit, thus almost halfway through the book, I felt like I know the world of Celestine by the back of my hand. And when Celestine is thrown into life-changing challenge, the drawbacks and the flaws in the whole system comes to light, thus making me enrage with anger against some of the characters.

PS: All the way while reading I was feeling like I'm in a different version of Divergent, where Tris and Celestine are mostly alike and are thrown into the same challenge of their true identity of being the poster girl for both the sides.

The main character is strongly developed and felt a bit unrealistic as teenagers like her do not exist anymore, someone who is perfect beyond imagination. Celestine North is perfect in everything she puts her hands and mind into. At times, her way too perfect attitude annoyed me. Art is the guy who is facing issues due to his mother's death and adores Celestine more than his heart and their cheesy romance with talks of future and all makes the story sweet. The supporting cast is quite well-developed and the author holds a strong grip on their psychological aspects all through out the story.

Overall, this is an intriguing as well as captivating story which will make the readers anticipate till the very end. And as for me, I simply adored this book and am looking forward in reading the next book in the series.

Verdict: A delightful YA dystopian that you need to look out for.

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Harper Collins India for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Cecelia Ahern was born on September 30, 1981 in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. On 14th December 2009 it was announced that Cecelia had given birth to her first child with partner David Keoghan, a girl named Robin. She was secretly married on 11 June 2010 in County Kildare, Ireland. Her older sister, Georgina Ahern is married to Nicky Byrne of Irish pop group Westlife. Cecelia was a member of the Irish pop group Shimma who finished third in the Irish national for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000. She attended Griffith College Dublin and obtained a degree in Journalism and Media Communications.
Cecelia Ahern wrote her first novel, PS. I Love You when she was twenty-one. It was published in 2004, the number 1 bestseller in Ireland for 19 weeks and sold in over forty countries. The book was adapted as a motion picture directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler and released in 2007 in the United States.
Her second book, Where Rainbows End (US title: Love, Rosie or Rosie Dunne) won the German CORINE Award in 2005. She contributed with short stories to charity books and is also the co-creator and producer of the ABC comedy Samantha Who?.
Her other works include If You Could See Me Now (US title: A Silver Lining), A Place Called Here (US title: There's No Place Like Here) Thanks for the Memories (US title: Desire Lines) The Gift The Book of Tomorrow.
Visit her here


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