FLAWED by Cecelia Ahern

Published April 5th 2016 by Feiwel & Friends 
Read: April 2016
How I Got It: Ebook (approximately 368 pages) from NetGalley 

Series: Flawed (subsequent book to be released in 2017)

Celestine North lives a perfect life… that is, until she doesn’t. No one suspects that Celestine, whose boyfriend is the son of one of the Guild’s most powerful judges, would aid a Flawed, but Celestine’s world of black and white and logic require her to show compassion to sick man no matter his societal status. Because of Celestine’s act she is forced to go on trial so that society can determine whether her act of helping a Flawed man means that she is Flawed as well. People who are found to be Flawed must be branded and forced to live a bland life. The Flawed are mocked, ridiculed, and treated like criminals even though their flaws may have been minimal offenses like infidelity or lying. Celestine’s case may be the turning point for the entire system, however. She will turn into the poster girl for a movement that is trying to overturn some of the rules of the Guild and change a system that is, in itself, flawed.

Cecelia Ahern writes an intriguing story about a dystopian society. The concept of the book is great, however, the execution was lacking. There is so much information introduced, so many characters, and almost too many separate events occurring for Celestine that it’s hard to keep up. It is important to the story to see what Celestine is going through, but there were so many annoying little things to read through as well like Celestine’s reliance on her boyfriend, a flat character that only seems to be written so that Celestine could have a tie to the judge (oh, and he has to be jealous of another character for a minute because what’s YA lit without a love triangle?). Also, after all of that build up, this may be viewed as a spoiler, but there is zero resolution. This book will be a part of a series, but even knowing that fact, the ending of this book was still disappointing. 

Possible Read-Alike: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan (The branding especially is similiar to this dystopian novel about a gene that determines whether a person will become a murderer). 

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with  an advanced electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.