Book Review – Flawed (Flawed #1)

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern
Narrator: Aysha Kala
Series: Flawed #1
Published by Macmillan on April 5th 2016
Length: 11 hours 27 minutes
Genres: Dystopian, Prejudice & Racism, Science Fiction, Social Themes, Values & Virtues, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads

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 her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society in which perfection is paramount and flaws are punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything.

Lynn’s Review:

I have feelings about this book, people. FEELINGS. And those feelings are confusion and frustration and empathetic anger for the main character. And maybe also I liked it? I don’t know!

This is my representation of how the book treated my feelings: 

 

 

Initially, I thought Flawed would be another YA Dystopia like all the others – girl figures out society is messed up while falling in love with a boy who already knows society is a disaster. And in a way, that is what happens. Celestine finds out the hard way how horrible society is. And she does meets the boy at the beginning. But he doesn’t appear again until almost the end of the novel. Way to go shaking it up, Ms. Ahern.

My frustrations stem from Celestine. She’s an overly-trusting, naive teenager. And I’m over this kind of character. At the beginning of the novel, I wanted to throttle her. But then she really grows on me. I hated society for treating her the way it did. I hated that going to school became an ordeal. I hated that her little brother was a jerk towards her. I wanted to beat up everyone else on her behalf.  I really wanted Celestine to stand up for herself. She does redeem herself in a few scenes. But those scenes were few and far between.

Now that I’ve vented my feelings, let’s get on with the reviewing.

World-Building: Flawed‘s society feels very realistic to me. I can see the reasoning behind the decisions that lead to where they are now. It’s when society starts to crumble that Flawed really takes off for me. (Nothing like the crumbling of society to interest me.) Ms. Ahern does an amazing job putting Celestine into uncomfortable positions, making me uncomfortable along the way. 

Characters: We already know how I feel about Celestine. The secondary characters in the novel are plentiful, but not as well represented. There are shades of interesting from Celestine’s family. I especially love her Grandfather. I think the isolation that Celestine feels throughout the novel is developed through the uncomfortable interactions with other characters. Especially the evil ones. As she is uncomfortable, so is the reader. 

Narration: The audio narration for Flawed is ok. Ms. Kala’s natural accent was somewhat distracting. If you are put off by accents, maybe read this instead of listening to the audio. 

I can’t really decide if I hate (1 Star) or love (5 Star) this novel. I’m going with 3.5 Stars as a compromise. I was riled up enough to write a review and tell everyone about Flawed. And maybe that’s a sign of the kind of book we should all be reading. One that provokes thoughts and actions in the reader. 

 

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