Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

Due to the very lack luster synopsis of Flawed, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went it. I almost expected a contemporary novel with some kind of twist. That’s what Cecelia Ahern is usually known for. However what I got was a dystopian adventure novel filled with crime. I loved it.

Title: Flawed

Author: Cecelia Ahern

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Dystopian 

Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books

Publication Date: 24th March 2016

Pages: 416

Summary : 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.

Celestine is Flawed, and being Flawed is a life sentence. Especially when your boyfriend’s dad runs the Guild and has created a media storm around your branding case. Once leading a ‘perfect’ life, the changes to Celestine’s routine are somewhat of a shock that she has no choice but to learn to live with.

I was sent this book for review and after reading the first few pages on my kindle and thinking it was pretty interesting, I picked up a physical copy for myself. I’m so glad I did. This novel was not what I was expecting at all. It was family, crime, dystopian, excitement and everything else all rolled in to one. At times it had moments that felt like The Hunger Games.

One of the most powerful aspects of this novel was how much it still managed to relate to our society now. The Guild run an organisation (if you will) that punishes people who are seen to be ‘flawed’. These are not the police. It makes you think about how our society would be if we had these same measures, if it were legal to do these things, who would impact?

It also heavily focuses on what you would do in these kinds of situations. Helping a flawed person is strictly forbidden. If you were found to be helping a flawed then you would be flawed yourself. Reading those scenes make you think about what you’d do if someone was in trouble, what the difference would be between your reactions to an old lady or a teenage boy in a track suit? It really is clever.

Flawed is Cecelia Ahern’s first YA novel. It is also the first novel by her that I’ve read all the way through. It seemed different to her others somehow, something about it I loved a lot more. As it was her first YA novel however there were a few YA tropes that I didn’t enjoy so much, the whole falling in love with a boy with only seeing him through glass kind of thing. It didn’t ruin the novel for me, but the emotions could have been a little less heightened.

Upon finishing I realised there were a lot of things that were not tied up, but its okay because ‘Perfect’ is set to be released next year. We have to wait a whole year for the next instalment but I can promise it will be worth it! I’m so excited to pick up the next one (and probably reread Flawed!)