Member Reviews
Thank you to Net Galley and Macmillan Children's Publishing group for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I was excited about this book. I love a good dystopian read and the blurb really grabbed me: marked for immoral decision, how very Scarlet Letter!
I really wanted to like the plot, and the main character, but unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. The book does indeed live up to its name: Flawed.
My biggest issue with this book was how bored I was. Bored by the plot, bored by the main character. Just overall bored. I didn't want to be but it just didn't move for me.
The main character annoyed me with how taken with herself she was. It was not relatable at all. I felt like I was just watching someone who had to keep telling everyone how she would never do an imperfect thing and how she was the perfect pillar of society. It made me cringe. If I cannot connect with a character to understand their plight, there's no way I'm going to stay engaged in a book.
And the world, it was It was all very Stepford. I didn't feel intrigued by it at all. There was nothing new. I've read this world in other books. Perhaps this was because the world building was just bland. This is the most important part of a dystopian book and if you can't get this right, the rest will just fall flat.
Perhaps others will like it more than I did. Looking at how people starred this one on the review sites, it seems I may be in the minority. But I was underwhelmed by this one and don't feel the need to read any of the others.
Absolutely amazing. This is the type of book that makes you want to forget that you have other things to do…like eat, sleep, and work. I loved it from the beginning and actually let out an audible gasp when I discovered that I’d read the last sentence. I cannot wait to finish the series.
I did not finish Flawed, and will not be writing a review of it. The story was all over the place for me and was filled with violence. I didn't like the characters and grew bored very quickly with the snail's pace development. Also, I didn't realize how much a book about people insisting they be perfect would grate on my, but boy did it. I should have known, because it makes perfect sense to me when I think about it now. Disappointing.
Loved this - ended up buying the hardcopy and eBook version for our library. Excellent dystopian concept.
I did write a review as promised, but must have missed sharing it here:
When all you want to do is 'fit in', be 'normal', love your boyfriend, distain anything that might spoil these goals....your blind, unintentional narrow mindedness might not see the dangers in a society you believe to be just.
When being singled out for an unthinking act of kindness, sees you branded as disgusting to society, Celestine is confronted with a flawed society. While she claims to see the world in black and white, she discovers so many shades of grey in the people she has to judge as to whether she trusts them or not.
I thought this was an excellent and thought provoking dystopian read, and so far is suitable for a middle / senior school / young adult audience. I look forward to reading the next instalment
I ended up DNF'ing this book because the dystopia did not stand up to scrutiny, and the main character wasn't well crafted.
I'm really disappointed, try as I might i just couldn't get into this story at all. It was just really hard to follow at first, and lost all steam for me before it ever really got going.
Oh well
This is an eye opening view of how people are treated after they have been labeled as an outcast by society, whether or not they are guilty of what they are charged of.
This debut novel for grades 7 and up has a message for today, as around the world controlling leaders take leadership of countries. In a future world, Celestine is praised for her ability to follow rules and submit to authority. There comes a time when she can no longer look away when misjustice is being carried out in the name of law an order. She helps a sick man marked with the letter "F" for flawed. As punishment, she is branded with six F's. Still she continues on her path, this time looking for a young man who was imprisoned with her. This dystopian thriller will be hard for adults as well as younger readers to put down,
I really wanted to like this, because I love Cecelia Ahern's adult books, but I don't know if I'm just in a slump or it wasn't for me. I stopped around 21% because I just didn't care enough about what was going on to continue.
I actually DNF this book before 22% in. I wasn't able to connect to the characters, the story, or the writing. It's one I may revisit in the future, though.
I had a hard time getting into this book right from the start, when we had entire CHAPTERS of infodumping right from the start. Celestine had to give us the background and personality summary of everyone in her house before the inciting incident could even think of starting, and then it just kept going. Every scene, every moment that could have been punchy or tense, was interrupted by this girl's narration that dragged on and on and on.
Part and parcel of her over-explaining was her own morals and mindset, and she'd spend paragraph after paragraph telling us about her moral quandary as if she was at the end of a therapy session having gone through hours of self-reflection, not a confused girl in the middle of some shit. It made the whole thing slow and irritating and made Celestine seem like less of a fully realized character.
But what really killed it for me was the tone of Celestine's trouble with her society. She prides herself as being full of logic, totally rational. But it's not until she's 17 that she sees an injustice going on and 'just has' to step in because it makes no sense? This is a terrible take, because regimes like the one in this book are inherently <i>il</i>logical, and the way it's presented makes it seem like Celestine just ~*~*~somehow~*~*~ never had to run up against this problem? It sat really ill with me, and just got worse as she went on and on about it.
The world made no sense, and to be fair I knew it wouldn't going in. It's an allegory, fine, whatever. But it was also...really dull. Like, if you're going to have a dystopia happening at that level of Not How Shit Works, you at least need some fireworks to distract the reader from that fact.
So...yeah, not one I'd recommend. It's got a decent idea and every now and then there's a good line of commentary, but it's just not a very exciting or tense execution.
Good day! Before anything else, I would like to extend my deepest, sincerest gratitude for sending me a digital review copy of this book (via NetGalley). Thank you very much for the opportunity!
Unfortunately, I am sad to say that I have lost interest in this particular title, and consequently, I have decided against finishing it. Forcing myself to finish a book I am disinterested in (solely for the sake of finishing it) can only negatively impact the entirety of my reading experience, which, in turn, could result in me writing an unfairly negative review. That is a circumstance I hope to avoid. With that said, I believe that the best course of action is for me to simply not read it and to refrain from publicly posting any feedback regarding this book.
I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Again, thank you for the lovely opportunity!
At first I wasn't real sure how I was going to like this read, but the further I got into it, the more I enjoyed it. I think Cecelia Ahern does an amazing job with how she writes this one and the story flows really well.
This story is about Celestine and how she lives in a place where everything has to be perfect. Perfect life, perfect boyfriend, perfect family, perfect everything. If they do something that is wrong, they are considered to be flawed and are branded with an F armband for Flawed.
Celestine finds herself in a situation where her morals and compassion are put to the test. Her reactions now deems her flawed and blurs the lines of what flawed actually means. What is she going to do now?
Cecelia Ahern brings in a lot of the elements that you would normally see in dystopia reads and does a great job with it. Celestine gets to see the other side of things when she is looked at by all the others and judged by them as well. It does not feel very good to be judged by others. We also get to meet Juniper and Art. Arts father is the head of this organization which does the branding so you can only imagine how that makes him feel.
We also get to meet Carrick. As we discover more about him, the more I felt sorry for him and could understand why he felt the way he did. He has a lot to work through and figure out. I also liked how we could get Celestine's feelings on the future. I thought that this added a lot to the story as well.
This was a great read that you will enjoy if you enjoy reading dystopia for sure. I am anxious to see what is next in the Flawed series and what is going to happen with these characters next. Great job Cecelia Ahern!
This is a great read for fans of Hunger Games and Divergent. I've recommended this to several of my students and it has been well received. Celestine is a strong female character but manages to maintain her young teenage self in the face of adversity.
Interesting idea, boring execution. What was new about this book? Absolutely nothing. The story, the main character, the EVERYTHING, was flat, dull, and held no interest.
What a fantastic book. I received a review copy, and took a while to get around to reading it (my bad), but when I did, I liked it so much I went straight to purchase the sequel.
Having this branded as a YA book may put some people off, but I am well past that age group and thought it was great!
The audiobook was nice because of the lovely accent, but, whew, this book is corny. Perhaps teen readers who are new to dystopia would enjoy it? But I read all those books ten years ago, and this one has nothing new. In fact, parts infuriated me--the "logical" main character didn't act logically, she was a moody teenage girl in a world that where everyone was supposed to be perfect, and I felt like I was listening to a Sunday school sermon at times instead of to a YA book.
The cover was misleading. I thought the book was going to be about a girl of color and was disappointed. I began reading the first few chapters and the premise seemed old and overdone. I wouldn't recommend it to any of the teens I serve.
The concept of "Flawed" was scary because one wrong moment changes everything. If you can get past that initial premise, it's a good story.
I must admit that at first I found the premise preposterous and the math teacher/charity leader really beggared belief but I forced myself to suspend my belief and ended up quite enjoying it in the end-enough to read the sequel to see if all those threads get brought together a bit better. I most enjoyed the inadvertent "Chaotic Good" of the protagonist!