Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Publication Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: YA
Pages: 368 pages
Goodreads
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. This in no way influenced my opinion of the book.
I was beyond excited when I saw Flawed on Netgalley. Cecilia Ahern is a romantic contemporary fiction queen and I never fully regained my heart after P.S. I Love You. So when I saw that Cecilia Ahern is now writing YA, the only thing I could do is request the book. As soon as possible.
And here we get my eternal reviewing flaw: I didn't really read the synopsis. I was so excited by the author and the cover that I just wanted it. However, early on in the book I found out that the story just isn't really for me. At all. Flawed is a dystopian book, where people are branded with a letter F for any flawed characteristics they showcase. So, you can't lie, make unwise decisions,... Already, I wasn't really a fan of this world. I get that dystopia is one possible view of the world, but I just didn't think it was that realistic. Branding a letter on someone? In the future? And not just on anyone, but mostly on the most powerful people in the world, businessmen, rulers of countries,.... I don't think that's going to happen.
Added to that, I disliked the main character, Celestine, a lot. She's perfect when we meet her and once she becomes involved in an anti-flawed movement, she is perfect with a hint of Katniss. How can she fight people when she is flawless herself? How can she goes against everything she believes in, even when she finds out that everyone around her thinks the flawed system sucks? I figured she's be okay with it pretty quickly, especially with what happens to her, but apparently she needs the whole first book to wrap her flawed little brain around it.
The make her even more like Katniss, my ultimate pet-peeve was thrown in, a generic and useless love triangle. On the one hand, a flawless boyfriend, on the other a flawed stranger with mysterious eyes who just draws her in.
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
Celestine goes through some of the most traumatic life events anyone has ever gone through, yet she's thinking about those boys. I get that she's a teenager and that your love life is a priority at that age, but really? Boys over your own life? I doubt it - especially when one of them is so clearly a *bad word* that doesn't care about her at all.
While the writing itself is easy to read, Flawed was just too cliché for me. All the generic YA tropes are thrown in there and they just don't make any sense. The Hunger Games was an amazing hit and I understand authors being inspired by it, but it's been done - and done amazingly - so I want something new. Love triangles? Hero who doesn't want to be one? Typically good looking cast? Not for me anymore.