Page Count: 304
Published on: July 1, 2014
Published by: Entangled Teen
Genre(s): YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Romance, Fantasy
Source: Paperback - Borrowed from Julia
My Rating: 2 stars
Goodreads synopsis:
Perfection comes at a price.
As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury.
Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows… and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating.
But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving… and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death.
For fans of Kiera Cass’ Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.
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Hey, guys!
I read this book a few weeks ago and I wasn't impressed. I actually started this book on the last day of my senior year. I was looking at the new books that my school library was about to put into the library collection and I picked this book up and started reading it for the last half hour of my school day. I got maybe 50 pages in and had to put it down because I was about to leave high school forever. I then picked it back up in September and finished it unsatisfied.
Perfected is a strange mix of The Chemical Gardens trilogy by Lauren DeStephano, The Selection series by Kiera Cass, and the Matched trilogy mixed together. The concept of this novel was really intriguing, but the overall result was kind of a mess. It was way too simple and the characters were insanely unrealistic. The whole plot was definitely not extreme enough for the situation and I wasn't impressed at all. On top of that, so many important potential plot points were skipped or glossed over. It resulted in plot holes, but it was a really quick read.
Ella, the main character, was so dumb...Ella was treated like a dog the whole time, but I felt like it wasn't even an extreme situation so I wasn't angry about it. She had no idea that the situation that she was in was wrong, but after she was told by 2 or 3 people, she automatically started rebelling a little bit. She never thought for herself and all of her actions were all just stupid.
There were also quite a few characters that had the potential to be really awesome side characters. I felt like they had the potential to have awesome and more extensive roles in the story, but again. Details were glossed over and important bits were left out.
Let's talk about the "romance"! It was kind of a mess. It was very Stockholm Syndrome-esque and it just made me really angry. It was so insta-lovey and irrational.
I've read so many dystopian novels and I know what good qualities are in the books that I loved. This was just a real let down for me, and I wish that I liked it more. Ella never wanted to be free. She just wanted to fulfill what was expected of her. She wasn't a badass, she was naive and annoying as heck.
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