Book Review: Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano
9:30 AM
Title: Perfect Ruin
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Paperback edition, 368 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: October 22nd, 2013
1/5 stars
Summary
On the floating city of Internment, you can be anything you dream. Unless you approach the edge.
Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city in the clouds where she lives, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. If she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in her best friend, Pen, and in Basil, the boy she’s engaged to marry.
Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, he is the boy being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find -- or whom she will lose.
Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city in the clouds where she lives, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. If she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in her best friend, Pen, and in Basil, the boy she’s engaged to marry.
Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, he is the boy being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find -- or whom she will lose.
Review
This book falls flat for me. I was expecting more world building and character development, but it all felt bland. It doesn't have anything special that distinguish it from other dystopian novel, and honestly, it bores me.
Nothing really happened at more than the first half of the book. At least nothing threatening Morgan's personal life. I mean, there are some bad things happened to the society, but nothing that affects her directly. Instead we read through chapters and chapters of Morgan's social life and romantic life. It was really boring and dragged on so much that I almost give up on this book and move on.
Nothing really happened at more than the first half of the book. At least nothing threatening Morgan's personal life. I mean, there are some bad things happened to the society, but nothing that affects her directly. Instead we read through chapters and chapters of Morgan's social life and romantic life. It was really boring and dragged on so much that I almost give up on this book and move on.
When things finally started to happen, it was still very very slow. All the secrets revealed? Nope, not that shocking. The murderer runs free? No action to get them. It's just really really boring.
The characters are bland and the world builiding is nonexistent. I learn nothing about the characters that make me convinced that they're humans and not robots. And I also feel no connection for the characters. I don't even care what happened to them. The world building is non-existent because Internment is a piece of earth that floating on sky, so everything was more or less the same. Same old railroad and train, housing complex, school that just lucky they're floating.
The only thing that saves this book is the pretty covers and the beautiful writing. The author writes with beautiful prose, but not too much that it become annoying.
Overall I was really dissapointed in this book. Maybe it's me who never liked dystopia, or it's the book faults. I might try to re-read and give this book a second chance (I always do). But I wouldn't read the next book for sure.
6 comments
Great review! My experience was quite different--I liked Perfect Ruin, but the sequel undid pretty much everything I'd enjoyed about the first book, including the pretty cover (they did a redesign and the new covers weren't nearly as nice). Nothing of any substance happened for most of the book; there was suddenly a love triangle; and the characters were mostly very flat when they weren't doing all the wrong things.
ReplyDeleteNot reading the next book is a good choice, in other words. :)
yes! I already saw the new covers and in my opinion they're soo bad (sorry for whoever designed it), that I can't understand why they need to change it. I only love Basil in this book but he didn't appear a lot.
DeleteI haven't heard of this book, but I'll steer clear of it! Thanks for the review! :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I nominated you for the Encouraging Thunder Award! Details here: http://erikabooksandstars.blogspot.ca/2015/09/the-encouraging-thunder-award.html
Thank you for the nomination :)
DeleteOh, that's a shame. I've read the first book of her other series, Wither, and it had kind of the opposite problem-the characters were developed but I didn't like anything else. This one seems like it has a lot pacing issues, and since I lack patience anyway I don't think this one would be for me, aha. Great review though!
ReplyDeleteI've been eyeing Wither for some time because of the gorgeous cover but after reading Perfect Ruin idk if I still wanted to read it :)
DeleteHi guys! Thank you so much for visiting, feel free to leave a comment and talk to me, I don't bite :D