Earth is a mess.
A genuine, freaking mess.
I'm not talking about the kind of mess you get after not cleaning your room for three month. That kind of mess is easily fixed by a long, painstaking cleanup while jamming out to the radio as you throw all your belongings into a massive heap in the hallway.
No. This kind of mess is the result of humans living on the earth for thousands upon thousands of years, changing and molding our society and planet itself as if they were Play-Doh. It;s the kind of mess that can be blamed solely on human nature and pure idiocy.
Honestly, I don't know how people managed to do it.
The Review
If I hadn't already done my favorite reads list for 2015 Imperfect by Claire Fraise would definitely be on the list. I absolutely LOVED this book. And had I not been told it was written by a 16 year old, I would never had know it.
You can tell that Fraise is influenced by Veronica Roth's Divergent series and Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series. However, Fraise has added her own unique voice to the dystopian novel that it does not feel like a copy cat.
I loved that her characters, though have taken on more adult roles (i.e. providing for their siblings), acted like teenagers. I especially liked that the way Summer's attraction to guys is there but it isn't an instant love interest. It felt more natural for teens their age. And her characters have normal names.
The beginning may have been a little slow as we are introduced to a world sort of like ours, but where the US has been divided up and are ran by corporations. Each corporations has their main production of a resource (kind of like how each district in Hunger Games was responsible for a certain resource). The sector that Summer lives in is ran by Making Perfect and its specialty is genetic engineering. Because each sector relies on the products of the other corporations, there is a mutual harmony of sorts between them. But what if one corporation wanted more power and what if that corporation had the means of creating a super race of humans?
However, once the ground rules of this new world order are laid out for the reader the story kicks into high gear and you won't want to put the book down. Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Can you count on your allies or have they been compromised? Who can be trusted?
There were a couple of inconsistencies in the details that bugged but really my only real complaint is that I didn't have a sequel to immediately pick up.
If you are into young adult dystopian science fiction, then this is a book you won't want to miss.
Buy Imperfect at Amazon
available formats: ebook and print (344 pages)
published: July 2015 by
ISBN13: 9781511660747
genres: dystopian, science fiction
target audience: young adult
source: publicist
read: November/December 2015
A free book was provided for this review. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.
Posts
hmm, intrigued, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteA sixteen year old author is impressive, especially given you couldn't tell. This does sound like an interesting book. I enjoyed both Hunger Games and the Divergent books. I would probably like this one.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually read dystopian books, but this one sounds fascinating. I enjoyed the excerpt and the image of doing a massive cleanup to loud music. Thanks for sharing...and for visiting my blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of dystopian fiction but I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this one by such a young author.
ReplyDeleteI am not a fan of dystopian fiction but it is highly admirable that you couldn't tell that this one was written by a 16 year old - amazing.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book for me to recommend to the YA readers I know.
ReplyDeleteNot quite sure I could read a book by a 16-yr old without despairing at what I have done with my life at 22. But it does sound really intriguing so maybe I'll line it up for the new year! Thanks for sharing and dropping by my blog :) Have a nice Christmas!
ReplyDeleteJuli @ Universe in Words