Literally Lenny: book review

Disclaimer:

I was kindly sent an e-ARC of this book by MacMillan publishers. All opinions are my own.

What's it about?

Celestine North lives in a society that demands perfection. After she was branded Flawed by a morality court, Celestine's life has completely fractured; all of her freedoms are gone. Since Judge Crevan declared her the number one threat to the public, she became a ghost on the run with Carrick, the only person she can trust. But Celestine has a secret; one that could bring the entire Flawed system crumbling to the ground. A secret that has already caused countless people to go missing. Judge Crevan is gaining the upper hand and time is running out for Celestine. With tensions building, Celestine must make a choice: save just herself, or risk her life to save all Flawed people? And, most important of all, can she prove that to be human is to be Flawed? - Goodreads Synopsis

My Thoughts:

First of all if you haven't already read my review for Flawed, read it first. If you've already read that, you'll know that Flawed was one of my top reads of 2016, and Perfect will likely be a favorite of 2017.

This book was phenomenal. I loved being back in Celestine’s world because Cecelia Ahern completely thrusts you into the world with very little introduction and very little backstory (which I love in a sequel). She gets right to the point!

Characters:

Celestine- Honestly, she really irked me in the first half of the first book because she only conformed to society instead of thinking for herself. But in Perfect, she made a complete 180° change. She finally became her own person, stopped caring about what society thought of her, and did what was morally right.

Carrick- I didn't know what to think of Carrick in the first book because to me, he seemed quite unimportant. But in this book, you saw way more of him, thus allowing his character to truly develop in front of you. You're able to understand more about him and what makes him so mysterious.

Crevan- I feel like we did not see nearly as much Crevan in Perfect as we did in Flawed and I'm content with that. While he did add more conflict to the storyline, he is just downright obnoxious! He is the perfect villain in all the wrong ways. Because quite honestly, he reminded me a lot of politicians in our own society. This made the book all the more believable because while the dystopian society may not exist, Crevan's personality definitely does.

Storyline:

I don't know how Cecelia does it, but this is one of the very few books that is captivating throughout its entirety. There's absolutely NO lulls in the storyline. There's constant conflict, always something going on, and the book is nearly impossible to put down. Even from the very beginning, she just launches into the story. There's nothing worse than having a writer slowly get into the plot, especially in a sequel (when you already know about the characters AND the last book left you on a major cliffhanger).

Connection to Nazi Germany:

What made this book so eerily realistic was its similarity to Nazi Germany. Flawed wore armbands that announced their status everywhere they went. They were branded "Flawed" with a permanent mark as a reminder of their inferiority. Crevan was a dictator who solely seeked complete power. He used propaganda to scare people into “behaving” as the perfect human race. The Flawed were seen as disgusting human beings who had curfews, limitations, and less rights.

All of this is exactly what Nazi Germany was, and despite this book being fiction, this dystopian society is far from fiction. Something like Nazi Germany can happen again. There will always be other attempts to “Make the World Perfect Again.” I believe what Ahern was getting at is that although this may unfortunately happen again, it is by no means necessary for it to come to war as it previously has. It can be done peacefully and within the society. We are not that different; we are all human, and we are all flawed. Together we can overcome anything that plagues our society as long we unite as one.

3:48 PM No comments

What's it About?:

"WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.
And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you're this high up, there's nowhere to go but down...." - Goodreads Synopsis

My Thoughts:

I cannot possibly tell you how much I adored this book. The Thousandth Floor is easily, easily, my favorite book of 2016. I have never been so immersed in a book before.

The story is set in the future where hover boards are the norm, and thousand floor buildings are architecturally possible. I have heard a lot of people say that it is a futuristic version of Gossip Girl, and even though I was never a fan of Gossip Girl, I know exactly what those people were getting at. Regardless of the futuristic setting, Katharine McGee made this story incredibly realistic for people who are living 102 years in the past. She included the simple topics such as love and betrayal, as well as talking about the serious parts of everyday life. McGee brought the intense side to the story by talking about computer hacking, drug addictions, and family affairs. Each character was so different from the next, it's hard not to relate with at least ONE of them.

I loved it, and I will read it again and again until the sequel is released next Summer.

I highly recommend you give this a read, because you will NOT be disappointed.

4:32 PM No comments

What's it about?

Elias and Laia are running for their lives. After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.

My Thoughts:

An excellent sequel to an excellent debut. It's difficult for me to say which book I liked more because they both brought completely different things to the table. The first was full of so much information and an introduction to their world. The sequel dives so much more into each character's life, allowing us to relate with many of the characters, resulting in MANY MANY more feels. So many feels, you guys.

But...how was the return of the main characters? Well. To be honest, some I loved, and some just did not impress.

Elias:

Elias became more complicated and complex when you were able to see the things he found worth fighting for. Without giving away spoilers, Elias proves to us just how strong and loyal he is after we see him being violently tossed around in his own mind. Overall though, his character hadn't changed much from the first book. He was still the badass Elias who's mother was out to get him after she had thrown him to the curb. (But. That's okay. No bitter feelings, clearly...)

Laia:

Laia did not impress me much in this sequel. She was a major badass in the first dealing with everything that was thrown her way from the death of her family to becoming a slave for the most ruthless woman of the empire. But in the second, it was almost as if her character became weak. I wasn't impressed by anything she "courageously conquered". Her character became very dull in the sequel, making me almost think that she was a completely different character.

Helene:

We finally got to peak into Helene's mind as well, which was probably my favorite part. She is just a conflicted character, working for the empire when the empire has taken everything you love away from you. The strength and power she shows is remarkable and I cannot wait to learn more about how she takes on the Empire.

The ending leaves you wanting so much more. A decision is made by many but you have no idea how anything is going to work out or if it will work at all. It leaves you confused and scared, but overall, just really freaking happy that a writer like Sabaa Tahir exists. Cause trust me, she's wicked badass; just like her books.

9:18 PM No comments

What's it about?

"On a foggy summer night, eleven people—ten privileged, one down-on-his-luck painter—depart Martha's Vineyard on a private jet headed for New York. Sixteen minutes later, the unthinkable happens: the plane plunges into the ocean. The only survivors are Scott Burroughs—the painter—and a four-year-old boy, who is now the last remaining member of an immensely wealthy and powerful media mogul's family.

With chapters weaving between the aftermath of the crash and the backstories of the passengers and crew members—including a Wall Street titan and his wife, a Texan-born party boy just in from London, a young woman questioning her path in life, and a career pilot—the mystery surrounding the tragedy heightens. As the passengers' intrigues unravel, odd coincidences point to a conspiracy. Was it merely by dumb chance that so many influential people perished? Or was something far more sinister at work? Events soon threaten to spiral out of control in an escalating storm of media outrage and accusations. And while Scott struggles to cope with fame that borders on notoriety, the authorities scramble to salvage the truth from the wreckage." - Goodreads Synopsis

My Thoughts:

This book had SOOOOO MUCH POTENTIAL! ...and then it didn't. I don't even understand how this went so poorly. I loved the beginning and the entire plot but somewhere in between everything it just got so boring. WAY too much fluff. WAY too much backstory. I understand it's titled "BEFORE the fall" but quite honestly, I was more intrigued by Scott and his backstory and future rather than some other corrupt billionaires who have been cheating on their wives since day 2 of their marriage. NO thanks.

So. The reason i'm not giving this book only one star is because of Scott. Scott is what saved this book (even remotely) for me. I lived for the interactions between Scott and JJ and even Scott and Eleanor. But once we got to YET ANOTHER backstory of a billionaire, I lost interest immediately.

I think that if this book cut out every other character's backstory, this book would've been SO GOOD. But because I had to struggle through those other stories, I just did not like this book. There was too much filler and quite honestly, this book was taken in the wrong direction. The author focused on all the wrong things for far too long.

If this was less "Before the Fall" and more "After the Fall" I think it would've been much more enjoyable.

So. Unfortunately, I have to give this book 2 lonely stars.

11:11 AM No comments