{REVIEW} Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

PERFECT RUIN
by Lauren DeStefano

Genre: Young Adult, Scifi-Dystopian
Pub Date: Oct 1, 2013
Publisher: Simon & Schuster BYR
Length: 352 pages
Spoilers: N/A
Goodreads ♦ Amazon($8.99)

 

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On the floating city of Internment,you can be anything you dream – a novelist or a singer, a florist or a factory worker… Your life is yours to embrace or to squander. There’s only one rule: you don’t approach THE EDGE. If you do, it’s already over.

Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city and her home, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. There’s too much for her on Internment: her parents, best friend Pen, and her betrothed, Basil. Her life is ordinary and safe, even if she sometimes does wonder about the ground and why it’s forbidden.

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, Judas is 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.

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Beam Me Up
Ah! I loved this world. I thought it was really unique the way the people were living in the clouds and the way society had learned to accept each and every person. People could be who they wanted to be. Artists were accepted just as much as scientists and blue collar workers were worth just as much as white collar workers. Yet, the best part of this society was the hidden dystopian elements. They were so well masked by the world and the people that they were hard to recognize at first glance and made for an amazing story.

Forward Movement
I was really shocked by this book because of how easy it was to keep reading. The plot elements were not grand scale, jaw-dropping, world shattering pieces. However, they didn’t have to be. The subtlety of the plot points and the way they altered the characters and the world and society was so slight that I hardly noticed the changes until the radical change actually happened. I was so enraptured by the story development that I hardly noticed the pieces weaving themselves together to form a grand plot. Loved this.

Wishing for Normalcy
Right from the get go I loved the main character, Morgan. She is a teenager who has been sheltered from the darkness of society, but knows that terrible things can happen. Still, she does what she can to move forward. She does what she can to fit in and, despite the recognition that she may not be normal or have normal thoughts, she strives to push them away and be ‘normal.’

I loved this so much because I think a lot of teens (myself included at that age) can relate to this. They strive to fit into the framework that society offers them. They do their best to push down any piece of them that might be quirky, odd, or unacceptable because life is ‘easier’ when we are normal, when we are like everyone else. Yet, Morgan isn’t. No matter how hard she fights it, there is something about her that is different and for this I was able to really connect with her, understand her, and care about her.

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