Flawed Paperback – Big Book, 25 August 2016

Entre 1984 et Hunger Games, j'ai adoré ce roman dystopique où l'héroïne est seule (ou presque) face à une société bien plus corrompue qu'elle n'est accusée de l'être. C'est la première fois que Cecelia Ahern se lance dans un livre pour "jeunes adultes", ce qui me faisait un peu peur au début alors que j'aurais dû faire confiance à cette auteur de talent bien plus tôt. Comme d'habitude elle nous incite à nous poser des questions qui sont ici clairement d'ordre moral tout en nous entraînant dans une intrigue pleine de rebondissements. J'ai hâte de lire Perfect pour connaître la suite des aventures de Celestine !

読みだしたら、止まりませんでした。読みやすくもあり、ストーリーがスリリングでもあり、そして、大きなメッセージが込められた作品でもあります。「間違いをおかしてこそ、失敗してこそ、人は学び成長する！」というメッセージ。そして、勇気とは何か、強さとは何かも考えさせられます。17歳の少女の葛藤と成長が、痛々しいほどリアルに描かれています。けっして、主人公を全面的に美化して描いていないところが、この本のもうひとつの魅力でもあり、読者は共感しながら、この少女と同じ目線で試練に立ち向かっていく感覚を持てます。星を５つでなく４つにしたのは、後半で少々もたついた所があったからです。それと、重要な登場人物が後から後から出てくるのはちょっとズルいんじゃないの？と思ってしまいました。

Gestern kam mein Exemplar von "Flawed" an. Ich habe im Internet nach Dystopien geguckt und Flawed wurde mir als Neuerscheinung angepriesen.Zunächst muss ich sagen, dass ich ein anspruchsvoller Leser bin und es mir sehr wichtig ist, dass eine Dystopie gut aufgebaut ist. Die Entstehung und das Konzept müssen Stimmig sein und die Handlungen der Charaktere nachvollziehbar. All diese Kriterien werden von Flawed erfüllt. So war das Buch sehr spannend und wurde im laufe eines Tages von mir verschlungen.Kurz zur Handlung. Celestine ist ein 17 Jähriges Mädchen welches im großen und ganzen Perfekt ist. Gute Noten toller Freund usw.. Sie lebt in einer Welt, in der Perfektion sehr geschätzt wird und Menschen mit charakterlichen Schwächen mit einem "F" für Flawed (auf deutsch Fehlerhaft) gebrandmarkt werden. Diese Menschen müssen bestimmten Regeln Folgen und andere Menschen dürfen Ihnen nicht Helfen.Nun findet Celestine sich in einer Situation wieder, in der sie sich nicht an die Regel halten kann (oder will?) und bekommt zum ersten Mal Probleme.Meine Gefühle beim Lesen: Ich konnte mich sehr gut in Celestine hineinversetzen und habe stark mit ihr mitgefiebert. Nicht nur einmal standen mir bei der Beschreibung ihrer Gefühle die Tränen in den Augen und ich verstand ihre sehr gut beschriebenen kämpfe mit sich selbst.Sie macht in dem Buch eine Entwicklung durch, die absolut sinnvoll ist und mich überzeugt hat.Negatives: Ich lese sehr gern Jugendbücher aber irgendwie nerven mich langsam die sich in fast jedem Buch aus diesem Genre anbahnenden Dreiecksbeziehungen. Hier ist es allerdings wohl auch ein Sinnbild für die frühere und die zukünftige Celestine.Außerdem muss ich sagen das Buch ist ziemlich kurz und ich denke der Folgeband hätte auch gut direkt an dieses dran gepasst (selbst wenn ich es noch nicht gelesen habe). Die Schriftgröße erinnert an ein Kinderbuch und der doppelte Zeilenabstand bewirkt, dass nur wenige Zeilen auf eine Seite passen.Insgesamt gebe jch dem Buch trotzdem 5/5 Sternen. Selten konnte mich eine Dystopie so überzeugen.

The book was delivered within three days, as usual the book was absolutely in perfect condition. Thanks to amazon for their great discount.I finished reading this book within one and a half days. 'FLAWED' is CECELIA AHERN'S young-adult debut novel. This book has  sequel named 'PERFECT' that will be out MARCH,2017.About the book - This book is about Celestine North. She lives a perfect life with her sister Juniper, brother Ewan and her parents. She is loved by all her friends and teachers. She is a brilliant student having interest in mathematics. She is also dating the very charming Art Crevan. Celestine lives in such a country where there is a government run institute called THE GUILD. THE GUILD has made some rules that makes the society and country more perfect. The persons who does not follow these rules or show disloyalty to them will be marked as a FLAWED one with branding marks on specific part of their body, that ruins their future forever. These flawed persons are not even criminals but the punishment they get is worse. It is even against the rule to aid a FLAWED. On the way to her school, Celestine watches an old man getting on the bus whom she thought to be her grand father by mistake. There were two other non-flawed ladies who were already sitting in the flawed seats assigned for a flawed person. The old man starts coughing and gradually he starts losing control of his body as he coughs to death. But nobody comes to his help only because he is Flawed and helping him is against the rule. Unable to see this inhuman situation, Celestine could not control herself. She gets up and asks the two ladies to move to other empty non flawed seats and make the old man sit in his flawed sit. but those two old woman did not agree to move. They were so arrogant they did not even care that the old man was almost fainting there. So, Celestine stopped the bus and was helping the old man to sit in a non-flawed seat but the old man tried his best not to sit there as it was against the rule. Suddenly the whistleblowers arrived took Celestine away into the Highland Castle where she met Carrick a FAB(flawed at birth). Then after the judgement she was marked flawed 6 times(which qas not in the law). A person can be flawed maximum at 5 places of the body. Judge Crevan(Art's father) came to the branding chamber expecting Celestine to repent but she didn't so he out of his rage and greed of power branded her spine. Since that day Celestine's life changed. She became a hero, riots started everywhere. Now the question is whether she will win over this inhuman GUILD.My thoughts: This book seemed so real to me that I felt the rage and anger of Celestine. I loved the character of Celestine, Carrick, Juniper and her granddad. Is it a sin to show compassion, love, kindness to a person ? Why should we discriminate a person based on his/her flaws. We are human, social beings and we should help each other in their needs. The story was like an allegory to our society of the present day. When Celestine was flawed, she felt like she was all alone,it was hard for her to trust anyone. Everytime she felt like scapegoat setting up for another trap to make her fall in more danger. But at last she will learn that her granddad is there for her. Like that few other people like Carrick,her math tutor, Pia the reporter will help her to survive the situation. There were people who believed in her, considered her as the face of change. Person like Crevan exits to rotten the society. Crevan is so full of power and greedy of becoming more powerful that it made him insane. The people who are there to make the society flawless are themselves flawed. So, I think this story sends a message to every reader to be helpful not to discriminate and look down upon people. Our humanity is something that makes us different from other creatures. Carrick was flawed because he was looking for his flawed parents after he reached 18 years. The Guild was unable to brainwash him like they do to every FAB. It was found out that these rules of The Guild were rather stupid and they were creating division in the society. They were taking away the basic human rights. These rules made no sense, no logic. How do a parent will feel when his/her child will be taken away from him/her only because of a F mark on the body? Is it anyhow justified? This story is not merely like anyother young-adult love story rather this story has depth. The whole plot has a suspense especially when Celestine was set up for a party but instead was humiliated by some of her school friends. I really loved reading this story and learned so many things. Last time I read an Ahern book, I cried and this time I was burning with rage when Celestine was tortured for helping a man who needed help. On the other hand the story was written so simply it was a pleasure reading this book. At the end of this book, the author left the readers in anticipation for the next book as Celestine left her home and went to find Carrick and escape from Judge Crevan. Now that Celestine has so much support and followers will she win this battle against Crevan ?

This book is really good! It gets somewhat repetitive at times, and the dystopian world did not seem like it was thought through completely. I had an ocean of questions about the world that went unanswered throughout the book. Hopefully, the sequel will sate my curiosity! I found this novel to be quite exciting and thought-provoking. It is a quick read too, despite being four hundred pages long (I do not know if this is a pro or a con.)