Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

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Being 'perfect' is everything in this society and Celestine is nothing short of it. Being the perfect daughter, perfect citizen, perfect student and perfect citizen comes easily to her as a bureaucrat. Celestine has never had any trouble following rules and logic, but what happens when the two clash?
Helping people is the logical and compassionate thing to do, right? Except, it's almost illegal in this world.

When the system that you've always believed in turns against you, what's left to do except running?

This was my first time reading a Cecelia Ahern book (thanks to twitter user @black_moses_) and I was glued to the very end. Cecelia explores how oppressive systems affect those living under them, trusting, mindless bureaucracy, power dynamics, discrimination within the same oppressed groups as well as betrayal (or at least what looks like it) from the people closest to you.

I've never been one to read sequels. I'm a strong believer that the ending should be left as is. The risk of ruining a story with a sequel is not worth it. However, Cecelia completely changed my mind with Flawed, the sequel to Perfect.

The sequel follows Celestine through a seemingly endless streak of fortune and misfortune, escape and capture. True leadership requires a lot of difficult choices, each with unfavourable consequences, but one lesson I can say I learnt from Celestine is:

"There's the person you think you should be and there's the person you really are. I'm not sure who I should be, but I know who I am. And that, I say, is the perfect place to start again." 


 


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