Title: Flawed

From Goodreads: "Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan. But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed. In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where perfection is paramount and flaws lead to punishment. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything."

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for review!

Flawed absolutely wrecked me emotionally. I haven't genuinely been so upset over a book in quite a long time, but this book actually made me cry. Like, angry cry and sad cry and "how could the book end right there" cry. Don't get me wrong, I loved this book, but boy did it give me the feels.

Long story short, Celestine lives in a world where being different and making mistakes makes you a criminal. Those who are branded as Flawed live their lives as outcasts, and have rules that they must live by with the threat of "or else" constantly hanging over them. When Celestine makes the decision to stand up and try to help a Flawed man, she gets arrested and branded as Flawed. There are five places that a Flawed can be branded and no one has ever been branded in all five places, until Celestine. I got seriously emotional over the whole branding thing and basically the entire part of the book where her trial was going on I was just an absolute wreck because of all of the injustice and madness that made up her world was destroying me.

After the trial, Celestine's world basically gets turned upside down. She's the face for Flawed equality but also the most Flawed person in history. She wants equal rights for Flawed but doesn't really have the ability to do anything about it, and it doesn't really seem like she can/wants to until the very end of the book. The ending was a pretty big cliffhanger and left me crying and wondering just how long I would have to wait until the second book came out, but I think it left an opening for Celestine to become the hero that the Flawed citizens need. I think the first book is basically Celestine realizing that the world has to change and that there are others who are willing to fight against the Guild, and the second book will be her almost rising up to help take them down and become a stronger character through her fight.

Wow, that sounded JUST like The Hunger Games/Catching Fire, huh? Oh well.

Despite reading several reviews about this book that were less than favorable, I really enjoyed this book. The whole "attraction/love at first sight" is never an element that I enjoy in books, but it was actually kind of hard to tell if Celestine was going to end up with Carrick in a romantic way or if she just wanted to find him because he was Flawed as well. Also, there are times that Celestine is a bit too descriptive and she tends to over-analyze things, but I liked that there was more detail added in to the story to help me feel more immersed into her world.

All in all, Flawed was a great read that really left me craving the second installment in the series. There are a few scenes that involve branding that may be slightly graphic for some readers, but it just made me more emotional than uncomfortable. Seriously, this book really got me upset at all of the wrongness that this world was made up of and I really hope that Celestine grows some balls in the second book and tries to make the world right again. Go pick up this title if you're looking for a powerful beginning to a sci-fi/dystopian series. Trust me, it's worth it!