Review – Perfect Ruin (The Internment Chronicles, Book 1) by Lauren DeStefano (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN-13: 978-1442480636
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Internment Chronicles
Source: Bought
Rating: 3/5 stars

“On the floating city, 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 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 at home: 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, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.”

I have had this book on my shelf to read for quite awhile. Previous to this book I read DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy which I really liked. I also have read her Pram middle grade books which have been okay. This was an okay read.

The book in general was pretty boring; things don’t start to get interesting until the very end. The premise was kind of interesting and very dystopian in nature; it seemed to take from a lot of other dystopian books out there.

I felt like all the characters were pretty blah. Our main heroine Morgan is pretty vanilla, until she is forced into a bad situation. Even then she is more of a “go with the flow” type of heroine than anyone really inspiring. Her betrothed Basil is pretty much the same; he follows Morgan around and is supportive of her because he’s supposed to be. The most interesting character in the story is Morgan’s brother Lex and we don’t spend a ton of time with him. I also thought the Princess was interesting, but again we don’t see much of her.

The story is very slow; kind of a slow build where a society that has always been rotten at the core slowly crumbles apart. Just as things start to get interesting the story stops. However, when the story stopped my main reaction wasn’t “Oh, I want more!”, it was more like “Huh, well at least I am done with it”.

Overall an okay but boring read. I liked DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy a lot more and don’t plan on reading any more of this series. I wouldn’t really recommend; there’s just nothing really all that engaging or special here.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge