Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected

Perfection comes at a price. As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these "family companions" enter their masters' homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury. Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman's bubbly young daughter, but she doesn't expect Penn, the congressman's handsome and rebellious son. He's the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows...and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating. But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she's faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn's family is leaving...and if she's unsuccessful, she'll face a fate far worse than death. For fans of Keira Cass's Selection series and Lauren DeStefano's Chemical Garden series, Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous--and dangerous--bow.

Lacy W

A special thank you goes out to Entangled Teen and Netgalley for allowing me an eARC copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

"...Sometimes it's nice to have a little bit of imperfection, isn't it?"

tw: fat shaming, intones of pedophillia

Well. This book was interesting. I originally found it when I did a cover reveal for the last book, which you can find here. A week or so later, I was offered the whole series through Netgalley and Entangled Teen. I eagerly accepted, thinking this was right up my alley because it was a dystopian/utopian world. And it was. Kind of. 

Ella is a pet. She was bred to be a companion for her master and the family. And yes, she's an actual girl. A human. The United States allowed the breeding of girls with near perfect genetics so they look breathtakingly beautiful and are incredibly healthy. They are allowed to eat only certain foods in order to maintain the health and the one objective for a pet is to make their masters happy. A pet's happiness in their masters happiness. They are treated slightly better than dogs. Most of them are anyway. 

Using this concept in a book was certainly interesting and it's something I haven't really read about before. I understand why the author made this choice but it was just so unsettling to me. The congressman (Ella's owner) was talking about spaying her and at one point, chained her up. Like wtf mate? The family would talk about her like she wasn't there and take her for walks. Like the whole thing just got to be really unsettling. The fact that some people are completely okay with owning humans just floors me. Of course there were others who were not okay it and I think that gets explored more fully in the second book.

I think what my main problem with this book was I wanted to know more about the history of the breeding program. Ella didn't know anything about the program, besides her training at the kennel (this is so unsettling), the real reason why she was bred or anything like that. I think if I knew the history, it would have been easier to read. Having first person POV may not have been the best choice.

I also must discuss my trigger warnings. Don't worry. I will not go into detail so I don't upset or trigger you guys. But I got to discuss it. In this book, the pets of Ella's kennel are high end. They only go to those that pass rigorous background checks and have thousands to spend. But the congressman that buys Ella doesn't seem to have the best of intentions. He's very loving to Ella as a pet, at first, but he gets more and more creepy as the book progresses. One example of this is he always wants Ella to sit in his lap and he's really touchy feely about it. Ella is 16, I believe, and the congressman is in 40's at least. That is why I put the trigger warning of the intones of pedaphillia. 

Overall, I'm intrigued enough to keep reading. The second book sounds promising and it sounds like I will be learning more about the breeding program and the seedy side of it. Which is always something I can be down for. As for the usual recommendation sentence at the end, I don't know, friends. This is a different story and I don't know how to sell this. I think I will read the next two books and give a better rec then. 

ps: Isn't the cover just gorgeous? The entire series is just top notch pretty!

Ella Zegarra

Publicado originalmente: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Ahora que el tema distópico o futuros desastrosos está tan de moda no es raro encontrar un libro etiquetado con ese género, y lo que me gustó de PERFECTED es que está ambientado en cierta forma en una época actual, no hay esas complicaciones o laberintos que las típicas distopías nos traen. Y quizá por eso es mucho más aterrador leer este libro. Me ha gustado que Kate Jarvik no llegué a ser explícita, que te deje imaginar lo peor durante todo el libro, hace que los gestos pequeños te llenen de repulsión hacía algunos personajes. Un toque en el cabello, una mirada más larga de la adecuada... *escalofríos*

La protagonista no es tan ingenua como se podría esperar, a pesar de que estuvo aislada toda su vida, sin estar plenamente consciente ha visto cosas malas que le pasan a las mascotas con defectos, lo que la hace un poco más inteligente. No estoy muy segura si PERFECTED falló en el instalove, lo que pasa es que Ella, la mascota, solo conoce el criadero y toda su vida estuvo rodeada de chicas, por lo que es compresible? xD Si bien no se menciona la palabra con A, es más una fascinación por lo desconocido, aunque la personalidad de Penn ayudó mucho a que no terminará siendo un romance meloso y rosa. Es bastante dulce, me fastidio un poco la historia al incio pero creo que con el transcurso de la historia van encajando los sentimientos.

Le puse cuatro de cinco estrellas por el final, si hubiera sido un poquito más trágico, me hubiera dado una sensación de conclusión que no me dio ahora, además que si le hubiera dado el final que yo quería el material extra hubiera sido más doloroso (no sé si vendrá en la versión al público, leí un eARC así que...). El desenlace me ha dejado con una sensación de continuación, aunque no hay ninguna noticia todavía.

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Siobhán

"Perfected" is far from perfect but in an awesome way!! What a fantastic tale!! I was hooked from the very start. It's exciting and captivating. A real page turner but with a very serious and quite sinister story.
 
Read My Full Review: http://totally-bookalicious.blogspot....

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I've been anxious to read this book since the first time it popped onto my radar during someone else's Waiting on Wednesday post. I love a good dystopian novel and have been looking for a new one (or series) to get involved with since some of my favorites recently ended. This one just could fit the bill. 

The concept behind this book – breeding young females as pets and selling them to wealthy people, often older men – was creepy enough on the surface, but it got a lot sketchier as I learned more. Sure, these "pets" are for your children. I believe it. Ugh. Seriously, it made my skin crawl at times. I'm going to try not to be creeped out by the fact that I continue to refer to these girls as pets as I type this review. The idea behind this book was unique to me, even if the plot wasn't entirely unpredictable. It did keep me guessing to an extent, but I'd also figured out some of the bigger "twists" along the way, but that didn't mean I enjoyed it any less. 
While this book is chock full of creepy old guys who enjoy treating young girls like pets, there are also some great characters in it. I did like Ella. She was obviously more than the perfect pet she was and it was interesting to watch her struggle with that realization as she spent more time with Ruby and Penn. Even though it was drilled into them at the kennel (seriously, that's what it's called) that they would never be like a human and were there merely for their masters' entertainment, she started to feel like more, like a regular girl and less like a plaything. Ruby was adorable; the perfect little sister. I loved Penn. He was so much the opposite of his super creepy father and I liked that he treated Ella like a person and not a possession. He was super sweet and thoughtful. 

You know there had to be romance in this book. It was good romance, too. Ella and Penn couldn't be together, but it didn't stop them from being interested in each other. I loved the dynamic between them. They were very evenly matched and so cute that it was painful at times. 

An important part of any non-contemporary read for me is the world-building. In Perfected, the world building was more a state of mind than a place, if that makes any sense. It was easy to imagine the setting as one not that different from the world we currently live in, but it was the prejudices and beliefs of the other characters that made the book different. Or, at least that's how I pictured it all. A majority of the characters seemed to be programmed that these pets were a privilege of the wealthy and it was their right to own them. Which, I suppose according to law, it was. (Hello, slavery anyone?) The belief they could use them for their entertainment in all the ways you're imagining (yes, even THOSE ways) is what set the world in Perfected apart from the world we actually lived in.

With a cliffhanger like the one at the end of this book, I assume this will not be a standalone, but part of a series. There's no sequel listed on Goodreads so far, but it just can't end like it did. I'm not a huge fan of cliffhangers, and while this one was reminiscent of one of my other favorite dystopian series (cough, Delirium, cough), I'm even less a fan when I don't know how long I have to wait for the next installment. All that said, however, I really enjoyed this book and the creepy concept behind it. I'll be stalking Goodreads until I find out if/when I can expect more of Ella's story. 

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Chantale

If you are looking for a good young adult read then you should read this one. It is very well written and it got me hooked. 

I highly recommend

Perfected

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