Hello fellow book nerds!
So I read this book a couple of years ago and I’ve meant to finish the whole series but it’s been so long. I decided to reread because I only remembered basic plot points and I’m really glad I did.
Have you read this series yet?
Happy Reading!
Perfected
Kate Jarvik Birch
4 out of 5 stars
Summary
Taken from Goodreads
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.
Feedback
This book is honestly the perfect example of a teenage dystopian. Girls are bred and groomed to be “pets” for very wealthy and high status individuals and families. This was a law passed through the government making this practice legal, even though it’s definitely unethical. But this story follows Ella from the night she is chosen up until… well her story is still going. The little bit of the background of Ella’s “childhood” (I just don’t know if you can call it that?) was very well done. It gives exact enough information of how these kennels are done and the selection process. Then Ella is chosen into a family, who helped pushed the bill so felt like they should have a pet. However, this isn’t their first pet. Ella starts to learn life in the real world is nothing like what the kennel (yes, they are called kennels) have prepared her for. While I enjoyed this story immensely and flew through it, I still just had the one problem. While I know the kennels and the way they are brought up is to be proper, it’s obvious what most of these pets are used for. And I just felt like they would have prepped the girls at least a little in this area. I know that’s not what their used for but Ella is completely clueless on a lot and I know that’s how most of the pets are. Other than that, the story is very fast paced and really makes you think about a lot of different things.
I really like Ella. Her story is so believable and every reaction she has is ideal in each situation. Ella has grown up knowing nothing else but how to be proper and please her family in different ways. But while she has the adults, she is also used for Ruby. Ruby is such an interesting character because it’s easy to see why she doesn’t have a lot of friends and why Ella is so important but at the same time, it is so easy to sympathize with Ruby. Penn knows what’s going on since he is older. His dad really wants him to go into politics so Penn can follow in his father’s shoes but Penn loves music. It’s something him and Ella bond over. It is kind of obvious of how the story goes for most of these characters but I still want Ella to live her own life and realize how wrong the Pet Program is.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch is exactly what you expect it to be. And in this situation, that’s not a bad thing. There are certain expectations going into the book and it satisfies all of them. It was a fast paced book that didn’t leave a lot of dull moments. There isn’t much surprise in the story itself but I enjoyed it. I really liked Ella and the way she starts off very naïve. I really enjoyed seeing her start to realize her life and what she has been taught wasn’t all correct. If you like dystopian novels, I highly recommend this one.
Audio Review
NOTE: The narration does not affect my rating of the book
I decided to do my reread with the audio and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was produced very well. However, I wouldn’t recommend doing this series with audio for a couple of reasons. The whole series isn’t completed with audio and it’s a different narrator for the second book than the first. So, even though I enjoyed the audio, I would stick with the physical versions for this.
Books in the Skye 