Perfect Ruin: Volume 1 (Internment Chronicles, #1)

by Lauren DeStefano

Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city and her home, 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 on Internment: 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 of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.

• ISBN10: 1442480610
• ISBN13: 9781442480612
• Publish Date: 1 October 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[cornerfolds]

Read more of my reviews at Cornerfolds.com!

Perfect Ruin has been on my shelf for years. I actually started reading it a year or so ago, but found that I wasn't in the mood to read it. Recently I found myself really, really curious to know what was over the edge of the floating city, so I gave it another chance and I'm so glad I did!

Morgan lives on Internment, a city that floats in the sky far above the earth. Around the city is something like a forcefield of wind that keeps things inside. Some people try to jump, including Morgan's brother, and they always come back changed for the worst. Despite knowing she shouldn't, Morgan has found herself wondering more and more what's over the edge and I love her for it.

Morgan is the kind of YA heroine I enjoy reading about! She's smart, strong, and inquisitive, and doesn't tend to blindly rush into situations. I loved her relationships with her betrothed, Basil, her best friend, and her family. I really liked that there were so many more well-developed relationships than just the romantic one. Speaking of romance, there were a few minutes when I thought there would be a love triangle, but thankfully it didn't happen and the romance that is in the book isn't the main focus of the book.

Which brings me to the absolutely amazing plot! I'll admit, there were definitely times that this book dragged. There's a lot of day to day life, walking place to place, and talking. But once things get going, they really move fast! There's also the constant knowledge that there's something over the edge. The idea that there was a tiny island and no one knew what was below it had me stressed out from the very first page and it was awesome. I was never quite sure what was going to happen. I had several theories about what would be over the edge and, though I was left with more questions at the end, I liked the direction it went.

The worldbuilding in Perfect Ruin was fantastic! There was enough detail that I felt like I had a good understanding of Internment and how it functioned. Really, I feel like I could probably draw a map of it if I had to. Internment is such a unique idea and Lauren DeStefano did an incredible job of pulling it off.

Like I said, this book definitely does leave off with a lot of questions to be answered. The cliffhanger would be terrible if the books weren't already published. Luckily, I can jump right into the next one to see how things turn out!

I'm very particular about my dystopian reads. Like I hated [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale|Margaret Atwood|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489652243s/38447.jpg|1119185]. But I loved [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1447303603s/2767052.jpg|2792775]. The more a dystopian leans towards fantasy, the more likely I am to enjoy it. This was okay. I didn't really enjoy it but it wasn't bad either - just wasn't my thing. It was a very long book as well. Too long. Tighter editing and structure could make this a lot more exciting. I tend to lean towards more suspenseful reads and this was more emotional and character driven. As I said, not bad, just not my thing. I generally liked the friendship between the girls and the developing relationships with their betrothed. The parents were more of a presence at the start and then disappeared as the book progressed. The ending was very abrupt. Not necessarily a cliffhanger but still very abrupt. I have whiplash from the ending. The ideas on mental health though were very on point and contribute to mental health awareness and understanding.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I was not a huge fan of Lauren DeStefano’s Wither, due to poor world building and character development. However, I decided I was willing to give her new series a try, starting with Perfect Ruin. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up liking Perfect Ruin either, and I’m not sure this is even one of those books where I can say the premise was good but the execution was off—because there barely is a premise.

There’s a floating city where the citizens are never allowed to leave to see the earth below. So, a girl wants to get off the city. And that’s pretty much it. There isn’t a lot of motivation behind the desire either, besides her personal daydreams of seeing more of the world, which hardly seems worth risking major bodily harm or death for. Political problems and corruption are implied, but are generally saved for later in the series. I think including everything in one novel, instead of trying to stretch an already thin plot over multiple books, could have improved Perfect Ruin immensely.

As it is the pacing is simply too slow for the majority of the book, and then ultimately too fast. The story opens with the protagonist Morgan spending a couple hundred pages dreaming of getting off her floating city. Only then does action happen, but then it’s too sudden, too late, and too rushed to fit properly into the remaining pages of the book. The end result is that it seems forced and unrealistic. Add to the unremarkable plot the fact that Morgan is a rather unremarkable main character…and there isn’t much to say about the book. I do like that there are some implications that Morgan has some type of social anxiety, but the narrative doesn’t make a point of drawing attention to it. She handles herself and lives her life as best as possible, tackling difficult situations as they come.

Overall, however, I was just really bored with this book. It reads as if the idea for a great opening scene of a novel was made to stretch over hundreds of pages, and then the main part of the plot never happened. I won’t be reading the rest of the series.

[Kim Deister]

Perfect Ruin is the first in a new dystopian series, The Internment Chronicles. And it is an amazing beginning! Lauren DeStefano is fantastic at what she does, creating dystopian worlds with just enough of our own reality mixed in to make it entirely believable. There is definitely a bit of the science fiction feel to this book, but in a different way from her Chemical Garden trilogy. In that series, the science fiction was literally about science, futuristic and extraordinary, but science. In this book, it is a bit different, with the separation of the world itself. There was a bit of a steampunk feel to this book, too, even though it is clearly not set in a distant past.

It is interesting that there is another common element between the two series and that is the idea of arranged marriage. In her other series, marriage was bought and paid for and was in the polygamous way with the intent to repopulate the dying human world. In Perfect Ruin, it is about the creation of an almost utopian world, creating matches based not on love but on compatibility. But as it happens in many utopian societies, not everything is as perfect as it may seem.

The characters in this book are all very different. One of my favorites was Amy, the younger sister of a murdered girl. Although she was not a main character, I loved her strong, independent, somewhat rebellious personality. The main character, Morgan, was a restless spirit and I could identify with her. She tended to question things that perhaps she shouldn't have in her world, preferring to think for herself. But that got her into trouble, too.

There is a lot of mystery and intrigue in this book, a lot of questions. There are times when it had a bit of a "conspiracy theory" feeling to it, but not in a crazy, unbelievable way. Instead, it added to the suspense and anticipation of it all. There is definitely a cliffhanger at the end, but it wasn't the usual "life or death" kind, but the kind that leaves you wondering what is going to happen next!


Things to love about Perfect Ruin...

--The mythology of the world. It is a dystopian/utopian blend, with a fascinating premise.
--The suspense and anticipation. I loved the twists and turns and the way things changed on the drop of a dime.

My recommendation: Fantastic start to a great new series. Fans of The Chemical Gardens will love this book, too!

[Mary-Allyn]

4/5 stars

I have to admit, I did not get sold on DeStefano's WITHER series. But PERFECT RUIN is absolutely wonderful. DeStefano's prose is on another level. The entire story took on a dream-like quality which is perfect for a city floating in the sky.

The only thing that really kept this from being a knock-out 5 star book for me was that (as blasphemous as it sounds) Basil was TOO perfect. He's entirely too understanding about everything Morgan does and I just really need to see him get angry and resentful and just have emotions that are something other than blissful protectiveness. Fingers crossed for the second book on that one.

Bonus Points: THAT COVER, MAN. That cover could make angels weep tears of design-joy (I don't even WANT to go into the typography and the chapter title designs GOD).

[violetpeanut]

I admit, I was a little bit disappointed by this one. There is amazing world building and great character building but the pace was altogether too slow for my liking. The plot was interesting and I will definitely pick up the next in the series when it comes out but overall this was not as amazing as I was hoping it would be.