Uptown Oracle Reads… Flawed

In a world where making a poor decision is a punishable offence, Celestine North has been living her life perfectly. But one wrong decision means Celestine is branded flawed. Celestine’s perfect life is going to be completely different to how she had planned.

I loved the premise of the book. Society is removing poor decisions in the government by branding people who have made bad decisions previously. It seems like one of those topics you would discuss with your friends. It really makes you think about whether the system could ever work. Although Flawed is about when the system fails.

Error’s in judgment make you flawed. This is a really good point for discussion. So many people accidentally make error’s in judgement. It made me think about how sometimes people don’t consciously do things. Also, is it not an error in judgement to ‘judge’ someone to be flawed? The morality of the punishment come’s into question.

I liked the main character, Celestine. When perfect, Celestine wasn’t overdone or annoying. Often when bad things happen, people lash out, or they feel too sorry about themselves. I felt Celestine did a little of both when branded, but she acted very adult-like in how she acted with those around her.

The other characters were also well written. A lot seemed to be ambiguous and, like Celestine, you weren’t sure who to trust. The side characters were written as individuals, and I wanted to know more about some of them. A favourite point, all characters have their own motivations. Celestine knew they had reasons for supporting her, and ‘used’ them right back for her motivations. I’m happy Celestine was written smart enough to know, and to act and trust accordingly.

Let me note. There is a romantic subplot which leads us into book two. As you will know, I dislike romantic subplots in YA books. But… this one wasn’t that bad. There is a ‘insta-connection’ but it’s not a focus of the overall plot. Plus the character is useful to the storyline, and like I said previously, every character has their own motivations.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a fairly quick read, and I’ve also nearly finished reading the second book now. The ending just made me want to read the second book straight away, which is what I did.