**REVIEW** Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: October 1, 2013
Published By:  Simon & Schuster for Young Readers
Length:  356 pages
Review Copy:  Provided by publisher for honest review

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On Internment, the floating island in the clouds where 16-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives, getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though Morgan's older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. She tries her best not to mind that her life is orderly and boring, and if she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in best friend Pen and her betrothed, Basil.

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 when she meets Judas. He is the boy being blamed for the murder — betrothed to the victim — 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 who she will lose.

  Every part of me wanted to read this book after seeing the cover and reading the synopsis.  Admittedly I have not read the, The Chemical Garden series but I have heard wonderful things about the writing so I was confident that this was going to be a good read.  The writing in this book was wonderful and flowed with such grace that I often found myself lost within the pages.  The inside was just as beautiful and intricate as the outside and it opens readers into a unique and intriguing world that is like nothing I have ever read before.

  Internment is like dystopian societies that we read but there is a difference...it isn't a dystopian society.  This is a place that lives from its own myth and separate from the land.  They are a floating island, above us and yet they are people like us but not at the same time.  Their technology is not as advanced as our and they try and learn what little they can from scopes and glances they catch of the land.   However Internment is not for everyone, some people can not escape the allure of what is beyond and though many resist some of them can not resist the pull of what may lay beyond...they become jumpers.  Jumpers are what the call irrational and are monitored.  There are worse things out there though...the problem is no one knows just who and what this threat is.

  There is something unique about Morgan that I like.  She is not weak and useless but the society she lives in causes her to question her stability and confines her, she does not always question what she is taught, nor does she resent the rules but she is curious for what is beyond the edge and that alone is dangerous.   There is a limit of what one can do in a world like this though and it seems that there is supposed to be more for Morgan.  Though she did not want to be considered an irrational and those around her assure that she isn't, there are people that are watching her, people that know more than she does about what is going on in her world.  I was questioning a few things and worried for Morgan but I was awed by the support that she gets from those around her.  Her bravery and the trust she has in her own feelings may take her from what she knows but in doing so she became more.

  Romance is unavoidable in this read because everyone that is born is scheduled and has a designated partner.  Admittedly this made me a little on edge but turns out I loved Morgan's betrothed: Basil.  These two really make an excellent working couple.  Though they are to be married because of what the King says, it seems that they genuinely care for each other.  What made me really fall for Basil was his belief and support in everything Morgan said and wanted.  Not that he was a push over or was so whipped that he just did as he was told but he truly loved her and in that supported her and wanted to be with her no matter what.  This is not saying that I didn't worry about some things but it seemed that when she needed him most he would be a rock and risk himself and everything he knew just to make sure they could be together and she would be safe.  This is not the main focus of the book but it does play its part and I think the story would have lacked if DeStefano had gone for a triangle or didn't have Basil in it.

  After reading this I am in dire need of the next book and may have to get on reading the, The Chemical Garden series to fill the void.  This is probably also due to the cliffhanger ending, though I am getting better at handling them, they still pick at me and leave me wondering why I read ARC because it just makes me have to wait longer to get my hands on the next book.  If you have been hesitant about this one please don't be!   Seriously the writing, the world and the characters are captivating and the story is something unique to this book.  I personally would recommend it to lovers of dystopian reads or those that want a twist in a different world.

I think about the murdered girl.  I wonder about her final moments.  I'm horrible and selfish   I must be  because all my thoughts lead to the idea that she could have been me instead.

 I tell myself that I'm safe.  The murdered girl didn't have a betrothed who protected her like Basil protects me.  She didn't have a brother upstairs and a mother in the next room and a father on the patrol force.  

  Everyone seems to be falling to pieces around me.  Alice and Lex are struggling in the aftermath of Lex's incident with the edge, even all these years later.  I don't know what is the matter with Pen   destroying her art and hoarding her secrets; and I cannot stop thinking about Judas Hensley and his dead betrothed.

  When I return to the kitchen, without breaking stride I go straight into Basil's arms, defeated.  What a spectacular mess he's betrothed to. But our home will never be like this.  He will never leave for days at a time and I will never go back to the malaise of those elixirs.  I'll jump off the edge of this city, I'll go mad, I'll go blind before I let our home be like this.

Our betrothal was planned months before we were born, and we were supposed to be born the same week, but I was early.  I could never get anything right even from the start, but that never mattered to him.  Even if I'm all wrong, if I'm broken and filled with delusions of the ground, even if I'm orphaned, he wants me.