Title: Perfect Ruin
Author: Lauren Destefano
Series: The Internment Chronicles #1
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Dystopian
Format:  Hardcover, 356 pages
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: ARC received 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.

Lauren Destefano is an author I am so happy I discovered. Her Chemical Garden Trilogy was one of my favorite series these last few years. Her ability to create a new and exciting world was amazing and I loved reading it. So when I figured out that she was writing a new series I was extremely excited and wanted to read it right away.

Perfect Ruin was a great read. I knew going in that it would be very different from her other series, but I did notice some similarities. For example, like in the Chemical Garden Trilogy, the characters are betrothed to another, and they have no choice in the matter. But unlike her last trilogy, the main character approves of this match and it is actually quite a sweet romance. Even though it seems forced at the beginning.

What I loved about this book was the world itself. The imagination Lauren has is unlike anything i have read. When you read about a generation of people who were banished to the sky by God, and forced to live on an island in the sky, you have to admit that its pretty amazing. Internment is literally an island that is suspended in the sky, and its residence are forbidden to go to the ground, and if you try, then they are faced with some pretty horrific consequences.

Another aspect of this story was the mystery element. This is something that Lauren touched on in her Chemical Garden series but in Perfect Ruin it is everything. When a girl is found murdered, her wrists and throat slashed everyone on the island begins to panic, and with good reason. There hasn't been a murder in over 20 years. I loved this aspect of the story. I wanted to know who was the murderer and why that girl had to die. And i loved how it effected our main character. She had always questioned the world around her, and why they were bannished from teh ground, but this just added to that. We saw her grow as a character and become an independent thinker and I loved that.

I am so happy that Lauren wrote this series, it is both familiar and unique. It is a story that I cannot wait to follow, and considering how the book ended, the next one will have even more mysteries and surprises. And I cannot wait! A great read!