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 I actually read Wither and Perfect Ruin in the same exact week, this was my first time reading one of DeStefano's books. It was really interesting to see how both of these openings to a series differed, but there were actually a lot more similarities than I would have thought. I felt pretty ambivalent towards both Perfect Ruin and Wither much to my disappointment. 
 Perfect Ruin is a pretty average dystopian book with few surprises and plot twists. We have the totalitarian gov't who puts restrictions on the people and decides keep them in the dark. We have a heroine who is way too curious for her own good and is head over heels for the love interest. Add in a loyal best friend, a few sci-fi elements, a predictable ending and tadah, you have Perfect Ruin. Perfect Ruin isn't a bad novel at all; it's definitely entertaining and it is pretty compelling throughout, but I expected something more from DeStefano. I wanted to read something extraordinary, something incredibly original, but Perfect Ruin didn't really make the cut. There are hundreds upon thousands of dystopian books out there, but there's nothing that really makes PR stand out. 
 I really feel like DeStefano could have done so much more with Internment in Perfect Ruin. I mean come on, it's a floating city? There were so many opportunities for DeStefano to include something absolutely incredible, but she never really seizes the opportunity. For most of the book, it doesn't really feel like the reader is reading about a floating city. 
 There is little to none world building that helps the reader understand what Internment is really about. I loved the essay excerpts at the beginning of each chapter, but that was a flavor of what I wanted. How does the edge of Internment tempt people? Why does it cause irreparable damage to them? I had countless questions and I wasn't getting any answers at all. 
 For a dystopian novel, there never seems to be any tension or desperation throughout the entire novel. Even when people are getting murdered, things aren't as tense as they should be. Morgan doesn't really appear to be all that worried and everyone is so convinced that the police will handle it. If there hasn't been a murder on Internment in so long, would the police really be equipped and ready to solve another one? Except for the last 30% or so, there doesn't feel like anything is at risk when truthfully everything is at risk. 
 Perfect Ruin has Lauren DeStefano's signature writing style: very detailed, compelling, and immersive. It was hard to distance myself from Perfect Ruin because I had this nagging urge to read more and more. I really love the way DeStefano writes and Perfect Ruin is no exception. There's something so addicting and yet so subtle about DeStefano's writing. 
 Morgan isn't the most interesting of characters, she's actually pretty ordinary in most aspects. She has the questioning spirit that dystopian government want to obliterate, but other than that, she's as plain and basic as characters go. The rest of the characters never really managed to stand out in my mind either and I had to check the description to remind myself their names. I have seen these characters plenty of times before and Lauren DeStefano did nothing to spice their characters up. 
 Perfect Ruin just really underwhelmed in so many ways, but it was extremely entertaining. I was craving something mind blowing but Perfect Ruin didn't really seem to fit the bill. The ending of the book is by far, the best portion of the entire book and made reading the rest of the book feel completely worth it. It was a bit odd how as the book progressed towards the end, how the novel seemed to morph into a completely different book. The transformation didn't bother me at all, but it felt as if each 1/3 of the book was completely different in tone and feel. 
 Perfect Ruin will definitely satisfy Lauren DeStefano and newcomers to the dystopian genre. I blame myself for having sky-high, extremely unrealistic expectations for my disappointment. I can definitely imagine myself reading book #2 to sate my curiosity and also because I have this lingering suspicion that the sequel will be completely amazing. I really think that this book was all about setting up the sequel and so the sequel will be so much better.