Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Published by Entangled: Teen
WITH the ending of season four of The Handmaid’s Tale TV series and the fact dangerous misogyny is still prevalent 36 years after the book it was based upon was published, now seems the perfect time to share the incredible feminist dystopian fiction that’s out there.
When dealing with such heavy themes that are so relatable, still heavily impacting people worldwide, it can be difficult to get right. Where one focuses in on these big issues they can be almost too intense for the reader to continue yet without doing enough on them the whole novel can come across fluffy and disingenuous.
The Perfected trilogy by Kate Jarvik Birch handles this effortlessly. This first book is real to the point of chilling with levity enough and a fast-paced plot that one can get through within a couple of days at most. All of this and more makes it a perfect example of an extremely effective dystopian fiction novel targeted towards teenagers, and one of, if not the first, that comes to mind when I am asked for recommendations in the genre.
Set in a future where a law has been passed allowing genetically modifying humans to be sold as pets, the rich and famous have begun to collect these people as symbols of status. We are told this horrific story from the point of view of one such household companion, Ella. The story starts in the only home she has ever known, a place where young women have been changed and trained to be more beautiful, more quiet, more perfect and where the girls should consider themselves lucky when chosen by a wealthy family.
They are allowed skills that may make them more pleasant for those who pick them, such as piano, however they are never taught to read or to form opinions.
There is a clear emphasis from the beginning on the impact the environment Ella has grown up in has had on her. She is trained to be passive and accepts that, for she has not been given the luxury of understanding that what is being done to her is truly wrong.
This makes her character all the more haunting, for all the moments of wishing for her to rebel, to figure out the dangers in this system, and all the more satisfying when she begins to.
Ella’s life changes when she is sold to a powerful congressman and his wife. She experiences new things, witnesses the kind of luxury she has never known, and is introduced to the idea that all is not right in this world. Penn, the son of the congressman is different to anyone else she has ever come across as he refuses to accept that people could be kept this way. He treats her with a compassion and respect that comes across not as condescending but as caring, and makes the romantic relationship that develops all the more believable.
Through Penn, Ella is thrown into a new world and must not only change her views about the world as she knows it but about herself too. This journey is incredibly powerful.
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