Kieryn Nicolas has built an entirely new world in her new book, Flawless Ruins. The year is 2238. After an all-out nuclear war, the world has been completely re-structured. No division may have contact with another. Almost everything we know about life has changed. All information is controlled by a government, run only by women. Which seems nice, right? Well, not so much. In this new world, men are now “Likes”. “Likes” are companions to the women of this world. They clean, cook, and basically live to serve the woman they belong to. They literally have no mind of their own.

Flawless Ruins is told from the point-of-view of Morgan and Neil. Morgan is a teenage girl who is happily living her life, oblivious to the lies surrounding her. She is anxiously awaiting the day she will receive her “Like”. Neil is a teenage boy, forced to live a life of servitude to the women who rule his world. When Morgan and Neil have a chance encounter, their whole lives are turned upside down. Everything they have ever known will be put to the test.

Kieryn Nicolas did an incredible job writing this book. She did a well-rounded job of building a completely new world, with all the details neatly kept together. The emotions portrayed in her writing was pronounced, I felt them right along with the characters. They are two kids basically pushed to the brink of sanity. Neil’s utter frustration and desperation at his plight was tangible and suffocating. Nicolas gave Morgan, whose world is completely shattered with each new revelation, the appropriate responses of incredulity and depression. The build-up of understanding, trust, friendship and ultimately, the relationship is beautifully paced. In Flawless Ruins, the suspense is ramped up continuously and builds to a crescendo that left me frantically flipping the pages, wondering what will happen to Morgan and Neil.

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