Perfectly Damaged by E.L. Montes
Book description:
Schizoaffective disorder: a mental illness in which a person experiences a combination of mood disorder and schizophrenia symptoms.
I know about this illness—very well—because I suffer from it. It’s been four years since my diagnosis, and ever since, I’ve been living in a dark hole. Voices constantly invading my thoughts. Hallucinations. All of which force me to question if what I’m experiencing is even reality.
But here I am, still hanging on, still breathing and living through it.
That is, until he stumbled into my life. Logan Reed. I don’t want any part of him. I’ve pushed him away, but he isn’t easily deterred. I’ve told him I’m different, but he doesn’t care. He’s trying to slowly break me down. I’m trying just as hard not to let him. He doesn’t know how truly damaged I am; what will happen when he does?
I know the truth—he’ll never be able to look at me the same way again. Just like everybody else.
Giselle’s Review:
My immediate thought after reading the last line in Perfectly Damaged was: Wait. Where are the other pages?! That’s it? What?! Oh god, it says Authors Notes, it’s over.
Now, I know what you are thinking. This book must have a cliff-hanger or a not so happily ever after… wrong. I just did not want this book to ever end! However, eventually all stories must come to an end, and with bloggers the end of a book usually signifies the start of a review.
If you’ve read the description for Perfectly Damaged (which I’m hoping you have, since it is located above), you may get the sense that this is not a light read, and well, it isn’t. However, the beginning of Perfectly Damaged was not as dark as I expected it to be. This was something that I thoroughly enjoyed because it surprised me. Perfectly Damaged deals with some extremely heavy subjects but the fact the E.L. Montes can add this almost light feel at the beginning of her novel to what is such a dark topic, made me really enjoy this novel.
That is not to say that this book will not have tears forming in your eyes, because several scenes did just that to me. First off, I am not a big crier. The last movie that made me cry/sob was Marley and Me, and that may just be because I love more dogs than people. So the fact that this novel was capable of forming actual tears in my eyes is huge and is proof of how truly beautiful this book is.
Perfectly Damaged has such incredibly strong characters that you will truly FEEL with them, especially Jenna. You will struggle with Jenna, you will cry with Jenna, you will love and succeed with Jenna because THAT is how strong of a character she is. You will also struggle with Logan, laugh with Logan, and fall madly, deeply, in love with Logan, because of his humor, his wit, his compassion, and so much more.
The writing and plot in this novel is impeccable and further proves my theory that E.L. Montes knows exactly how to keep eyes glued to reading devices. Her writing flows so well and makes you feel as if you are truly going through every single moment with these characters. Oh, I also adored the dual POV, and this novel would have not been complete without that, so thank you very much E.L. Montes for letting us get inside Logan’s head. <3
Perfectly Damaged is captivating, awe-inspiring, beautiful, funny, romantic, sad, and heartwarming. It will have you smiling, giggling, and yes, probably even crying. It will draw you in from page one and not let you go till the last word in the last sentence. Perfectly Damaged is everything one looks for in a novel about struggle, and overcoming those struggles and hardships. So many things are thrown our way that are out of our control, and sometimes we just have to learn to embrace or deal with whats in front of us and learn to overcome our fears.
This stand-alone novel is one that no one will want to miss out on. It is one that I will highly, highly recommend to any and all of my friends, and one that will leave its mark.
Quotes from Perfectly Damaged:
“No matter how strong of a person I struggle to be, the fact still remains—even the strongest fall through the cracks sometimes.”
“Until now I hadn’t realized that Logan has been undressing me from the very first time we met. Slowly, layer-by-layer, he removed the facade that hid the real me beneath.”
“We view life as more of a test, one that’s trying to beat us down every day to see if we’re strong enough to keep going.” I lightly shrug. “That’s why I just live today and push for tomorrow.”
My Playlist for Perfectly Damaged:
This Is Living by General Fiasco
I Will Wait For You by Us
Undone by Haley Reinhart
Between The Raindrops by Lifehouse
I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
