Novella Review: Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld

Title: Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld
Series: Stand-Alone
Finished on: February 3, 2013
Released:  December 4th 2012 by HarperTeen
Source: Library E-book
Rating: 4/5

Summary from Goodreads:

In this future-set novella by bestselling author Scott Westerfeld, Kieran Black lives in a "perfect" world. Disease and starvation have been eradicated, sleep is unnecessary, and it takes no time at all to go from the Bahamas to the moon. But now Kieran has to take Scarcity, a class about how people lived in the bad old days. And as if sitting through an hour of Scarcity every day wasn't depressing enough, it's final projects time. Each student must choose some form of ancient hardship to experience for two whole weeks. Kieran chooses having to sleep eight hours a night, which doesn't seem too annoying.

Maria Borsotti has never thought much of Kieran, but she decides to take pity on him and help him out with his project. Soon, Kieran is sleeping and having vivid dreams, while Maria, whose Scarcity project is to give up all teenage hormone regulation, is experiencing emotions she never knew she had. As their assignments draw them closer together, they begin to wonder if the olden days weren't so bad. Maybe something has been missing from their perfect lives after all?

I am so sad that this isn't a full-length novel.  This is a really unique story that I enjoyed immensely.

Basically it's a world set far in the future where pretty much every disease, illness, or general "bad" or inconvenient malady is eradicated; even sleep. The kids in a class called Scarcity have to each choose one of these things to endure for awhile. Stupid Perfect World show of the experiences through the eyes of Kieran, who must now sleep, and Maria, who lets her hormones go all wild.

It was extremely interesting to read Scott Westerfeld's take on this and the story seriously had be sucked in and left wanting for much more. I found myself so immersed in this world and with these very enjoyable characters that 80-something pages just wasn't enough time.

This was, however, my first taste of Westerfeld's work and I really liked what I got. I'll be looking into his novels very, very soon and hopefully getting some more of this great story-telling.