This novella is light in tone and written wryly and somewhat slyly tongue in cheek. It is a departure from the much more serious tone of Westerfeld's Uglies series. The playful irony of the work is somewhat of a relief from the much more intense worlds that Westerfeld sometimes conjures.

I would recommend this book to students who enjoy Dystopian lit, and also Sci Fi fans. Stupid Perfect World would be a good fit in a contemporary lit course . It would be a good fit in a class that looks at the postmodern in contemporary American works. Readers who enjoy fantasy may also enjoy this read. ( )

I honestly had expected more out of this book and was disappointed in it. Although the situation the two main characters found themselves in were intriguing, I would have loved more of their insight into how different it was to experience things they had never experienced before. The book only seemed to focus on the female and it was as if the author just used a bunch of cliches to explain her situation. Readers never got a glimpse into how experiencing sleep for the first time for the male effected him.
Despite that, I did like the concept of this book. I just wish there was more to it. There was so much potential to this book and I feel the author just took the short way out. I did enjoy using my imagination to figure out how the two characters were changed by their experience, but if I had more guidance and knowledge, that would have been better. ( )

In the future, deprivation, sickness, hormonal imbalances, and pretty much all forms of suffering have been eliminated. Teenagers are required to take a class in "Scarcity" to remind them of how fortunate they are. Each chooses a single affliction or aspect of the pre-utopian world. Kieran chooses to start sleeping, while Maria chooses to no longer control her hormones. While their classmates deal with the common cold or seasickness, Kieran and Maria find their perfect, balanced selves tipping into a dramatic love affair.

Good ideas, good sketches of characters, but the story is too short and undeveloped. ( )

In this future world, high school students are required to attend Scarcity class. For the final project, the students are supposed to "embody" some form of ancient lameness, spending two weeks being blind or whatever. This is supposed to teach them what things were really like in "the old days."

Barefoot Tillman decides to go with the common cold. Other students chose hunger, illiteracy; most chose diseases. Maria decides to suspend her hormonal balancers. She wants to find out what it was like to be a teenager "back then." She wants to experience the intense feelings. Kieran decides to try sleeping. He plans to sleep 3 hours a night. In this future, people don't need to sleep, they communicate in headspace and no one experiences diseases or even hormonal fluctuations.

My opinion:
The novella is told from two points of view, Kieran and Maria. It is interesting to see how sleeping (& dreaming) and hormones affect them. And how it changes their outlook.

It is amazing how Scott Westerfield manages to tell this story in only 9 chapters. I found myself wanting to learn more about this world and the people in it. I felt connected to the characters and it was fun to watch them learn about things that are so foreign to them yet such a big part of our everyday lives.

I enjoy Westerfield's writing and this book was no exception. This is a fun, easy to read book. It is short and can be read in one evening. So worth it!!

Recommended to:
Young adults who like their dystopian futures with a touch of romance. ( )

Kieran Black is such a fantastic character name it's been used twice! (By Alyxandra Harvey in her Drake Chronicles series -[b:The Drake Chronicles Collection Set: Blood Feud, Out for Blood, My Love Lies Bleeding, Haunting Violet|12333662|The Drake Chronicles Collection Set Blood Feud, Out for Blood, My Love Lies Bleeding, Haunting Violet|Alyxandra Harvey|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327624952s/12333662.jpg|17312761] - and now here) . . . also, this was in the [b:Love Is Hell|2761829|Love Is Hell|Melissa Marr|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347844256s/2761829.jpg|2828675] anthology -- knew I'd read it before somewhere.