51 pages • 1 hour read
Cecelia AhernFlawed
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 29-45Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
It is Celestine’s first day back at home. She is convalescing while journalists stand outside. Celestine lays in bed while her mother and Dr. Smith discuss how to take care of her wounds. On day two, Celestine sleeps all day.
On the third day, Summer brings Celestine a gift from Tina, one of the guards who tried to help her during the trial at Highland Castle. It’s a snow globe of Highland Castle, and Celestine hides it away.
On the fourth day, Angelina Tinder visits Celestine. She bitterly tells her about the rules that all Flawed must follow and explains that a Whistleblower named Mary May will be appointed to keep an eye on her.
On the fifth day, the media is still harassing the North family. Celestine tells her mother she wants to see Art, but Summer lets her know he is missing. Celestine asks that her sixth brand, the one on her spine, not be mentioned to the media, as she fears Judge Crevan’s reaction. When Celestine wakes up during the night on day six, she checks on Juniper and realizes her sister is not home.
On the seventh day, Mary May comes to observe dinner at the North house to make sure that all rules are obeyed. Celestine gets out of bed for the first time and is annoyed at the rules regulating her diet, as well as saddened by her strained relationship with Juniper and Ewan. Dinner is tense and Celestine goes to bed early, feeling angry and defeated. She hears Juniper sneak out.
Chapter 30 Summary
Celestine gets ready to go back to school. She cannot find suitable clothes to hide her scars, so she borrows some from Juniper. She also puts on the mandated armband marked with an “F.”
Chapter 31 Summary
After Celestine’s father drives her and Juniper to school, they meet with Principal Hamilton to discuss Celestine’s future at the school. Cutter asks that his daughter be allowed to use a different entrance to avoid the horde of journalists, but Principal Hamilton suggests homeschooling instead. Some teachers refuse to have Celestine in their class, so she spends her time in the library instead. In gym class, she refuses to wear a swimsuit because she does not want to show her body, and the teacher sends her to the principal’s office. At lunch, Celestine tries sitting with Colleen Tinder, but Colleen snaps at her because Celestine refused to help her when her mother was branded Flawed.
Chapter 32 Summary
When she gets back home, Celestine is greeted by Pia Wang, a well-known reporter who follows the Flawed trials. She has an agreement with Crevan to conduct follow-up interviews with Celestine after her Naming Day. Celestine wants to make Pia see that she is just a normal girl who wants to follow the rules, but Pia tries to paint her as an exciting rebel. The reporter mentions that Enya Sleepwell was at Celestine’s trial, but the young girl, who has been avoiding the news, does not recognize the name. Pia then explains that Enya Sleepwell is a member of the Vital Party, a movement that has been gaining traction for supporting the Flawed. Before she leaves, Celestine tells her that she has a sixth brand.
Chapter 33 Summary
Pia leaves the house shocked by Celestine’s revelation. Celestine then finds Mary May reading her diary after searching her room. Upset by the breach in her privacy, Celestine later rips up her diary. Her mother helps.
Chapter 34 Summary
While spending her lunch break in the school library, Celestine is approached by a classmate, Logan, who gives her an invitation to his birthday party. Celestine is delighted. After he leaves, Art suddenly appears and pulls her aside.
Chapter 35 Summary
Celestine is thrilled to be reunited with Art, but he seems jumpy. He tells her that he is torn between her and his dad, and Celestine is hurt that he seems angry at her. Art refuses to tell her where he has been so his father cannot use Celestine to track him down. When Celestine asks him whether he can help her find Carrick, Art gets upset and runs away. Celestine tries to go after him, but she is ambushed by a photographer and retreats in fear.
Chapter 36 Summary
Celestine is once again being interviewed by Pia Wang, who tells her she has looked into the young girl’s claims about a sixth brand and, due to lack of evidence, does not believe her. Celestine understands that Judge Crevan is covering it up because it could bring him and the Guild down, and realizes that she has power over him. Celestine decides to go on the attack and shows her brand to Pia.
Chapter 37 Summary
The next day, Celestine leaves school through the back entrance. Mr. Murray, the janitor, unlocks the door for her and mentions that he is also Flawed. Celestine is shocked to learn that he does not wear an armband because he is “off the radar” (180). She then goes up to Highland Castle. She asks a receptionist for the contact information of the guards who were with her in the Branding Room (Tina, Bark, June, Funar, and Tony). She is interrupted when Judge Crevan suddenly appears and asks what she is doing there.
Chapter 38 Summary
Pia Wang, who was covering another trial not far away, comes to Celestine’s rescue and takes her to a nearby café. She declares that she still does not believe Celestine’s claims, arguing that she could have made the brand herself. Celestine encourages her to talk to the guards and gives her their names. Before she goes home, she stops by the Flawed cemetery, where Clayton Byrne’s grave, covered in flowers and candles, has become a symbol of hope and tragedy.
Chapter 39 Summary
Celestine goes to the Tinders’ house, where she asks to meet with Angelina for her usual piano lesson. Angelina has not played since she was branded, but Celestine encourages her to try again. The piano teacher starts hitting the keys violently, then brutally closes the lid, breaking her own fingers.
Chapter 40 Summary
Back at home, Mary May is waiting for Celestine. She produces a newspaper showing a picture of a girl who looks like her with hair covering the brand on her temple, which the Flawed are not allowed to do. The article is Pia’s work, trying to force the principal to expel Celestine. The picture is actually of Juniper, but Mary May refuses to believe them and puts Celestine on house arrest for a week. Summer tells her daughters to be careful because Mary May reported her own family to the Whistleblowers.
Chapter 41 Summary
During their next interview, Pia tells Celestine that she has tried to talk to the guards, but they have all disappeared. For the first time, she shows humanity and asks Celestine how it feels to be the only Flawed at school.
Chapter 42 Summary
Celestine and Juniper have a fight when Juniper tells Celestine to be careful of Logan. Celestine gets defensive. She sneaks out of the house to go to his birthday party.
Chapter 43 Summary
When Celestine arrives at Logan’s home, there is no party going on. Instead, someone puts a bag over her head and ties her hands.
Chapter 44 Summary
Under the bag, Celestine recognizes Logan and Colleen’s voices, as well as Natasha and Gavin, two other classmates who dislike her. They drag her into a car and start driving. She is humiliated and panics about getting back home before her Flawed curfew. She knows that arriving after 11:00pm would have dire consequences for her and her family. The other teenagers mock her, and Logan drops cigarette ash on her leg. They take Celestine to a secluded shed and ask her to take off her clothes.
Chapter 45 Summary
Terrified, Celestine obeys. The teenagers laugh at her while examining her scars, but they stop when they notice the sixth brand on her spine. Most of them leave, but Logan stays with Celestine. He tells her that sackcloth and ashes are a symbol of repentance, and demands she beg or he will not let her go home. Celestine does what he wants, and Logan unties her, but he locks her inside the shed and tells her to find her way home. Celestine only has about 20 minutes left before curfew.
Chapters 29-45 Analysis
The third part in the novel revolves around Celestine’s emotional arc as she adjusts to her new life as Flawed. It especially focuses on her evolving relationships with her family, with society at large, and with her self-identity. To begin with, Chapter 29 focuses on the immediate aftermath of Celestine’s trial. It is divided into seven parts, one for each day, which creates a sense that things are changing quickly.
This unusually long chapter suggests the repetitiveness of Celestine’s daily routine as she experiences depression and isolation. The few people that visit her are not her allies, and show that Celestine is subjected to other people’s intrusions rather than enjoying genuine connection. Her loneliness, brought about by the Guild, starkly contrasts with her former bubbly, extroverted personality. Celestine points out her powerlessness: “Everyone speaks on my behalf now anyway. They speak about me like I’m not in the room” (129). She reiterates: “I’m not here” (129), suggesting that she has become invisible and has withdrawn from social interactions. Isolation is her coping mechanism as she avoids facing her new, scarier world. This part of the narrative marks her lowest point, especially in terms of Self-Agency, which she feels she lacks. As with many novels, it is always darkest before the dawn; her crisis here sets up her resolution in the last part of the book.
On the one hand, Celestine lacks control over her own narrative. This is illustrated by the newspaper mistakenly printing a picture of Juniper, which leads to Celestine being punished, and Logan and his friends kidnapping her. On the other hand, she is also starting to realize that she does have power, such as when showing Pia her sixth brand. At this point, Celestine is torn between wanting to fit in, follow the rules, and rebel against the unfairness of her situation.
In this section, most of Celestine’s interactions are tense or downright hostile. Angelina Tinder is bitter and hopeless, and her visit leads Angelina to smash her own fingers. Pia Wang initially approaches their interviews from a prejudiced perspective, even though she later changes her mind. Celestine’s reunion with Art is bittersweet, as he appears to resent rather than fully support her. Finally, Logan’s apparent gesture of friendship leads to Celestine losing her faith when her classmates turn on her: “I surrender to my Flawed life; they have won, and I have lost” (211). This moment marks a turning point in Celestine’s self-identity: She confronts her naivety about Logan’s intentions and, by extension, society at large.
When the teenagers abduct and humiliate her, she suggests the duality of her mindset: “Desire to pick up my life and try to live as normally as possible is punched out of me right there” (211). This shows her sense of hopelessness. However, she has finally accepted her status as Flawed, which foreshadows her embracing the Flawed cause instead of fighting against it. She previously tried to distance herself from the Flawed, which caused her identity crisis. Now Celestine is beginning to reclaim Self-Agency. From this point on, Celestine gives up her hopes of returning to an idealized version of her life and starts questioning people’s intentions.
While he and Celestine are alone in the shed, Logan uses biblical symbolism. This echoes an earlier passage with Judge Crevan. In the Branding Chamber (Chapter 28), Judge Crevan asks Celestine to “repent,” and, when she refuses, he orders the guards to brand her spine. In a symbolic parallel, Logan explains that he put a sackcloth on Celestine’s head and dropped ash on her skin because “Sackcloth and ashes were used in the Old Testament times as a symbol of debasement, mourning, and repentance” (222). When he asks Celestine to repent, as Judge Crevan had, she eventually gives in. While she knew she could not escape her fate in the Branding Chamber and therefore chose to defy Judge Crevan, Celestine now realizes that her family’s safety depends on her coming home, and she acts selflessly.
In both instances, Celestine’s actions are characterized by rebellion and empathy. They highlight the traits that a journalist named Lisa Life, who is really Pia Wang, will later point out that make Celestine a poster girl for the Flawed cause: “Compassion and Logic: The Perfect Pairing” (243). Those traits also show Celestine’s rational thinking, and how Morality Is Relative.
