Clarification: 2.5 stars.

The idea behind this was really great. I liked Tris at first, I liked the idea of the factions/etc. And then the romance set in. That was cringe-worthy, and the dialogue was even worse, but I was alright with it. I could handle that. Then, somewhere along the way, Roth lost her pace. Huge, life-changing events happened rapid-fire, to the point where I didn't have time to appreciate or take in what was happening. The first half of the novel seemed well-paced to me, but the latter half (half in terms of action, not half in terms of page number) was disconcerting and had a distinct lack of purpose/emotion. I'm not sure how Roth gets two more books out of this idea, and I don't know if I'll continue reading.