I really, really wanted to love this book, but, unfortunately, I couldn't. There was so much praise for this, and it definitely took effort for me to find a negative review of it, but I honestly don't get the hype.

1. The concept, while interesting, I didn't find very original. It reminded me too much of The Maze Runner, The Giver, and other dystopian books too much too often, and didn't even execute the concept as well as those other books, so, especially in the first half of the novel, I struggled a lot with its unoriginality.

2. It did not feel real. For science fiction, fantasy or paranormal worlds, I consider this to be the most important aspect. I need to be able to lose myself in the world. I couldn't though. I actually had multiple issues with the book that ultimately led to this one major one:

a. There were too many holes in the concept. I found myself questioning a lot of it, finding several things that logically should've been done some other way and just generally not being convinced.

b. The characters did stupid things - not even because they were idiots themselves, which frustrated me more because it seemed out of character.

c. Connected to points 2a and 2b were just the general feeling this novel gave me that it was doing certain things just to get the plot moving, and for no reason other than that. I hate it when novels do that.

Don't get me wrong; I didn't hate this book. The plot was really engaging at certain points, and I did like some of the characters for the most part. I just can't really say that I liked this novel. I can't.