I thought this was a fun read, but I'm wondering why people are gushing over it so much. It's not a bad book, but not particularly amazing in my opinion. It just felt like a lot of the concepts or ideas were very Hunger Games-ish. I'm not saying the storyline is copied, but it just wasn't very original- especially since it was published four years post Hunger Games. I also really felt like nothing much at all happened in this book. Romance was minimal. Drama was minimal. Everything just seemed very simply and basically done. In other words, at this point I'm not completely invested in finding out what happens to any of the characters. I don't like to feel that nonchalant about book characters.This book didn't drive me in any way. I just kept thinking, "Well, this is a nice story but that's about it."

A personal annoyance- The main character's name is America. It just came across as one of those instances when an author is trying too hard to be clever with a name. Every time it was mentioned in the book, I found myself rolling my eyes. So maybe that's petty, but it made it hard for me to take this book seriously.

Perhaps my feelings about this book has more to do with my personality. I'm not really into frou frou books. I like a little suspense. This book obviously works well for a lot of people, but I personally wasn't that impressed. I will say that although I didn't think it was the best book I'd ever read, it was a fun enough book. Enjoyable enough that I'll most likely read the next book in the series just to see what happens. But it won't break my heart if I never get to it.