Throughout this entire book, I was unsure how I felt about it, and now that I've finished it... I'm still not really sure. The story was interesting eThroughout this entire book, I was unsure how I felt about it, and now that I've finished it... I'm still not really sure. The story was interesting enough (and I do genuinely think it's going to make a good movie, and I do plan on seeing it); it wasn't anything super original - sort of a cross between X-Men and Divergent - but it was intriguing still. One of the biggest and most glaring issues of the book, though, is how suddenly you're just thrust into the world this story is set in. There's no build-up or explanation at all, really. You just have to try and keep up. Which isn't always a bad thing in story-telling, but I think you need a unique enough and interesting enough premise to string that kind of story along.
Also, apart from the kind of intense beginning, the first, say... 120 to 150 pages of this book are so slow. Normally after around ~100 pages, if I'm not that into a book, I'll go ahead and move on, but I had read that this one really picks up about halfway through. Plus, I really wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, so I decided to stick it out. And admittedly, it did get more interesting and intense in the second half! But it was sort of just too little too late for me.
I did really like the characters (at least our main 4), and I am kind of curious what happens to them, so maybe someday I'll pick up the next 2 books, but for now, I'm marking the series as a DNF. There were just too many grammar and spelling errors, too much downtime and lagging areas in the plot, too much attempted mystery woven into a story that just ended up being kind of strange and confusing at times - I'm just not sure this series is for me. Maybe I'm just a little outside it's demographic, though. Honestly, I could see high school me eating this series up.
But for now, it was a fun ride, but I'm going to go ahead and move on to other stories....more