I feel incredibly bad giving this book only 3 stars, but it's how I honestly feel about this one. 
 Lauren Oliver is a gifted writer. Her prose is absolutely stunningly beautiful. She does an amazing job of keeping me interested and intrigued when I'm reading. However, this book is too flawed for me to fall in love. 
 The characters are a mixed bag. Lena is likable, but she becomes way too obsessive and somewhat irritating towards the end of the book, which is the opposite of what I'd expect. Alex is the perfect boyfriend, but that's really about it. His personality is overall flat and uninteresting. This is especially compared to Kent from Before I Fall. Kent was quirky and full oh personality, he was practically oozing with it, all while being an incredibly sweet and lovable guy. Alex doesn't even begin to get to Kent-level, they're not even on the same scale. 
 The main problem I had with this book though is that the concept behind it is incredibly weak. I knew that going into it and decided to read it anyway to see how it was. Sometimes an idea can be kind of anemic, but a talented author can still make it work. I hate to say it, but she doesn't manage to accomplish that for this one. The world building doesn't quite work for me, it seems like there is way too much just-below-the-surface resistance for it to really be a successful society. Not to mention that characters have way too many personal freedoms pre-18 years of age. 
 It was worth reading and heck, I'm probably gonna check out the sequel because the writing alone makes it worth it, but I don't really recommend it overall.