Okay, so I'm at a loss here. I don't understand what went wrong because despite having a/an 
 * interesting premise 
 * unique characters 
 * gorgeous cover art 
 * promising protagonist 
 * not-overly-annoying writing 
 * fast pace, 
 this novel fell flat for me. It was, in the most flattering terms, unremarkable. 
 I'm not even going to list any real reasons here, because there are none. 
 Another reason this novel put me off was because it was a whole load of nothing -- the first half of the book was just various levels of introduction, and then after two pages of the actual story, the book ended on a cliffhanger-esque ending, when it would've fared much better being a stand-alone. You don't drag books like these for longer than one book. 
 This was my first Marie Lu book, and I'll admit I was disappointed. After hearing so much about Marie Lu from everyone under the sun, I felt like everyone else read something other than what I read.