"At least now you have enough food to eat," he said. "At least now you can sleep safe in your bed and not fear your neighbors ransacking your home and murdering your entire family." 
 "Why would I fear my neighbors when my government does it for them?" 
 Yes, this piece of dialogue describes perfectly well the kind of society we deal with in this book. 
 Kitty Doe lives in a world where everyone is ranked into castes ranging from I to VII, with I being viewed upon as the wastes and sent Elsewhere, and VII consisting of the ruling family of Harts. At seventeen, everyone takes a test and is branded with the numeral of the group they earned on the back of their neck. They are assigned a job and a place to live, thus having their entire life planned ahead for them. This government doesn't tolerate people with special needs and problems (like autism, dyslexia, etc.) and elderly people, who can no longer fulfill their duty. You step out of line, and you get shot. 
 After failing her test and getting a III, which would guarantee only a job as a sewage worker in Denver, far away from her boyfriend Benji, our heroine Kitty Doe decides she would rather become a prostitute and stay close to home. She never gets to do the job, though. After one reckless decision she made in the very first chapter, Kitty is pulled into a whirlwind of intrigue and conspiracies that not only change her whole life, but her identity and appearance as well. 
 The idea of a dystopian world where people are ranked into groups is not new to me, I've already read about such society in The Selection. And I should say that the world building is vague and flimsy in both books, with laughable explanations how it all came to be and next to none information about the rest of the world. In Pawn China was mentioned once, but that's all. We only know that American economy just collapsed about 70 years ago, and some clever dude usurped all the power in the country. And we are supposed to believe that all people were just okay with it? And come on, Aimee Carter, WHAT ABOUT OTHER COUNTRIES AND CONTINENTS? Did their economy collapse too? Has America somehow separated itself from the global economy? Well, it's anyone's guess what really happened. So as scary as the world is in this book, I'm not buying it. 
 And while in The Selection I was distracted with the romance the story seemed to revolve around, In Pawn the romance is barely there at all. Yes, Kitty has a boyfriend Benji, and I know they are supposed to be in love, but I just don't feel it. There is no chemistry between them, no sparks. In fact, it seemed like the only reason Benjy was in the story is to be used as a leverage against Kitty, a hostage. Seriously, just how many times exactly can Kitty be threatened with Benjy's life to make her cooperate? It's always the same pattern: 
 N: "You have to do it." 
 Kitty: "No, I won't do it." 
 N: "Okay, but then Benjy will be sent Elsewhere or killed." 
 Kitty: "You win, I'll do it". 
 After a couple of repetitions, this really started to annoy me. 
 Also, just like a lot of other reviewers, I was both amused and confused by the fact that, in this world, medical technology is so advanced that they can surgically change a person's appearance completely, but they can't get a pair of contact lenses to change eye color. How is this believable? 
 So, with the lack of decent world building and romance I could root for, I was left with all the plotting and scheming and intrigues that constituted most of the plot. I found most of them predictable, and really (view spoiler)[if the reader is repeatedly told that some important or legendary character is dead, then most certainly that character will turn out to be alive as a part of some grand reveal or a plot twist (hide spoiler)]. 
 And since I didn't find any of the characters compelling, I didn't care much about all those twists either. 
 Yes, in the end it always comes down to this: do I like the characters? Interesting characters = enjoyable book, bland characters = me counting pages until I can be done with it or DNFinishing the book altogether. Regrettably, this story is in the latter category. Every single character seemed flat and underdeveloped, Kitty included. It was hard for me to follow everyone's logic and reasoning and motivations. 
 I won't be picking the next installment. 
 P.S. I follow the Goodreads rating system, so my giving this book two stars doesn't mean it was bad. It was just okay, I guess, but definitely not my type.