I was really excited to get an advance reader of this. I am a little in love with dystopians right now, and this is a really cool concept. The world is intriguing and mostly believable, packed with danger and well-built suspense. The writing flows well and there are no slow points in the plot to amount to anything. She makes constant reference to other books throughout, which gave the story an intellectual feel. At the same time, the book seems to encourage kids to question what they learn in school, and that is a noble pursuit. The author has some profound things to say about death and its effects on young people. But that is pretty much where the good parts of this book end. 
 The secondary characters are incredibly shallow. The only one with any development is Leif, and even with a back story he's essentially flat anyway. I was disappointed with the love interest, Caleb, as well. He's basically the same as most YA heroes - rugged, handsome, self-sacrificing, and instantly head over heels for the heroine. But he lacked any depth to speak of. 
 The heroine herself is relatively well-done. She doesn't have the innate strength of Rhine from Wither or the raw determination of Tris from Divergent. The closest parallel I can draw for the heroine would be to Delirium. But Lena has a resourcefulness that makes up for her ignorance in most cases; Eve does not. In fact the comparisons to Twilight were pretty dead on. She's pretty pathetic at the beginning, whiny and unable to fend for herself, relying on others for pretty much everything - protection, food, directions, etc. She does grow throughout the story though, and by the end I liked her more. 
 The reasons for the government to be after Eve were thin at best. There is one scene where they are on horseback and a bear chases them for what, in the book, feels like miles because Eve messed with its baby. That was completely unbelievable. 
 But my major beef with this book, and it's a big one for me, is the blatant, rampant sexism. Caleb is the only "good man," as she calls him (except for one 75-year-old man she meets in the woods). Every other male character is a rapist, murderer, or both. She was taught at School to fear men, and you would think this would be disproven along with all the other lies her teachers told her about the world. But no, this is quite true, apparently. Every man she meets is more awful than the last. Even those that seem for a few minutes to be alright, turn out to try to rape her, or sell her, or cut her throat. I have a profound problem with this because of the impression it gives young women. All men do not want to rape you. They don't all look at you with "hungry eyes." There is more than one "good man" in the world. 
 All these things said, I will probably read the sequel, if for no other reason than because the world really intrigues me and I'm interested to see where the author goes with it.