Honestly, I thought to read it primarily because I was considering watching the movie. I expected some of the same YA stuff that usually comes out, and yes, I got it, but with some decent additions. The world she wrote wasn't a particularly great social experiment, but at least it got nice and gritty. It took on the big issues of YA such as identity, love, being an outsider, and fighting the great monotonous machine. Not bad, not great. Much better than some YA I've read, but not as good as others. At least there were no sparkly vamps. Sci-fi only. I don't know why I thought it might have magical aspects or mutants, but I'm actually happy it didn't. 
 It was good enough to want to read the rest of the novels, too, so despite my so-so review, it wasn't a bad book at all.