Book Review- Grace

I just finished reading Grace by Elizabeth Scott.

From Goodreads:

Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

Told in spare, powerful prose, this tale of a dystopian near future will haunt readers long after they've reached the final page.
 
Wow, what a serious topic for a YA novel.  It was so intense.  But I have to say that I don't feel that it was a dystopian novel.  I feel more that it was set in a country with a dictator, like Hitler.  It was almost too real. 
 
I found myself rooting for Grace, even though I couldn't identify with her in any way.  But I wanted her to succeed, to live.  Although I think maybe I would have felt more from her if we got a little bit more about her background, maybe about her training or something.
 
And surprisingly, I really liked Kerr.  At the beginning, I didn't.  I hated him.  But without giving away too much, what we find out about him completely changed my mind.
 
This book is short.  I think that it could have been a little longer and have been just as enjoyable.  And this will be one book that will leave me thinking about long after I'm done.
 
I gave this book a rating of 3.5/5.
 
Grace will be released on September 16, 2010.
 
This book fulfilled an item in the following challenges:
2010 100+ Reading Challenge: 124
2010 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 92
ARC Reading Challenge 2010: 87
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free from the publisher for an honest review.