Though gory and brutal, this was definitely written in a YA dialect, and at times comes across as a little too blunt and simplistic. Nevertheless, I ended up enjoying it, for its ruthless slaughtering of expectations as much as anything else. A friend's review on this book stated that it kept her guessing throughout, and I had the same experience.
There are some plot points that become pretty obvious early on, while others surprised me because while they were possibilities from the start, you rarely expect an author to strike out to destroy everything they've asked the reader to love.
Likewise, some of the imagery you end up with... Quite interesting.