adventurous dark emotional sad tense
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Flew through it. Collins got a lot better at making the reader feel something for the characters left behind in the district. Generally, a lot of ends got tied in neatly, but sometimes too much so. (E.g. Haymitch figuring out Lucy Grey's and Snows involvement with each other)

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Owwwwwww. This books hurts your feelings

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

SOBBED


Thanks, I hate it. I sobbed. Snow is a dick and he just made it to the top of my hate list for book villains. It is now as follows
1. Snow
2. Umbridge
3. Arobynn
4. Voldemort

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This was great, and if you love the original hunger games you will love this as well. I personally enjoyed it more than “A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” because it was far better edited, however I still think it needed to be edited more. Overall I would give it 4.25/5 stars, I had a great time reading it. Expect to cry. 

*** SPOILERS ***
I personally think that the romance in this book was over handed. It became annoying the amount that Lenore Dove was mentioned for no reason  to me it made the moments where her character were used well, the reaping scene, a few times in the arena, and her death less impactful because Haymitch was already thinking about her all the time and it just felt overhanded to me. Also I know she’s important because she’s a Covey but honestly? I felt like she overshadowed Haymitch in his own story and at the same time felt unnecessary. 

A few spoilery things I did love though, cause again, I thought this was a great book: 
Louella and Lue Lue - oh my god, this hurt so bad and it was so well done. Louella’s death and her replacement with Lue Lue really put in perspective the difference between this games and the original books. Adding into this the shower scene, so good and made me want to throw up. Then the flowers and Lue Lue’s death? It all killed me, this was one of the best storylines in the book. 

Maysilee- I really loved maysilee as a character and I loved her arc through the book. Honestly if I didn’t already know and love Haymitch I would have been rooting for her to win the games, what a bad ass, what a fun character, and what a good job giving a character without a lot of main character time such depth. 

Characters from other books- this was both good and bad for me. I loved seeing Effie, same with Pultarc and Beetie (although I don’t necessarily think his addition was necessary). I did like Wiress and Mags being there but they didn’t stand out much to me and I felt like it wasn’t necessary for them to be there. The introduction of  Haymitch to Pultarc was great however and really set up their relationship going forward, I actually would have loved to see more of this after the games. (I did not like the scene where Pultarc gets Lenore Dove on the phone, it felt unnecessary to me, but I loved the scenes with the milk and in the attic after the games, what a great set up to when they use it in catching fire!) I liked Beetie’s addition, I thought the storyline with his son was fantastic and heartbreaking (that was definitely on of the worst deaths for me along with Luella and Ma and Sid), still even though I did end up liking the story line just fine, I think I would have preferred the story to follow more on the line of the original hunger games, without the arena destroying plot. I would have still loved some of the defiant things that Haymitch was doing like fleeing with Luella’s and Lue Lue’s bodies, attacking the arena after Ampart’s death and breaking through the hedge, but to me the big plot felt kind of out of character for Haymitch especially at that time in his life, and it felt like Lenore Dove was taking over the story again. Idk maybe that’s just me. I did love how the capital was changing the narrative of the games though, that was fantastic. And again I love love love Effie so no complaints from me on that cameo. 

Overall, this was a good book. In my opinion it was better than ABOSAS, but it was still far from being as good as the original hunger games trilogy and I felt like at points it was heavy handed and a bit cheesy (although I do love a little cheese). 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Heartbreaking. That is the only review needed because this is Heartbreaking more than anything.
Collins writes incredible works at a time when it feels the world needs it, and this iteration is nothing less than heartbreaking. Her words are sorrowful and desperate to a capital which doesn't hesitate to send children to their death.
A necessary read to any and every Hunger Games reader. We are not fans because no one should be a fan of this, but we try to take it in. This should also be read by any who hope for a better future.

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

mrs Collins just doesn't miss

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dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
inspiring sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I LOVED IT... so amazing. Highly recommend to all THG fans. But it is really sad.

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