adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-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

I adore the way that Haymitch describes Lenore Dove with colors. Collins has done it again, and she keeps the narrative compelling even as we know the ending.

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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: Complicated

Absolutely harrowing.
Especially those last two chapters, what a portrayal of descent into despair.

The epilogue was beautiful - sad but beautiful - very glad it was included. Otherwise it might all have been a bit much.

In several ways felt more like a sequel to Ballad than a prequel to the originals. Not a bad thing though. Loved seeing more of
The Covey
.

The character of Lenore Dove was great.

Felt very topical, timely, with the themes of propaganda and media+government driving the narrative through editorialising.

A lovely little authorial dig against generative AI! Quite on-the-nose but no complaints there tbh

I liked the incorporation of The Raven. Made it apparent early on how things would end with
Lenore
, though of course that was already predictable.
Perhaps it wouldn't have hurt to quote a bit less of the poem in the book and leave it as a thing to explore afterwards. Though it did nicely underline
Haymitch's final deterioration.

Definitely a good addition to the overall saga. Although the broad strokes were already known, plenty of surprises along the way, and a very poignant portrait of Haymitch.

If I had to criticise something, it did feel a bit out of character to have
President Snow
chatting to Haymitch about
those troublesome Covey girls as if he were a jaded old uncle sharing romantic advice lol

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

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fast-paced

was this a necessary addition to the series? no. was it still good/entertaining? yes.
haymitch is one of my favorite characters (along with johanna) so it was nice to get a fuller picture of his hunger games and his life/experience pre and post games. I really enjoyed his fellow district 12 allies and I really enjoyed ampert as well (ampert's death made me mad tho because one it was gruesome imagining it and two because I felt it was too quick/sudden). I enjoyed seeing more of beetee, mags, and wiress as well.
this was much much better than a ballad of songbirds and snakes but not as good as the main books in the series for me.

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

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

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes

all the propaganda stuff was eerily pertinent. the whole book really made u think abt why people submit to things and accept situations they are satisfied with and the role of propaganda and manipulation in that. loved the cameos even if they were perhaps a bit fanservicey.
loved haymitch and snow interacting esp about the covey snow when i catch you
the ending didn’t feel quite as impactful as tbosas, i thought there would be a bit more explanation of how his alcoholism developed. but i did like the
peeta and katniss mention
preferred tbosas overall i think.all that being said the events being so close to the og trilogy kind of erased a lot of the stakes bc you knew exactly who would survive and who wouldn’t but then i suppose that’s the point of the hunger games books in general bc our reading experience watching these characters that we know will die like a car crash that you can’t look away from mirrors the experience of watching the actual tributes in the games. hm. food for thought. 

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

this book wrecked me. you should 100% read it.

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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: Complicated

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dark sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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