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maple_dove's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I had a major revelation while reading this book. I no longer enjoy reading morally grey MCs. I've changed a lot since a few years ago. Not as much as I did before. I'm a little disappointed because I genuinely do think that morally grey characters are important and bring critical complexity that non-morally grey characters just lack. However, I've found that for present me, reading from the POVs of morally grey characters just exhaust and bore me. I really hope I'm mistaken but change happens.
I think the pacing also demotivated me. The ending was not bad at all though.
Graphic: Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, War, Gun violence, Death, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Confinement and Alcoholism
Minor: Sexual content, Excrement, Miscarriage, Death of parent, and Torture
stephmcoakley's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Child death, Grief, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, War, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment, Violence, Vomit, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, and Excrement
thatbookbitch's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Medical content, Torture, War, Death, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Violence, and Genocide
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Addiction, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Murder, and Police brutality
Minor: Death of parent, Excrement, Eating disorder, Vomit, Blood, Miscarriage, Rape, and Animal death
emfass's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and War
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Slavery
Minor: Death of parent, Excrement, Pregnancy, Rape, and Sexual assault
jowmy4's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, and Vomit
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Excrement, Infidelity, Miscarriage, and Torture
valereads's review
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm afraid to say that, like Catching Fire, this book had major pacing issues. Like Catching Fire this book had a slow first third which thankfully felt less tedious than the one in Catching Fire. The middle third was honestly forgettable. The rest of the pacing felt messy. There were chapters and chapters where nothing seemed to happen followed by a few chapters where everything moved so fast it was difficult to process everything. I felt like this weakened the impact of some of the more violent parts of the book, especially as we weren't given the opportunity to dwell on their impact in the slow chapters.
Once again the romantic relationships were one of the weakest parts of this novel. With the twist that both options in the love interest were kind of bad in this book. Katniss has clearly developed an unhealthy co-dependency with Peeta from their shared trauma and due to the trauma of losing district 12, Gale is filled with toxic anger and hate. I wish we'd gotten more focus on the platonic relationships in this book, especially the one between Katniss and Prim. The few moments we had of them together were lovely and Katniss grieving over Prim with Buttercup genuinely made me cry. The romantic relationships didn't make me nearly so emotional.
In addition I found it hard to care about a lot of the secondary characters introduced in this book let alone remember their names. They were underdeveloped which majorly reduced the impact of their violent deaths which I especially felt when they seemed to impact Katniss a lot.
On a more positive side, I appreciate how Collins continues to explore how the trauma the main characters have suffered and how it affects their mental states. Unfortunately one place where this is not as well handled is the sexual trauma one secondary character has experienced. I thought the way the discussions of his trauma and experiences of sexual assault and trafficking were poorly done and would probably be triggering for most survivors, this is exacerbated by the character in questions violent death later in the book.
Overall I'm not sure how I feel about this book. It definitely isn't as good as the first book but I do not regret reading. I'm glad I can now say I have finally finished reading this trilogy. (And, no, I will not be reading A Ballad of Song Birds and Snakes.)
Content Warnings: addiction (alcohol and drug addiction), body horror, child death, confinement, drug abuse, drug use, gore, grief, gun violence, medical content, panic attacks, police brutality, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, violence, animal death, excrement, references to genocide, medical content, mental illness, references to miscarriage, sexual assault, trafficking, torture
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Medical content, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence