dark emotional sad tense 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

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reflective sad tense slow-paced

I’m not sure if I’ve grown with my reading taste or this book didn’t hit the spot like the others have. It was just OK. I appreciate getting to see more of the background of a main character, but it didn’t feel like there was much world evolution between the 50th and 74th games. Just didn’t feel new, there were cool moments, the epilogue was really great for bringing it all back together, but otherwise just a little off and I have a hard time explaining it.

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adventurous 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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adventurous dark 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

Suzanne is back with another banger. Her ability to give the reader hope when we all know how things end up is phenomenal. Haymitch is a great character to follow, and the way he copes with his circumstances is nothing short of fascinating. 

Members of the supporting cast are unique and have good depth. The expansion of returning characters are satisfying and gives good “omg it’s them!!” Moments, and insights on character dynamics in the main trilogy are consistent.

I’m not much of a crier but several moments in this book had me tearing up and emotionally destroyed. I was surprised by Haymitch’s ideation, which leaned towards
suicidal/self sacrificing
quite often. He’s very
compassionate, caring, selfless and empathetic
which makes sense how he ended up the way he did. I was easily pulled into his character and his train of thought is fun to follow.

Before I read the book, I was so intrigued by how the arena would come into play in this quarter quell given the spectacle of the catching fire arena. Here it takes much more of a
backdrop, only interfering in the face of rebellious/undesirable actions, instead of being a driving force of how we see tributes move and interact.
Which, I didn’t dislike, but was a little surprised by. The fact that some mutts were
trained to one specific tribute
felt a little cheat-y, like an easy way to
remove control from Haymitch while keeping him in good shape.
I would’ve preferred to see
him and his allies fighting things off together, and him be unable to save them when he’s overwhelmed himself. But it’s not a huge deal, since he’s focused on a bigger plot to destroy the arena, rather than simply surviving. Plus he has enough mental anguish by the end as it is.
 

While the main trilogy is filled with grandeur actions of rebellion, this book focuses more on small, individual moments of rebellion that maintain sanity in such a grim world. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the mentality of district people and how community means everything. 

Overall this book is phenomenal and a perfect addition to the base trilogy and existing prequel. I hope Collins continues expanding the world of Panem, because the interplay of hope and despair is endlessly captivating and humbling. As she states in her acknowledgements, “The snow may fall, but the sun also rises.”

Edit: upon reading other reviews, there are a lot of valid criticisms and I believe this book played it safe when it could’ve been better if it took more chances. I still thoroughly enjoyed it and found the flaws easy to toss aside while reading, but I think the flaws will eat away at me as I continue reflecting.

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

I had heard that this book "isn't for the faint of heart" but was not fully prepared for the last few chapters to WRECK ME

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dark emotional 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

A brilliant, gripping book where even if you know the characters future from other books you still yearn to hope he’ll be okay. Gets the heart pounding.

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

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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional inspiring medium-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

Kind of depressing, expected but written so well. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings