4.56 AVERAGE

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

this book was insane. i finished it in 2 days. i feel so empty now.
challenging dark medium-paced
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
sad tense medium-paced
dark emotional hopeful 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: No
adventurous emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes