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I am in pain after rereading this. Somehow I have that same feeling I got when I read this for the first time as a 12 year old. Just that emptiness in my soul after reading such a bittersweet ending. This book was full of war and politics and rebellion which is why it was so boring to me as a kid, but 10+ years later and I love it even more. There’s so much loss and the ending does an amazing job of portraying how Katniss and Peeta have been damaged beyond repair, but still have hope for their future together. They suffered a lot, but are braver and will make their kids braver for it.
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, War
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Torture, Excrement
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Violence
Moderate: Child death, Mental illness
Katniss’ predicament makes sense of course, and the conversation Collins presents about war and enemies and victors I agree with, but it needs saying that this conclusion of the trilogy has such a bleak and dark plot that I am left feeling empty.
Despite the love I have for this series, I forgot and am disappointed in how shoehorned in the love triangle conflict is. In a series about a child living in famine, thrust into murder for sport - twice, who becomes unwittingly thrown about as a pawn for the rebel cause surrounded by adults who are largely unfussed by her unaddressed trauma, and then is off to battle in the war herself in a series of mishaps- Of course! We must remember this protagonist is a girl, so we must save room for the only two male friends in her life to compete as love interests. It is a sad feature in most YA novels with a female protagonist.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder
Graphic: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief
Moderate: Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Trafficking
Graphic: Death, War
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
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, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief