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boglord'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
3.75
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Incest, and Miscarriage
maple_dusk'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
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: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Alcoholism and Confinement
Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Excrement, and Death of parent
stephmcoakley's review against another edition
- 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: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
thatbookbitch's review against another edition
- 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: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Rape, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Death of parent
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: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Excrement, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
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: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Torture, and Excrement
valereads's review against another edition
- 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, 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, and 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, and Grief