My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A decent story and conclusion. Not my favourite of the trilogy. Catching Fire I think was the best; it had more of a political statement to be made, and had a greater emotional punch, in my opinion.
OK, so Katniss spent the majority of this story “going through the motions” for the most part. The first part of the book centred on how the refugees of District 13 were basically in a self-enforced prison; which to me didn’t seem much better than the previous system of rule. Then, yet more training and being let loose in the various Districts, for publicity shoots, before a few of them go on a mission in the Capitol itself. Katniss leads this rag-tag team, after defying their orders (unbeknownst to the team – or so she thinks) into moving further into the city to assassinate President Snow.
Peeta, despite being traumatised by his ordeal and captivity, is also part of this team. Which didn’t seem like a particularly clever plan…
As it turned out, the leader of District 13, Coin, wasn’t really much better than the current President. Worse in some respects, as she was willing to commit some heinous acts of violence (blaming them on the other side, of course) in order to advance to power.
After all the “will they, won’t they” love triangle between Katniss, Peeta and Gale, I for one hoped that she would have chosen the “other” one..
A solid conclusion to the trilogy, but for me the previous book held my attention more – there was much more tension and threat when the characters were still part of the original system, but having to play the game very carefully. Here, the threat was more overt, and therefore more straightforward. At least until the final act.
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Crown Jules Presents 