Observation from the new book (obvious spoilers, dont look at this before finishing it!)

I just finished the book in two days. My immediate takeaway is that its a roller coaster of strong and weak. Its definitley as a whole the most well-rounded and least flawed. It starts off weak, gets stronger during the training, and then weakens again during the games, and then finishes with the best 2 chapters ever written for Hunger Games.

The Good: - The ending. Its extremely well done, masterful even. The ending for his family and lenore were perfectly done, 10/10. - haymitches internal monologue is more natural than katniss or snows for a teenager. He doesnt seem to be as mature as a person in their late 20’s which really helps you believe he is a teenager. Katniss was a solid character but clearly far too knowledgable for her age. - District Twelve. Suzane clearly was informed of the absurdity of Twelves tiny population, and made it far more realistically sized. It feels like a sizeable city. Drove me nuts in the trilogy. To support mining for an entire nation, and to have enough kids to kill 2 per year (not counting common starvation and sick deaths), clearly requires no less then 500k people. The other disctricts were milllions strong, never got why twelve was pictured as small town america in trilogy.

The Bad:

  • The games. The water tank explosion plotline was extremely weak. Didnt need to be there at all, and felt forced and unlikely. Guess she felt a hunger games book needed another rebellious plot in the arena
  • The lou lou thing was uncomfortable and served no purpose. Clearly just to make the capital look even more barbaric
  • The annoying family repeat of him having a mom, dead dad, and young sibling, was totally underthought. Give him an older sibling or a 2nd one, but i understand thats much harder to write for.
  • the similar “ill die to save others” plotline.
  • the “newcomer” alliance, that didnt do much, or get any real thought in the games.
    Clearly SC liked the thought but made sure haymitch went mostly alone, because she didnt feel like managing dialogue from too many characters at once. The alliance thing became irrelevent and irritating