SPOILERS: I'm going to talk about all the books in the series so if you don't want anything spoiled, don't read this diary.
I really enjoy the Hunger Games series and this latest book was fantastic but I really wish Suzanna Collins wrote this as an adult dysphoria book rather than YA. I'm not sure what the dividing line is for that distinction but I think she would have attracted a different demographic with a higher media literacy that got the damn point of the books.
I occasionally read YA but the second I see a love triangle I usually nope out. I was in labor with the first and bored so this book snuck through the cracks. I loved the first book and went on to read the rest of the series.
My first complaint is this is not a romance series! Any time I see any comment shipping any of the characters, I want to scream. I get that she has to put in some romance for her teen/YA audience but they are all literally the definition of trauma bonded and some of the most unhealthy relationships ever.
There is no therapy in the Hunger Games so these characters just drag all their baggage into their adulthood. Haymitch writes about his "love" exactly the way I would expect a 16 year old to write about their HS gf.
Snow isn't punishing everyone because of a "situationship". That is a misunderstanding of his villian arch and again…I think Colins could have avoid this had the books not had a YA slant.
My second complaint is when people have "favorite" tributes. What do you mean you liked this child over that one. No Maysilee isn't "serving cunt". She will never escape the candy store and her dreams are dead. She is using a defense mechanism to face her mortality. Is Rue death more worthy than someone from District 4. They are all victims of the same machine. Every single death is a tragedy and someone child and hopes and dreams. In the face of survival where there is option but to fight to the death, is there a correct way to kill your fellow competitors?
My third complaint: Yes you learned some new details in this latest book but the most important one is that they are ALL UNRELIABLE narrators. We don't actually know how each of the games panned out because the Capital manipulates the footage and the participants have to do stuff that they are deeply ashamed. of. Take Wiress for example: She won by not killing anyone and just laying low….Except we know that starvation is a huge issue in the Games. Not a single game has happened where someone didn't die of starvation if they didn't have outside help. And we know that sponsor boxes were unable to reach her and often other the fighting was close. Every single one of the book has the main character lying about something to someone else because of reasons. There is NO NOBLE WINNER. It's a lie told to the tributes so that they have hope that they also don't have to do horrible things.
The only winners of the HG is the dead tributes. No one else escapes from complicity from wither participating, choosing their children to send or watching.
And my final complaint is all you asking for another book. How many more do you need to get the point? This latest book was the literary equivalent of Funny Games, the movie. Like how much suffering and POV do you need to understand what Colins is trying to say. This latest book was both brilliant and also the most depressing violent book in the bunch. What more do we need to know about this world?
by ObligationGlad