We'll be talking about this entire series and its adaptations in an upcoming episode of Snark Squad Pod. Stay tuned!

This is my second time rereading this book after about a decade. As I said with The Hunger Games, the story lives strongly in my feelings and memory, but that's mostly because of the movie adaptation. Coming back to this was wild because I both knew what to expect and felt like I was reading it for the first time. This second entry into the series is excellent, and I'm so happy that these are holding up on reread.

In this book, we really start to see Katniss's PTSD from being in the games. One of the things this series does well is depict how complex people are, including in their handling of trauma. This becomes and even bigger example of that complexity when we meet the other victors. Haymitch has his drinking, the Morphlings turn to drugs, Finnick has his swagger, Johanna is angry, and on it goes. They are all dealing with the fallout of the Games in their own ways, but you understand and feel for all of them.

The brilliant, awful thing about the Games is how they are constructed to victimize the participants over and over again. From selection to actively participating in your pre-slaughter with training and interviews and makeup and parades, to the actual murdering and dying. And if you are lucky/unlucky enough to survive, a victory tour to face down the families of all the people you killed. And after that, mentoring for the rest of your life, at the whim of the Capitol, and as we learn in Book 3 with Finnick, sometimes much worse.

Collins is not subtle about it, but she is very good at laying the groundwork of her trilogy in each book. This is one of the best paced trilogies I've ever read. You would think that how things play out here, it would feel repetitive or redundant, but it doesn't. It's another heartbreak in a long line for Katniss and the games are just as awful and thrilling.

We really start to see Katniss's character progress here as well. She's such a survivor, our girl, but she also cares deeply for people. As her world opens up, as she moves out of District 12 and onto bigger stages, and meets more people, the more you see both those sides of her also develop and shine: the ultimate survivor who would also protect everyone if she could.

One of the strengths of this novel is also it's weakness: The close first person narration. It makes it incredibly readable and being in Katniss's head is a fantastic way to process and view this world. However, this means Katniss is not always where the important things are happening, especially here and in Book 3, where she becomes a tool in larger plots. Collins is forced to recap a lot of the bigger world things at the end, and those "oh by the ways" are not as graceful as I would've liked and the fact that they happen at the same point in each book makes it seem like a larger structural flaw.

There's a lot more to say mostly because I feel like I could talk about this series forever but on to Mockingjay.