I am absolutely gutted after reading this. Suzanne Collins is a true master of her craft here, because the book is just already so devastating and heart wrenching on its own, and it is only further colored by all of the other hunger games stories preceding it and now interwoven. It stands at complete odds to TBOSAS which I felt like was more an extended bonus for fans; SOTR I'd honestly even recommend to those who hadn't read the original trilogy at all (though as mentioned, it's much better if you have).

I loved Haymitch, I found him so compelling and genuinely good, I loved that he was self aware and introspective and seeing how he had to change over the course of the story was somehow even worse than Katniss for me. The other characters were also unbelievably sympathetic and so many were dynamic in their own ways, not just serving to support his story but having their own. I also think of all the books this is the one where I finally felt like I myself was just completely beat down by the Capitol and powerless to do anything but watch it unfold and feel the deep sense of unfairness and ruminate on the parallels to our world. Reading this book is like watching a train crash over and over and over, by Part 3 it is just unimaginable, and the last chapter can't be described as anything but haunting. I desperately hope they can do it justice on the big screen.

Anyway, highly recommend. If you read this review before you read: good luck, if you read it after you finished: I'm sorry, here's a virtual hug.