i always love the second book of every trilogy more than the first because of the pre-existing setup and the way the author can make the most wild things happen that make me scream, jump and run around in excitement and shock. that most certainly was the case with this book. this has been my favourite reading experience in a long while and i'm happy about it. there were a lot of new relationship dynamics that i liked: katniss and finnick's brother-sister relationship, plus snow and haymitch both having some sort of father-daughter dynamic with her even though the vibes are on opposite sides of the spectrum. and ofc, BAKERY GOT GOOD BONDING TIME. katniss is positively in love with him but has repressed or denied it, but just you wait missy. i'm looking forward to seeing how this trilogy comes to an end because quite obviously, the stakes are higher than ever this time. the only thing that puts me off in the book series so far is katniss' preoccupation with gale. obviously she cares a lot for him but the constant confusion of her feelings for something romantic keeps annoying me. gale is by far the least interesting character in all of this—just seeing him come into the picture makes me want to groan. i hope he dies. it's unfair that finnick's gonna die and gale isn't (yes i got spoiled) but who knows, maybe my wishes will manifest (edit 2025: ig u can say he's dead to katniss in the end lol manifestation worked). so aside from that, i adored the vibe amongst the tributes of the hunger games in this book. something about all of them already being victors gave this feeling of shared camaraderie during the training phase that i really liked. it gave the same feeling as my humanities classroom where we were all distinct in personality yet united by a common factor (our defiance of societal norms). in conclusion, i loved this book.
