Could you survive on your own in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning? 

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

I'm mad. It's happened. 

I've succumbed to the wills of popular YA sci-fi books. 

You see, I resolved to read Divergent, The Hunger Games, and The Maze Runner this summer. I was also determined to not like them. And I have to give myself credit—I most certainly DO NOT like the writing style of The Hunger Games. And Allegiant just makes me mad. But this review is quite obviously not about the Divergent Series. Because I, quite honestly, failed in my quest to dislike this book. Although the writing style bothered me—it felt choppy and slightly inconsistent—the plot had me absolutely hooked. 

But because too stubborn to admit that I was even more than halfway wrong, I will start with things that annoyed me and then end on a good note for all the Hunger Games fans. 

What I disliked (AKA why authors can't write good female protagonists):

I've already given my complaints about the writing style, so I'll move on from that. I'm going to start with Katniss. I can list the unique aspects of Katniss's personality on one hand. Sorry, scrap that, one finger. All the things that are supposed to be "personality" feel more like attributes. For example, she can hunt. She knows how to heal people. And how to kill them. We know that she can't act or, apparently, lie, even though she lies multiple times. And it works. Another thing: I literally can't tell if she likes or hates dresses. Or is she completely indifferent? Does she just hate high heels? I'm genuinely perplexed. Loving her sister also does not count as personality (in my *professional* opinion). The one thing we learn is that she's stubborn and grouchy, and even that has to be literally told to us by Haymitch. Correct me if I'm wrong...isn't the main mark of good writing being able to show readers things without having to blatantly say it? Another thing—I kept expecting the characters to be more interesting than they were. For example, the way "Foxface" died was so anticlimactic. I was hoping she would be the main competitor instead of Cato. And I kind of wish Rue was a ruthless backstabber. Maybe I'm just kind of a horrible person...

I apologize to anyone who disagrees with me in this part of my review. Opinions are opinions. Now...

Okay, here we go. Here's what I liked: 

OH MY FREAKING GOSH THE WORLDBUILDING. I actually rarely fall in love with dystopian worlds...but like AGGH IT'S JUST SO GOOD. A carefully crafted, ingenious, stunning world that Suzanne Collins has here. I love it. Another thing I love is the actual plot itself. It kind of gives off short-story vibes, what with the whole book not spanning a huge period of time, unlike most YA books. I find it refreshing because it means that we get to experience Katniss's acute emotions as they happen, instead of having to breeze over feelings (normally grief) to fit the plot into 300-odd pages. Another I was so impressed with the plot is because I normally read books for the characters. This is why I can enjoy books with little plot. I almost never enjoy books that lack characters that are appealing to me but, oh! look, I've done it. I enjoyed the book because of the plot. It's a miracle. 

But really, my complaints were just the small things that bothered me. There's a reason that there are 4 stars up there. :)

I'm really bad at ending my reviews, so...bye??

Oh, also, the love triangle sucks. And Mockingjay also sucks. Catching Fire also kind of does. Really, the first book is the only one that's good. 

We recommend this book for ages 11+

-Pigeon