Guest Blogger: Katie at Call Me Crazy

A warm welcome to my first guest blogger, Katie at Call Me Crazy. Katie is the farthest thing from your everyday average teenager. She enjoys spending most, if not all, her time hidding behind a book. She adores reading and the amazing adventures that books can take you on. (Me too!)

 

My Bookish Life

 

Whether we want to admit it or not we've all pictured our life with some of our favorite characters placed into it. This, my friends, is my ideal life if I were to choose my all time favorite characters from the books I love.

 

Best Friend: Tuck

Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

How can anyone not love Tuck!? You can have a deep, thought provoking conversation with him and then ask him which pair of shoes he likes better. Oh, and how could I forget his wicked awesome sense of humor?! I would love waking up on the weekends to him singing La Cucaracha outside of my bedroom door. Then he'd always be there when I had to make my smokin' hot house guest jealous while we returned from our nature hike. I'm already making our best friends forever bracelets as we speak.

 

Boyfriend: Peeta

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Peeta is my hero. He is just too amazing to describe. He loves Katniss with all of his heart and would be willing to give his life for her. What more could anyone want?! Not only is he very courageous, but he's funny too. He's always making Katniss laugh when they're in a rough patch or working his way around the crowd of the Capitol. To top all of those wonderful qualities off, he can draw... this guy is the perfect guy for me. Why, oh why aren't you real!?!

Home: Northern California

Mediator by Meg Cabot

How beautiful would it be to live in a place like California? Being able to see the beach from your comfy bay window. Having the warm weather stay around all year without having to deal with the craziness of a city. Too perfect for words. I can picture it now, walking along the beach with my dog running ahead into the sunset while my toes sink into the warm Californian sand as the tide comes in and brushes cold waves against my ankles. Ahh what a dream come true.

 

Villian: Roman

Immortals by Alyson Noel

Okay so I had to think of a way to throw Roman into my fabulous life too. He may be a total jerk, but he's wicked hot. He's got the whole overly confident vibe to him, which makes me want to push him off the cliff. Well that the fact he's pretty much ruining Ever's life too... Where was I going with this? Oh right, he'd be the perfect vilian because while he's plotting to kill your boyfriend you could loose yourself in his beautiful eyes... and then you could punch him in the face.

 

Seriously how awesome of a life would that be!?

 

Now it's your turn to tell us:

 

What's your bookish life?

 

Crazy Katie

Waiting on Wednesday #004: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Another gorgeous cover with a dystopian futuristic setting. I read recently a publisher stating that she thinks the dystopian future setting craze will burn out in the next two years. I hope she's wrong. They're like candy to me!



Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: March 22, 2011

From Goodreads.com
Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

Follow Friday #003

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee.com. I really love this idea. I love connecting with other bloggers and see what's happening in corners of the book blogosphere that I might not have found otherwise!

Comment if you decide to follow me. I'd love to read your blog and follow you too!

Current Contests/Giveaways

Lauren Conrad Style

 

Coming Soon

Guest Blogs
Read this post and email me at dear.opposition@gmail.com if you would like to participate.

Reviews
Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore

Contest/Giveaways
Oktoberfest Review-a-thon with the prize being a copy of Dead Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan.

Spice (Help) Wanted

I'm looking to add some variety to my blog and would like to open it up to guest bloggers who would like to pop over and add some spice and pizazz to this place. You can write about anything from why you started blogging to book reviews to pretty much anything really.

If you're interested please comment on this post or email me at dear.opposition@gmail.com.

Giveaway: Lauren Conrad Style

Lauren Conrad Style by Lauren Conrad

Release Date: October 5, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 240
Reading level: Young Adult

I recently received an advance copy of this book thanks to a contest someone signed me up for as, I'm guessing, a joke since I'm not exactly the world's most fashionable gal. Lauren is super cute and I like her writing style. It was an interesting read though so I thought I'd share the wealth.

This contest is not for my advanced copy but for a copy of the book once it's released on October 5.

To Enter:

• Be a follower of Into The Morning Reads
• Please fill out the form below
• You must be 13 years of age or older
• You must be a resident of the US only (I wish I could make it work internationally but I can't yet, I'm sorry!)
• Enter before the deadline which is October 5, 2010

To Receive Extra Entries:

• Follow me on Twitter
• Tweet about the contest
• Post an entry in your blog about the contest
• Link the contest in your blog's side/menu bar
• Comment letting me know!

Waiting on Wednesday #003: The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This cover is not only gorgeous but the book looks like it's right up my alley with a dystopian futuristic setting!

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher
Release Date: January 1, 2011

From Amazon.com

Welcome to a future where water is more precious than gold or oil-and worth killing for. Vera and her brother Will live in the shadow of the Great Panic, in a country that has collapsed from environmental catastrophe. Water is hoarded by governments, rivers are dammed, and clouds are sucked from the sky. But then Vera befriends Kai, who seems to have limitless access to fresh water. When Kai suddenly disappears, Vera and Will set off on a dangerous journey in search of him-pursued by pirates, a paramilitary group, and greedy corporations. Timely and eerily familiar, acclaimed author Cameron Stracher makes a stunning YA debut that's impossible to forget.

Review: Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Release Date: January 12, 2010
Library Borrow Date: September 4, 2010
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 320
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

Very LeFreak has a problem: she's a crazed technology addict. Very can't get enough of her iPhone, laptop, IMs, text messages, whatever. If there's an chance the incoming message, call, text, or photo might be from her super-secret online crush, she's going to answer, no matter what. Nothing is too important: sleep, friends in mid-conversation, class, a meeting with the dean about academic probation. Soon enough, though, this obsession costs Very everything and everyone. Can she learn to block out the noise so she can finally hear her heart?

The draw for me to pick up this book probably, if I'm honest, was the redhead on the cover. Then, once I read the synopsis, I knew I had to read the book. I'm completely technologically addicted myself -- or so I thought until I read how thoroughly symbiotic a relationship Very has with all things electronic.

The first thing I'll say about this book is that the characters were all very colorful and interesting. I liked the minor nuances and little details that went into each person even though they weren't always true to fact (the story is told from Very's distracted and overly imaginative point of view) or completely revealed because Very wasn't interested enough to find out. They all worked well for the story, each one contributing exactly what needed to be there to set out on the journey promised. I liked them a lot. In fact, I think I may have liked the supporting characters a lot more than I liked Very.

Very was self-destructively involved in herself and an online romance that seemed to always be just out of her grasp when she wanted it and overly available when she wasn't. Her disregard for the people around her, including those she claimed friendship with, was hard to read because it was frustrating. I almost didn't finish the book when, halfway through, she reveals something she did in hopes of fixing a problem that was very obviously (to me at least) the best way to make the problem worse.

Her careless approach to sex and love and her own body bothered me as well. I do understand that we, as women, are supposed to be enlightened enough to do whatever we feel is good for ourselves and our bodies. There is a line crossed however when recklessness turns a free spirit into a stupid girl desperate for affection. I think Very crossed the line in spite of other reviews I've read that seem to believe that what happens in the second half of the book - Very's coming to terms with herself and why she is how she is - destroyed something refreshing and beautiful. I have to disagree.

For me the book was a difficult read. I liked that it was difficult because I saw some of myself in Very, albeit in hyperbole, and a little introspection never hurts one, does it?

Retro Reads #006: Chain Letter by Christopher Pike

Chain Letter by Christopher Pike

Release Date: May 1, 1986
Purchase Date: Sometime in the mid-90s.
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 192
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

When Alison first read the chain letter signed "Your Caretaker," she thought it was some terrible sick joke. Someone, somewhere knew about tha tawful night when she and six other friends committed an unthinkable crime in the desolate California desert. And now that person was determined to make them pay for it.

One by one, the chain letter was coming to each of them ... demanding dangerous, impossible deeds... threatening violence if the demands were not met. No one out of the seven wanted to believe that this nightmare was really happening to them. Until the accidents started happening -- and the dying...

One of the most delicious things about reading Christopher Pike books when I was younger was that I knew I probably shouldn't be reading them. My mother had strict guidelines for what I was aloud to read but she trusted me to stay within them. So reading this book, I remember distinctly, was like tasting forbidden fruit. I stayed up with it under my covers with a flashlight savoring the way it was completely creepy and a tiny bit raunchy (by my young mind's estimation based on very general mentions of sensuality).

The characters were, of course, the same cookie cutter characters that seemed to fill each of the books in thriller series for young adults during that time. There was always the heroine (most young adult books were written with girls in mind as far as I could tell) who was very straight-laced and levelheaded. Then she had a quirky best friend or two. There was the mean girl who may or may not have something to do with the underlying mystery. There was the boy the heroine was in love with who was usually either the big time hero jock of the entire school, Mr. All American stud, or the dark and brooding bad boy. He also had a quirky best friend and there was usually a hanger-on dork or nerd type who had a secret crush on the heroine. Sometimes, but very infrequently, there was a strong supporting friend who was the voice of right and wrong but not in this book.

The premise is based on underage drinking and supposed sex with a teacher. Which I'm guessing the average Gossip Girl-esque novel has in it without much of a shock factor attached. But when I read this back then I remember thinking it was such a crazy thing. No teens really behaved that way, right? So funny to look back. Even if the plot was pretty cookie-cutter too.

All in all I have to say that I'm glad for the foundation of YA thrillers that began back with Christopher Pike and RL Stine, but I'm very grateful that they've progressed to much more well-rounded characters and unique plots (for the most part).

Retro Reads #005: House of Fear by Willo Davis Roberts

House of Fear by Willo Davis Roberts

Release Date: June 1983
Purchase Date: Sometime in the mid-90s.
Publisher: Scholastic Paperback
Pages: 180
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

When Brooke and her younger brother begin to suspect that the elderly woman, Miss Tansy, is being kept prisoner in her own home they decide to investigate.

First, forgive me for the yucky photo of the book! There was only one online and it was just as bent and battered as my own copy so that's all she wrote I guess! (I use way too many exclamation points).

For me, this book was very creepy. The brother and sister duo show up at the house of an old family friend who doesn't seem to be there to greet them. There are a couple of gruff characters who claim to work for Miss Tansy who tell them she is ill and bedridden and they can't see her. I remember thinking that if I were in that situation I don't believe I could settle in and take advantage of the large house with any ease. Especially when my parents had told me enough about Miss Tansy to think that her suddenly being incommunicado upstairs was odd.

The majority of the creepiness I mentioned was cerebral which is why I think I liked this when I was younger. I probably would have no time for it now but it was a smart book. The characters were smart and the fact that the brother and sister worked together instead of being at odds with each other was a wonderfully refreshing thing to read. I think there need to be more books about siblings that get along.

Sideline thought: I think being included in a series must have been the best way to publicize and ensure your book was read back in the 80s. Some of them were really horrible but some were pretty good. I had very little patience for the mysteries written and published for romance series like the one this fell under, Windswept, but this was one of the few exceptions. Unlike some of the others it wasn't just a romance novel with a tinge of mystery thrown in so that it could pass the publisher's guidelines for inclusion in a series. I only read one other Windswept book and couldn't get through it. And I would read just about anything back then! Well, I'm still that way. *sheepish* My favorite series during the 80s was the Sweet Dreams series. So many cute romance. I have about 5 of them still. Think I'll go back and re-read them one day.

Follow Friday #002

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee.com. I really love this idea. I love connecting with other bloggers and see what's happening in corners of the book blogosphere that I might not have found otherwise!

Comment if you decide to follow me. I'd love to read your blog and follow you too!

Coming Soon

Reviews
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Very LeFreak by Rachel Cohn

Retro Reads
Chain Letter by Christopher Pike
More LJ Smith

Giveaway

Style by Lauren Conrad
As soon as I get myself in gear I'll be giving this book away - not the ARC I received but the actual book. Comment and add me to get an advance entry.

Waiting on Wednesday #002: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Oh my gosh, can we say I would all but kill to read this book right NOW?!

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Release Date: January 11, 2011

From Amazon.com

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Review: Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler

Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
September Spectacular Review #3

Release Date: January 7, 2010
Library Borrow Date: September 4, 2010
Publisher: Speak
Pages: 352
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

It starts with a phone call. "I'm dying," avoice tells Dusty.

Who is he and how did he get her phone number? Dusty wants no part of this strange boy ... until he begins saying things that only someone who knows her intimately could say. And saying things that lead her to think he knows the whereabouts of her brother, who disappeared over two years ago. Suddenly drawn in, Dusty very much wants to save this boy. Trouble is, she cannot find him - he won't let himself be found. He is too dangerous, he says. There are mobs of people who agree and who want to see this boy disappear ... and who will hurt anyone who stands in their way.

I loved this book. It took me a little while to come around to that and actually really read it - I kept borrowing it from the library, reading a little and losing interest, then returning it. Only to borrow it again a week later because it was haunting me. So now that I've finally read it I have to say I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in odd, ambient novels that make you just wonder.

I wasn't totally in love with Dusty, if I'm honest. At times she seems terse and a little bratty but there's just something about her and her need to find this boy, her need to find out what he may or may not know about her brother, that really tugged at me. The rest of the characters served their purpose but they didn't really zip off the page.

There was an awful lot of dialogue, something I know some don't particularly appreciate, but I do. I like when the plot is forwarded in how the characters talk to each other rather than in pages and pages of what they're doing instead. I have to say that I really loved the way Bowler used the words he chose. His writing style is magnificent and in spite of some of the shortcomings of the book (I had to re-read the ending a couple times before it really sank in what happened which isn't usual for me) his style was what bumped this up from a 3 star to a 4.

Definitely get to the bookstore or the library and pick this one up.

Follow Friday #001

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee.com and I just love this idea. So I'm going to do my best to take part in it every week. I'd love to connect with other bloggers and see what's happening in corners of the book blogosphere that I might not have found otherwise!

Comment if you decide to follow me. I'd love to read your blog and follow you too!

Cover Re-Design Contest Entries (September) #001

I'm super excited to have the opportunity to participate in Leilani & Dija's Back To School Giveaway because I love designing things and have been wanting to try my hand at doing a book re-design. I've seen so many awesome contest entries in other blogs, I wanted to see if I could measure up.

So here's the deal, I re-designed the book cover for Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach and I would love any and all feedback!

Original Cover



My Cover

And I love the idea of YA Addict's Cover Re-Design challenge for The Light of Asteria by Elizabeth Isaacs too! The book sounds awesome to boot. Below are the covers.

Original Cover



My Cover

Facepalm

So, comments are enabled on posts now. I didn't realize they weren't. Thank you to the little birdy who notified me...

My First Guest Blog

Yay! The generous Khadija @ Black Fingernailed Reviews featured me as a guest blogger today!

Thanks so much, Khadija!

If anyone else would like to have me over for a guest blog, please feel free to email me at dear.opposition[at]gmail[dot]com.

Waiting on Wednesday #001: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

I'm excited to finally take part in this. I always seem to miss it. Here is what I'm awaiting and biting my nails over.

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
Release Date: October 12, 2010

From Amazon.com

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety . . . until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated—and with it, order—and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim . . . and meal.

The Gladers are far from finished with running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder—does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

Retro Reads #004: The Stalker by Joan Lowery Nixon

The Stalker by Joan Lowery Nixon

Release Date: January 1, 1987
Purchase Date: Sometime in the mid-90s.
Publisher: Laurel Leaf
Pages: 180
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

First Line: Through the late afternoon she sat alone on the steps of the seawall, listening to the gulls' cries and watching the boats bob and rock at their moorings; so she didn't know about the murder.

When Jennifer Lee Wilcox returns home from the beach, she finds that Stella Trax, her best friend's mother, has just been murdered. The police think Stella's daughter Bobbie did it. Jennifer sets out to prove Bobbie's innocence, but as she uncovers clues, she realizes she's only leading herself to danger!

I think I was always reading Joan Lowery Nixon, Richie Tankersley Cusik, LJ Smith, RL Stine, and Lois Duncan all throughout the 90s. This book stood out to me because it was set in Texas, where I was born but where I have no memories. I was a fool for anything that identified me as different back then. (Who am I kidding? I still am!)

What I liked best about reading this was the simple story that had me reading late at night with shivers up and down my spine. It is very definitely a tame book by comparison to those that are available these days but I'd still recommend it as a Retro Read. It has at least one good twist that made my young jaw drop back then.

Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The Maze Runner by James Dashner
September Spectacular Review #1

Release Date: October 6, 2009
Purchase Date: December 1, 2009
Publisher: Delacorte
Pages: 384
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

This book sat on my shelf for over 6 months and I could kick myself for that. I absolutely loved it. I think in the rush of all things Christmas and New Years I just put it down and got carried off onto other things before finding it on my shelf again while going through all my books for Retro Reads.

The book has a very Lord of the Flies feel to it without veering as far to the dog eat dog (Griever eat whatever doesn't count) as LotF. It grabbed me the way The Hunger Games grabbed me when I first sat down to read it and whisked me away completely into the world of the Glade and the Maze. I, like Thomas, couldn't wait to get out there and solve that thing!

I enjoyed the whole flow of the book and the way each chapter ended with just enough of a cliffhanger to make me want the next one bad enough to keep the lights on an hour longer. I found myself needing to put the book down in the middle of chapters just to be able to get things done. It was absorbing to say the least.

I did feel cheated, however, when the mysteries were revealed. I felt like there wasn't a possibility to have figured them out for myself first and I always like to be able to at least try to keep up with the protagonist. I think more clues could have been inserted before Thomas came to the conclusion to keep me turning different possibilities over in my mind. It was like watching a murder mystery where you and the sleuth guess along the way, only to discover the murderer was someone neither you nor the sleuth had ever met and therefore could never have suspected. But that's pretty much my only complaint about the book.

If you haven't read it yet, like silly me who waited so long, go. Read. Enjoy. But Mr. Dashner, please don't do to Thomas what Ms. Collins did to Katniss. Thanks!

Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
September Spectacular Review #2

Release Date: August 24, 2010
Purchase Date: August 28, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 400
Reading level: Young Adult
My Rating:

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

Entirely plot-spoiler-free review.

First of all, let me just say that I was so thrilled to see this book on the shelf of the Newark Airport terminal on my way to the Dominican Republic. I thought I would have to wait until I got back to read it but I was able to carry it with me on the plane and get started. The book is now sadly warped thanks to the strange cooling system in the rooms in the resort. Oh well.

Now for the review. I have to tell you now that I have been such a huge fan of the Hunger Games since I first discovered it sitting in large stacks, seemingly unloved and unwanted, at Barnes and Noble just after its first release. I loved the premise so much I couldn't resist the splurge on a hardcover - something I had not theretofore (is that a word?) ever purchased because they tend to be so cumbersome and expensive. Nevertheless I was hooked immediately and plowed straight through Catching Fire with similar voracity. I could hardly stand the wait until Mockingjay hit the shelves and I have to admit that I read through it in shorter time than I normally manage a book.

But I was hit hard by the content. Harder than I think I needed to be hit for the message of the book to get across. I've read a lot of mixed reviews on this book and I think I have to hang my head and sit myself there on the line between loving and hating it.

I love it because it is absolutely true to the series and how it has progressed naturally through the three books. The character arcs were true to the way Collins designed and nurtured her characters and their stories were heartbreakingly realistic. I can't forgive an author who sugarcoats for the sake of keeping readers happy. I also love this book because I love the world Collins has created. I want to see them succeed in breaking free of oppression and finding a new, better way of life. I love the satisfaction of the ending, nothing was left hanging and I had no questions at the end - well no plot questions, anyway.

I hate this book because it was brutal. There's no way to put it other than that. Bloody, gorey, angry, unhappily brutal. Perhaps it's the mom in me that balks at knowing younger readers are taking in the descriptions of horrific and unspeakable acts. Though I must praise Collins for keeping almost all of the language very generic. But for people like me, I only need a suggestion of an idea to see the full blown image. I'm sure I'm not the only one. There were certain things that took place in the story that seemed completely unnecessarily cruel. Almost as though Collins had decided she was now sick of Katniss and needed to punish her somehow. I remember at one point feeling like I needed to put the book down because there was a lot of depressive anger resonating from the pages. It was hard to read.

So, I am entirely on the fence with this. I'm definitely looking forward to anything else Collins publishes next because I believe she is an amazing author with a brilliant mind for world building. I think I may have to put up my hand and ask her not to write anymore revolutionary tales though. *sheepish*